Retired Teachers Group Holds Spring Luncheon

    The St. Tammany Retired School Employees Association held its Spring Luncheon for 2017 on Thursday, May 11,with 58 people in attendance at the David C. Treen Instructional Technology Center in Mandeville. It was the group's final meeting of the school year. 

    New officers for the 2017-2018 year were sworn into office. They are returning President Roxanne Lagarde, Donna Harvin as President-Elect, Lyn Monteleone as First Vice President, Cheryl Beaver as Second Vice President, Renee Arsenault as Secretary and Ron Caruso was Treasurer. They were sworn into office by Renee Siccone, assistant director of the La. Retired Teachers Association.

     The winner of this year's $1000 educational scholarship winner is Jane Kathryn Burriss. She was presented with the check as her parents Keith and Fran Burriss looked on. Miss Burriss graduated from Northshore High last week with a 4.3 GPA and an ACT score of 31. She will attend Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond to major in Early Childhood Education. 

      The St. Tammany Retired School Employees Association awarded its annual Lifetime Achievement Award to Bill Brugmann and its Retired Employee of the Year Award to Carolyn Brugmann. Jack Loup delivered the legislative report, telling about state bills that would provide for less testing and more teaching, as well the status of the TOPS funding 
bills. 

     Members brought a variety of food items, desserts and appetizers for the group to enjoy at the annual Spring Luncheon. A number of door prizes and other prizes were given away. 

The following photographs were taken at the Spring Luncheon meeting. Click on the images to make them larger.

 

Newly installed officers, from left, Treasurer Ron Caruso, First VP Lyn Monteleone, President-Elect Donna Harvin, Second VP Cheryl Beaver, Secretary Renee Arsenault, President Roxanne Lagarde and Renee Siccone, assistant director of the LRTA, who installed the 2017 slate of officials. 

 

Educational scholarship winner Jane Kathryn Burris, center, with Educational Scholarship Committee Chairman Tom Lusignan and President Roxanne Lagarde at left, and Fran and Keith Burriss at the right. 

 

 Bill Brugmann receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from Jack Loup, at right.

 

Roxanne Lagarde receives an LRTA Membership Award from Renee Siccone, LRTA Assistant Director, recognizing St. Tammany's achievement in having the Largest Number of Associate Members in the state in 2016. The award was originally made at the recent Spring Conference held by the LRTA.

 

Miss Burriss receives the scholarship check from Tom Lusignan.

Miss Burriss spoke briefly to the group about her career plans.

 

  

The St. Tammany Federal Credit Union, Humana and the Mandeville Bake Shop were all thanked for their continued support of the organization and its members. 

 

Donna Lusignan, at left, presents appreciation award to Ann, manager of Mandeville Bake Shop, for donating donuts for our September, November and March meetings. 

Memorial Ceremony for Deceased Members

Part of the final meeting of the year for the St. Tammany Retired School Employees Association was a memorial ceremony for those members who had passed in the past year. 

 

  

 

Spotlight On Tassie Wahl

by Rhonda Chambers 
May, 2017

  After serving 36.5 years Tassie retired, in July 2011, from the Central Office as a Supervisor of Elementary Instruction.  Before that appointment she served as the founding principal of Cypress Cove Elementary in Slidell for 11 years.  Prior to that she had been an assistant principal, resource helping teacher,  taught kindergarten, first grade, fourth grade, and elementary art, and served as an independent evaluator for the state department of education.

 

Tassie Wahl

Tassie has chosen to lead a fulfilling second half of her life by immersing herself in a variety of activities that she had little time for while working.  Tassie and her husband Rob both love gardening, so in 2014 they completed the Master Gardener Program and volunteer with different projects.  She has been taking sewing, quilting and embroidery lessons to learn how to use her new sewing machine!  

She has taken up golfing with lessons and tries to go to the golf course once a week to practice.  She loves exercising at her local gym and attends yoga classes a couple of times a week.  Tassie loves to cook and is now growing her own herbs, and is having fun trying out lots of new recipes.  She volunteers at her church, making rosaries for soldiers each week, running the Thanksgiving Food Drive, and also volunteers with Project Christmas.  

She and her husband are enjoying traveling.  They just returned from a jazz festival in Florida and have a few more trips planned for the coming months.  The couple  have  two grandsons, Tyler, and new baby, Mason.  He has stolen their hearts! They try to visit them once a week in New Orleans.  Tassie and Rob have a camp on Black Creek in Hattiesburg, MS.  They love getting away on weekends, enjoying nature, gardening and just relaxing!

A typical day for Tassie begins with Rob and her walking their dog (really their granddog who has become theirs!).  Then she might participate in any of the various activities listed above.  She and Rob wind down at the end of the day by walking the dog again together, eating dinner, then watching a little television and maybe reading before retiring for the evening.

When asked what was the best thing she ate this week her reply was “I went to Jazz Fest and ate crawfish bread, crawfish remoulade and seafood stuffed mushrooms.  Yum!”

A St. Tammany experience would have to be the time she spends each week at Pinewood Golf Course trying to improve her game.

I asked her to name her favorite TV show.  Tassie loves to watch the cooking channel, especially on Saturday mornings.  Her favorite show is “The Kitchen”.  She also loves HGTV, and her favorite show is “Fixer Upper”.