LaSalle Parish Teachers of the Year were recognized and honored at the May 6 school board meeting held at the media center in Jena.

The meeting room was packed to capacity with family and friends of the chosen educators, one from each of the parish’s nine parish schools.

Teachers of the Year are: Dillan McDowell, Fellowship Elementary; Gena Foreman, Good Pine Middle; Amy Pardue, Jena Elementary; Tammy Jensen, Jena High; Laina Brown, Jena Jr. High; Melissa Minard, LaSalle High; Staci Prather, LaSalle Jr. High; Brittany Jackson, Nebo Elementary; and Julie Santos, Olla-Standard Elementary.

“I’m pretty fired up to be able to recognize them tonight for all of their hard work,” LaSalle Superintendent Jon Garrett said. “I just want to say how much we appreciate all nine of you and everything that you do for your kids, your school and our district as a whole. We are super, super fortunate to have you and I know. your school is, too.”

The Superintendent then called each of the teacher’s principals to the front, along with their Teacher of the Year, where they presented them with a plaque and praised their honored teacher.

FELLOWSHIP ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL MELISSA LOE: “I’ve known Dillan (McDowell) for quite some time. In fact, when I was teaching at Good Pine Middle School, he was a para there. So, I’ve seen him grow professionally. Words to describe Dillan are patient, compassionate, inspiring, collaborative, and I’ll just say for me, he is the most organized man I’ve ever, ever, ever been around. From an admin point of view, I will say this: Whenever I ask him to do something, I don’t worry about it another time. And that means a lot. I can ask him to do something and I never worry about it again. He’s done it. I just have all good things to say about Dillan. He’s a professional and he has great parents, too.”

GOOD PINE MIDDLE PRINCIPAL MELINDA ROBISON: “Mrs. (Gena) Foreman is absolutely wonderful and no one else can have her! She’s very organized and is our technology master. If I can’t get something plugged in or fixed, Mrs. Foreman knows how to do it. If someone else has a problem, I send them to Mrs. Foreman. She has an infectious smile, like every time I see her, she’s smiling and she is the most positive person on our staff. The kids absolutely love her and her classroom is like a home. She is ‘Momma Foreman’ to them and every student that goes to her room loves her. In fact, we have to tell some of them that they don’t belong in there. After recess, they all want to follow her. She’s married to Mr. Foreman and has four children and they’re all precious women. She’s there after-hours and way before anybody else in the morning. I don’t know how she does that with four kids, but she is the first one on campus and all four children are there too…with clothes on! We appreciate everything you do.”

JENA ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL DEEDRA ZEAGLER: “Mrs. (Amy) Pardue was of the age that I could have taught her, but I did not. But we appreciate Mrs. Pardue. (Like the others), Mrs. Amy’s the same. She gets there early, she leaves late, she’s kind, she’s compassionate, and anything you ask Amy to do, she does it and does it with a smile and loving heart. Even when things don’t go right…like they did today. This is her last year to be at Jena Elementary School, so Amy, we love you, we’re going to miss you, and no tears!”

JENA HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ADAM POWELL: “Mrs. (Tammy) Jensen is our environmental science teacher at Jena High School and this is her second year at the school. She was in another district several years back and we were able to convince her to come back and join us. She has hit the ground running. Mrs. Tammy invest a lot of her time to planning engaging lessons for our students and give them valuable experiences. She cares for our students and develops connections with our kids where they want to

do their best for her and you will not find another teacher that’s more passionate about the content they teach. If you don’t believe me, just go to her classroom and see the amount of wildlife she has there.

That’s what makes it fun for the kids.”

JENA JR. HIGH PRINCIPAL JEREMY CASSELS: “Let me tell you a little bit about Mrs. Laina (Brown). She came to us, I think it was about five years ago, from another district and I realized pretty quick that we had a good one here. She teaches our ELA and doing a great job. You just know when you have somebody that can teach and she was going a great job. Well, at the end of the first year she came to me with something a little unusual. She said, ‘I’ve decided I’m going to be a missionary for a couple of years.’ She said God had called her to go to Ireland and do mission work. I said, okay, I mean, I couldn’t argue with that. So, she went to Dublin, Ireland and she did mission work there for two years. But before she left, I told her that if she comes back and she wants to come back here and teach, you let me know. And I meant it. When those two years were about over I got word that she was coming back and wanted to teach. She came back and she’s been with us four years since then and we’er glad to have her. Mrs. Laina is probably the most wellliked teacher at Jena Jr. High. The kids love her and respect her. She’s mild mannered but she doesn’t have any discipline problems. She just has that knack of managing kids. She’s a fantastic teacher and we’ve all enjoyed working with her. This is her last year at our school but I want to tell you that we have enjoyed our time with you and working with you and we will miss you.”

LASALLE HIGH PRINCIPAL HEATH DENISON: “It’s always an honor to brag on your co-workers. Mrs. (Melissa) Minard came to us at LaSalle High School last year. In her first year at the school, she took on the role of two EOC classes, Algebra I and Geometry, and raised our scores as much as probably has ever been in one single year across the board. She is a dependable teacher, consistent and she beats me to work every morning. I know that’s probably bad but I get there pretty early, but she is there. She’s dedicated to our school. Just as a testament to her, she has taught elementary, middle school and high school and has been successful in every the category. She’s just a good quality person and you’re going to learn math whether you want to or not. I appreciate that about her and her great work ethic. She makes our school a better place and as an administrator, you know that things are taken care of and she’s doing the best for kids and your school. It is a better place because of her.”

LASALLE JR. HIGH PRINCIPAL STEPHANIE CLARK: “I’m going to try to do this without some tears. This one’s been a lifelong friend to me. She (Staci Prather) has taught in our parish for 28 total years and she’s been in our parish for 23 years. We have raised our kids together. She has just been a true blessing to me. She’s coached softball, dance line, cheer line and she’s had every club that you can imagine. Her classroom in the last couple of years has been the intervention and enrichment and whatever I needed it to be. She is my 504 person. The kids absolutely love her and they all want to spend time in Mrs. Prather’s room. But, instruction wise, she gets the kids where they need to be. She works individually, with each kid that needs that extra push. She is just absolutely wonderful. Like Melissa said, I don’t have to worry about it…if I give it to her, it’s done and usually it’s done before the bell rings at the end of the day. She has been a true blessing to me and a personal friend.”

NEBO ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL KYLIE ANDREWS: “I’m very happy to present this to Brittany (Jackson). Brittany’s definitely not somebody who ever welcomes the spotlight, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet. She is a very hard worker and every day she shows up absolutely prepared. In fact, her classroom is the classroom that if I want to feel good about the things that are happening at our school I’m going there because I never fail to leave there feeling like, yes, she is doing a great job and our kids are getting what they need. Every year her students show exceptional growth. My first impression of Brittany was actually over the summer before she even arrived on campus. I was new to the school so I was looking over the school scores from the previous years to see what can the students do? And this one group of student just kept standing out because they were killing it on the LEAP tests. They had outperformed other students in math, in ELA and also in science. Then, I got to realizing that this particular group of students had the same teacher for all three of those years and it was Mrs. Brittany Jackson’s students. So, I was very excited to meet her and very exciting and looking forward to getting into her classroom. Every time I go in there expecting to see great things I do see great things. I want to thank her for her hard work. She’s just a steady and quiet but she’s always making difference every single day. I was absolutely stunned to find out that this is only her sixth-year teacher because she teaches like she’s been doing it for decades.”

OLLA-STANDARD ELEMENTARY PRINCIPAL MALACHA HARRIS: “Last but certainly not least, is Mrs. Julie Santos. She is 17-year veteran teacher and what is impressive about that is that she still plans and prepares every single day like that young, firstyear teacher who is just eager to go in her classroom. When you step into her classroom, you definitely can tell that. There is an enthusiasm with her kids and she has planned for every single child in that room. She has very high expectations for her kids and you can tell that when you go into her classroom. Also, Julie is very hard on herself, but anything that she can do to refine her craft and continue her development as a teacher, she’s into it. She’s going to be all about it and I appreciate that about her. The last thing I want to say is that she’s just a bright light to Olla Elementary. She always has a positive attitude and always has a smile on her face. No matter the day – no matter how hard, she has a smile on her face and she’s ready to go get it. Congratulations and you’re a blessing to Olla Elementary.”