JAY — A school bus driver and custodian was remembered Tuesday as being a positive influence who was kid-oriented and an all-5around great guy.

Paul LeBlanc of Jay died unexpectedly on Monday.

LeBlanc who was the day custodian at the Jay Elementary School had been at work early Monday when he felt ill, Superintendent Bob Wall said. He was transported to the hospital and passed away, he said.

“Paul was a very special person,” Wall said. “He worked here from 1999. He was a very positive influence in the school system.”

“It’s a terrible loss,” Wall said.

LeBlanc’s wife, Bonnie, is an education technician at the school.

A sign in front of the school said “We love our LeBlanc family.”

Elementary school Principal Chris Hollingsworth said Paul LeBlanc was kid-oriented.

“He would have the older kids clean up after lunch since they loved it so much,” he said. “It actually made his job harder because kids are not always the best cleaners but he didn’t care as long as they were happy,” Hollingsworth said.

When you talk about Jay Elementary School, this was really Paul’s school, he said.

“He made sure the kids had what they wanted and if the staff needed anything, he made sure he got it for them,” he said.

Hollingsworth said he had to tell the staff about LeBlanc’s death during school Monday.

“There wasn’t a dry eye for the rest of the day,” he said.

Many of the prekindergarten and kindergarten students thought LeBlanc was the principal, he said.

“Half the time when they would see me, they would call me Paul and when they saw Paul, they called him, Mr. Hollingsworth,” he said.

“He was very positive. He joked with the kids,” Hollingsworth said.

Letters were sent home with children on Monday telling parents about the situation and leaving it up to them how they wanted to handle it.

The school had counselors available Tuesday for those who were having a hard time.

“Everyone loves him,” school secretary Sherri Couture said. “He was a wonderful man. He loved all the kids and they loved him back.”

LeBlanc drove the No. 3 school bus that encompassed some of the east Jay area, Route 133, Jewell Street and side roads along the way.

“He was just an all-around great guy,” co-worker Brian Shink said. “He’s going to be sadly missed by all of his co-workers.”

“He had the biggest heart and he was loved by all,” another co-worker, Polly Given, said. “I never heard him say a bad word about anyone.”

He was a Dallas Cowboys fan and everyone knew when they were playing because he made sure they did, she said. If the Cowboys won, he would come to work in his Cowboys attire and put a magnetic helmet on his bus so the kids knew that his team had won, she said.

He was funny and made everyone laugh.

“He was always in a good mood,” Given said. “He is the type of person anybody would want to work with. It’s so sad.”

Co-worker Matt Gaudet said LeBlanc had a good sense of humor and was quick witted.

LeBlanc trained him when he first became a bus driver and custodian.

He remembered when LeBlanc took him upstairs at the middle school where the technology servers are kept and told him that he would have to dust the hundreds of wires that he saw once a month, Gaudet said.

“My eyes just about bugged out,” he said, before LeBlanc told him he was kidding.

When the two parked their buses side-by-side at the elementary school, Gaudet said, each child came out and said, “‘Hi, Paul'” and he answered each one by their name.

His head was snapping back and forth at times but he did it, Gaudet said.

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