Each year the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) and the U.S. Department of Education sponsor the National Distinguished Principals Award Program, which recognizes outstanding educators who stand as role models for school leadership and ensure that children acquire a sound foundation for lifelong learning and achievement. In 2010 the program honored distinguished elementary and middle school principals from each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Department of Defense and Department of State-assisted schools.
The 2010 award winners, sponsored by the Office of Overseas Schools, were Mr. David Hoss, primary school principal at the Singapore American School in Singapore, and Mrs. Dianne Zemichael, director of the Banjul American Embassy School, The Gambia. Mr. Hoss and Mrs. Zemichael, along with the other honorees, received their awards on October 15, 2010, during a formal banquet and award ceremony at the Capitol Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. A representative from the U.S. Department of Education presented each honoree with a certificate and an engraved bell. In addition, a reception was held on October 14, 2010, in the State Department’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms, hosted by the Department’s Under Secretary of State for Management, Patrick Kennedy.
