INDIA New England named Amrita Sahni, the assistant principal of a Boston public school and owner of a small home-based business, as its 2010 Woman of the Year at an awards banquet on June 19 at the Westin Waltham-Boston hotel in Waltham, Mass.

The newspaper's Woman of the Year award recognizes women who make important contributions to their professions, the South Asian community, civic and charitable groups, and the community at large. Over the past four years, Sahni helped transform Boston's Edwards Middle School from what she characterized as a "failing" institution with low test scores and low enrollment into one now expriencing increased enrollment and by introducing a number of reforms, including instituting a longer school day.

Sahni said she was surprised and honored to see more than three dozen co-workers greet her as she arrived at the Woman of the Year event — many more than the small handful she expected.

"It was like a surprise party," she said.

Unknown to her, Sahni's colleagues recruited nominations school-wide from teachers more than willing to sing her praises.

Sahni, 32, left a teaching job four years ago to become Edwards' assistant principal, a role she says allows her to make a bigger impact on a larger number of students. As Edwards' assistant principal Sahni oversees lesson plan creation and implementing educational programs.

Sahni's voice becomes animated as she describes how much being an educator means to her.

One of Sahni's main concerns is ensuring her students have an environment conducive to learning, she said.

"Oftentimes people believe opportunities to achieve can't happen in the public school system," Sahni said. Since joining Edwards Middle four years ago, Sahni has worked to stem the tide of this sort of thinking.

Sahni put her full weight behind a 2006 initiative called Expanded Learning Time, or ELT, which extended Edwards' six-and-a-half-hour school day to nine hours. Edwards  is one of three schools in the district and one of just 10 in the state to implement ELT as a pilot program. About three-dozen schools now use the ELT program in Massachusetts, and it is viewed as a successful model around the country, according to Sahni.

The extra time provides targeted attention in the form of an intervention group for students struggling with their studies, Sahni said, allowing teachers to spend precious hours with students strengthening their educational weak points.

The payoffs for Sahni's students are manifold, she said. The time is used to advance the students socially, emotonally and athletically, in addition to the obvious scholastic benefits of an extended school day.

Test scores are up and enrollment numbers are climbing, so much so that Edwards is now the most desirable school for area parents, who have their choice of where to send their middle schoolers, said Sahni.

Some of the grant money awarded with the pilot program went towards continuing electives, such as cooking and musical theater, said Sahni. One of Sahni's joys is simply walking down the hallway on any given day and seeing the arts continuing to be a part of the educational system. As she looks into classrooms, she sees some kids playing the guitar while others may be break-dancing.

With her students taking their cues from celebrities like Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo and pop star Lady Gaga, Sahni said she believes her Woman of the Year title may give her the credentials to also serve as a positive role model for her students.

At the top of the role model pecking order at Edwards Middle School is President Barack Obama, however. When teachers played Obama's inauguration in the classroom, Sahni said she was surprised but pleased at the level of intellectual conversation that came from watching the historic moment unfold.

"Coming from a racially diverse background, it is good for them to see how hard work and education [pays off]. Our kids really made the connection," Sahni said.

Sahni credits her mom, still a teacher in Sahni's birthplace of Nashville, Tenn., as inspiring her to go into teaching — the third generation of women in her family to do so.

Natives of Punjab, India, Sahni and her family came to the United States in 1971 when Sahni's mother received a scholarship to attend Vanderbilt University, an opportunity that, "gave my family the chance to come to the United States and have the American dream," said Sahni.

Sahni did not intend to move to the Northeast, but did so in 2005 to earn a master's degree in school adminstration from Cambridge-based Harvard University.

Two years later she moved to Waltham, shortly after accepting the position of assistant principal at Edwards Middle School.

Sahni's schedule does not slacken with the arrival of the weekend; she devotes many off hours to developing new products and otherwise expanding her foot ware business, Fit in Clouds. The company sells foldable satin slip-ons that can be carried on a purse and worn in place of fashionable shoes when they become uncomfortable.

The Waltham-based company, which celebrated its first anniversary in June, recently branched into the bridal market and is now offering the slippers in bride-friendly beige, sliver and creme, said Saini.

Sahni belonged to the Boston chapter of the Network of South Asian Professionals, or NetSAP, during her time at Harvard, and remains socially active with the group.