The State Board of Education today presented Jane M. Schmitt with the 2006 Stella Gikas Professional Support Staff Excellence Award. The award, first presented in 1991, is given annually to an outstanding support person in the Michigan Department of Education.

Schmitt, a secretary in the department’s Office of Grants Coordination and School Support Services, has been employed at the department since 1986.

State Board of Education President Kathleen N. Straus presented Schmitt with the gold apple Gikas Award and certificate at the State Board of Education’s monthly meeting.

The Stella Gikas Award is named after a long-time State Board of Education support staff person and is given to an employee who provides leadership to others, outstanding service to education, dedication to excellence, and maintains the highest professional standards.

Relaying some of the statements submitted with the nomination of Schmitt for the award, Straus stated, “Jane combines a can-do attitude with a dedication to high standards in the work that originates or flows through the grants office”; and “Jane is a natural leader. She is a person that others, regardless of position, will listen to and heed when she gives advice. She is more than willing, in all facets of her life, to take initiative and to lead by example.”

Schmitt, a lifelong resident of Fowler, thanked the State Board of Education and those she has worked with at the Department of Education. “I haven’t done this all on my own,” Schmitt said. “I have worked with wonderful people, from directors to secretaries to consultants, and I have learned from all of them.”

Jane and her husband Steve, are parents to three daughters: Rebecca, Stephanie, and Lindsey.