Category Archives: Ascension

National security specialist to address Ascension GOP Roundtable

Jim LeBlanc, vice president of the New Orleans Chapter of InfraGard, will be the featured speaker at the Ascension GOP Roundtable sponsored by Ascension Republican Women. The Roundtable begins with a meet-and-greet at 11:30 a.m. Aug. 17 at Galvez Seafood, 40306 La. 42, Suite 9, in Prairieville.

The program starts at noon.

Candidates in the 2017 elections are welcome to meet with guests at all Ascension Republican Women meetings.

InfraGard is a nonprofit organization serving as a public-private partnership between U. S. businesses and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Cost for lunch is $16. The event is open to the public; but reservations are requested. Call (225) 644-5728 or (225) 921-5187 or email arwrus@aol.com

Artists and photographers of all ages are invited to share their creative efforts with others at the River Community Church art and photography exhibit. The churchs Creativity Group is sponsoring the free exhibit, which will run Aug. 20 to Oct. 1. This is an exhibit only; no ribbons will be awarded.

Art will be accepted through Aug. 16; call the church before dropping off to make sure someone is there. Framed or gallery-wrapped canvas art and photography with wire hangers on back should be brought to the church, 36367 Old Perkins Road. Attach a card with artists name, medium and title of work.

RCC Creativity Group meets twice a month on Wednesdays at the Prairieville church. Members work on a variety of individual creative projects including drawing, painting, knitting, art quilts, beading and scrapbooking. Group members are mentored by the other artists in the group.

For information about the show or the group, contact Jennifer Ferguson at jennifer@rivercommunity.org or call the church office at (225) 744-4367.

The Dialogue on Race series, an educational process for the elimination of racism, will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Aug. 22 to Sept. 26, at the Ascension Parish Library in Dutchtown.

Understanding what racism is and how it operates through institutions is the core of this educational process. This six-session series is a structured two-hour weekly series led by trained facilitators.

Space is limited. To register to participate in this series, call (225) 673-8699.

For information about the series, call Maxine Crump at (225) 274-6902 or email info@dialogueonracelouisiana.org.

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Around Ascension for Aug. 10, 2017 - The Advocate

Three new school leaders have been hired at Ascension Public Schools.

Rhonda Gillard is replacing Latatia Johnson as the principal of G.W. Carver Primary School. Johnson departed to become an instructional supervisor of elementary education.

Gillard has spent more than 17 years in education, coming to Ascension Parish in 2006 after teaching in New Orleans and Georgia. She taught at Dutchtown Primary beginning in 2007, became an instructional coach at Prairieville Primary and was appointed Sorrento Primarys assistant principal in 2011.

She has a bachelors degree in psychology and a masters degree in social work from Southern University at New Orleans, completed Xavier Universitys teaching certification program and earned a masters degree in educational leadership from Southeastern Louisiana University.

"I embrace this opportunity to work with dedicated students and their parents. My goal is to continue the academic success that Carver has achieved thus far. I cannot wait to kick off this school year," Gillard said.

Michelle Parr is taking over as Central Primary Schools assistant principal from Cynthia Jackson, who recently became the Early College Option program principal.

Parr has been with the school district for 18 years, teaching third and fourth grades at Dutchtown Primary for 10 years before becoming a fourth-grade teacher at Spanish Lake Primary in 2009, a teacher coach at St. Amant Primary in 2011, a mentor teacher at Gonzales Primary in 2013 and most recently as a master teacher at Central Primary.

She holds a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in educational leadership from LSU.

"It has been an honor working in our parish for the last 18 years," Parr said. "I am extremely excited to continue my journey working with Mrs. (Christina) Knight, Central Primary's staff, our students and their parents."

Galvez Middle School is welcoming Tachelle White as assistant principal in place of Mary Daze, who recently became the district's executive master teacher.

White originally is from Baton Rouge and has spent the past six years working in Ascension Parish, first at Lowery Middle, then at Central Middle. For the past two years, she has taught seventh- and eighth-grade math and Algebra I and served as a teacher coach.

She holds a bachelors degree in psychology from LSU, a master's degree in public administration from Southern University, a plus 30 certificate and is working on a doctoral degree in educational leadership at Southeastern Louisiana University.

"Thank you for this great opportunity," White said. "I am looking forward to becoming a Pirate."

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Ascension Public Schools announces new leadership at several schools - The Advocate

Health Care Aug 09, 2017 Share

Dinger earlier this year led task force focused on population health

authors Staff Reports

The leaders of Ascension, the largest nonprofit health system in the country and the parent of Saint Thomas Health, has tapped Jason Dinger to be chief incubation officer at its Ascension Holdings unit.

Dinger had been CEO of MissionPoint Health Partners, the population health company launched under the Saint Thomas umbrella and now incorporated into a larger Ascension venture, since its founding in 2011. Earlier this year, he led an Ascension task force focused on population health capabilities and solutions.

In the Ascension Holdings role, Dinger will oversee the design and rollout of new solutions and innovations across Ascensions 2,500-site portfolio, emphasizing those that require incubational and entrepreneurial direction. He filled a very similar role a decade ago at Saint Thomas before moving into his MissionPoint role and holding a broader strategy position.

Jason will enhance our ability to deliver new tools and capabilities that improve the health status of our communities while fundamentally lowering costs, said James Beckmann, senior vice president of Ascension and COO of Ascension Holdings. Under his guidance, we will be able to more rapidly identify, develop and test innovations and new solutions, then introduce those with the greatest promise to enhance the care we currently provide and create new businesses to support our mission.

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MissionPoint leader given Ascension incubation role - Nashville Post (subscription)

The bells are ringing and school is back in session in a few local parishes.

Ascension, East Baton Rouge and Livingston Parish schools resumed this morning. The WBRZ2Une In crew went to all three to take a look at how these parishes have come along since last year's flood.

In Ascension, students and teachers at the recently renovated St. AmantPrimary School were taking in the new classrooms as well as welcoming back some familiar faces.

Back to school for St. Amant Primary School

Over in EBR, the IstroumaHigh School Indians celebrated their 100th anniversaryby banging their drums ushering in the students the only way they know how.

Live Oak Junior High students will attend classes at the old Live Oak High School campus after the high school moved to a new area two years ago.

Back to school for Live Oak Junior High School

An area heavily affected by the flood, Livingston Parish is working on getting all of its schools back up and running. But no child will go hungry this year, the Livingston Parish School Board has approved free breakfast and lunches for all of it's students.

Tomorrow, schools in Central will reopen. Join the 2Une In crew for live coverage starting at 5 a.m.

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Class is in session: schools in Ascension, EBR and Livingston ... - WBRZ

A long time ago....

Theres a pretty popular thing on Facebook called Throw Back Thursday that Ive participated in a time or two. The premise is to post a picture from the past that most folks might not be able to identify. Its pretty neat, and I like it a lot. What follows is my throwback Thursday, only its about the outdoors and a great friendship.

I grew up fresh water fishing. My dad, Jerry Lyle, was a world-class bass angler and brought all eight of us kids fishing with him at one time or another. Both of my grandfathers fished, and fly fishing was their passion, especially paw paw Marchand. He loved to catch bream on a fly rod, and he was good at it. So my fishing education was well rounded, to say the least.

I met my wife-to-be, Deborah Guice, in my early 20s and as we dated, I developed a friendship with her brother, James Goosie Guice. He had what we could call a university-style education from his father, Sonny, so we hit it off quite nicely. Goosie was an experienced fresh water angler but had salt water experience, something Id never done before.

Ill never forget my first trip down, I mean way down, the road south to Venice. It might as well have been Venice, Italy, as far as it seemed but it was below Belle Chase, as far as the road goes.

Our plan for the day was to get some bait shrimp and fish with a shad rig hoping to catch some croaker. But Goosie assured me that we would catch something for sure as Venice was a fish haven. I was pretty excited but a little tentative because Id never been that far before.

We launched the boat in a small marina that is no longer open and idled out of the canal in Goosies Louisiana Traveler bateau, and I entered the land of the giants. To our left was the Mississippi River, full of crew boats, shrimp boats, tugboats and ships. To our right was Grand Pass that included all of the above less the ships.

It took a while to get settled in for me but soon I was pretty comfortable among all those big boats and concentrated on our fishing. Our day was not too productive for quite a while, and I dont think we actually caught any croakers, despite our best efforts.

The day was drawing to a close but our enthusiasm hadnt dropped a bit. We anchored the boat at the mouth of a canal that had some camps on it and began to cast those double-hooked shad rigs for the umpteenth time. We had a few bites, and Goosie finally caught a bass that weighed about 2 pounds, which surprised us all but got our adrenaline pumping. Then one of us made a cast out toward the middle of Grand Pass but that pair of shrimp never made it to the bottom before a 3- or 4-pound blue cat swallowed up the bait and it was on.

For the next 30 or 40 minutes, one big catfish after another hit the boat and into the ice chest they went. We caught them until we ran out of daylight as one of us would say, Its getting dark, but the other two answered, One more cast. We finally left but not before we filled our ice chests with catfish.

That was the beginning of something that lasted the test of time. Goosie, his dad, Sonny, and Thompson Brown obtained a duck hunting lease across the river from Venice on Batiste Collette that I was blessed to take part in for a long time.

Back then, Venice was pretty quiet except on opening weekends of duck season. We could spend the weekend back in the marsh and not see another boat. A pretty normal weekend would consist of six people staying at the camp to hunt and fish. We would return with 80 to 100 ducks (never exceeding the legal limit), a couple of ice chests of fish that would consist of speckled trout, redfish, flounder and those catfish.

But the icing on the cake would be the fresh oysters we picked by hand on wild reefs near the camp until they disappeared. We shucked them, ate some and usually brought back a gallon or two to enjoy at home. Our favorite way of eating those fresh oysters was grilled on a homemade pit topped with butter, Worcestershire sauce and pepper jack cheese.

A fire would always be going at night, and we sat around it for hours with Goosie, me or Dale Jackson Babin playing box guitars, singing country music. Thompson Brown was our percussionist usually playing drums on a variety of pots with spoons for drum sticks with the occasional harmonica thrown in for good measure.

Other regular visitors were Dave Leggett and Kenny Kuhlman. There are about a book full of stories that could be told about the adventures with this group of misfits and many great memories. Thompson Brown and Dave Leggett arent with us anymore but their memories will never fade.

Well, so how did the meeting of the girl that would eventually be my wife and my introduction to salt water fishing pay off in the long run? Pretty good for me, Id say. Forty years later, three kids and six grandchildren, Deborah and I will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary on Aug. 18. Goosie and I are brothers-in-law and have remained very close friends. We co-host a local TV show together.

In the time its taken me to put this Throwback Thursday together, looking through a photo scrapbook, Ive relived a lot of great memories. Life is short, so grab all the gusto you can because one day theyll be gone. And no matter how old you might be, its never too late to start making new memories with friends and family.

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Ascension Athletics for Aug. 10, 2017 - The Advocate

ST. AMANT - Teachers and students in Ascension Parish got a head start on the school year Monday night.

Even though school doesn't start for a few more days, they got the chance to check out the restored buildings at St. Amant Primary and Middle schools.

The school celebrated the much-anticipated reunion almost a year after the flood forced them out of their classrooms.

While touring the new school, Kevin Mitchell, a third grade parent, was impressed with the progress made over the past year.

"It's good to have it back, it's good to have her back at her home campus for school back with all her friends and everybody else," Mitchell said.

The Ascension Parish School Board officially presented the newly renovated primary and middle school at a ribbon cutting Monday night. Parents and students reflected on the past school year and watched viewed a documentary about the flood.

The principals of both schools shared the obstacles they've had to overcome during the past 12 months.

"Last August our school community and communities abroad stopped at nothing to make sure our students could continue their learning in spite of our circumstances," St. Amant Primary school Principal Paisley Morgan said.

"It was difficult, it was a very difficult year for us, but we're moving forward," St. Amant Middle school Principal Christy Bourgeois said.

St. Amant Middle school cheerleaders like Abigail Clifton say they're excited to be back on their campus for things like practice.

"It's better to have our cafeteria and our gym back because we were struggling with practice and stuff like that," Clifton said.

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Two Ascension schools back on campus one year after flood - WBRZ

PRAIRIEVILLE- Hundreds of drivers turned out in Ascension ParishSunday to show support for a 3-year-old boy suffering from a rare disorder.

Jack Loebersuffersfrom PACS1, a genetic disorder which causes him to have suddentantrums. But Jack's parents say watching cars drive by is one of the most effective ways to calm him down.

"You know I come home from work and after about ten minutes of me being home he's coming to me and, in his own special way, telling me it's time dad lets go for our walk," said Jason Loeber, jack's father.

But Sunday was much more than just a normal walk for the family.

A few weeks ago, Jack's mom posted a picture of what she and her son do almost every single day. On Sunday, hundreds of people from all across the community participated in "Honk for Jack".

"I'm shocked. I'm overwhelmed," said Hillary Loeber, Jack's Mother.

Hundreds of vehicles of all shapes and sizes drove by as Jack watched in awe from his parents call their "happy spot". They said the turnout was better than anything they could have hoped for.

"People that go out of their way to take care of their own... You know, all these people coming out just to put a smile on a little boys face that they don't even know," Hillary said.

Organizers said about 500 cars participated in the event, all to put a smile on a child's face.

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Hundreds turn out in Ascension Parish to support 3-year-old with rare disorder - WBRZ

ASCENSION PARISH, La (LOCAL 33) (FOX 44) - Ascension Parish is one of the fastest growing parishes in Louisiana. In fact, families have been sending their children to Ascension Parish public school since the 1980s, continuing the population growth.

The population has increased even more due to Hurricane Katrina.

Monday, Baton Rouge General officials said they are expecting a 40 percent population increase. CEO and President Edgardo Tenrerio said 22,000 Ascension Parish residents traveled to Baton Rouge for emergency care in 2016. With these numbers, they plan to build a new hospital in Prairieville.

What a better gift to this community than to bring that trusted brand here to Ascension Parish,"Tenrerio said.

The 60,000 square foot hospital includes a 10-bed inpatient hospital, a lab, a 14-bed emergency room, as well as physician practices and office space.

Fire Chief Mark Stewart said Ascension Parish will have a fifth fire station August 8.

"This is an area kind of isolated, Stewart said. We had the need to put one out here so this will better serve the people in this area."

There will be a ribbon cutting to open the newest fire station in Ascension Parish August 8 at 10:30 a.m.

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Ascension Parish population expected to grow - http://www.brproud.com

Record keeping is an important life skill for youth to attain. Many Ascension 4-Hers are working hard to create, maintain and update their records through writing and pictures, which helps 4-Hers to track their activities and experiences, set and achieve personal goals and aids in building resumes and scholarship applications.

This school year, over 130 4-Hers mastered their 4-H project area by setting and completing personal and project goals, completing their 4-H projects outlined tasks, recording their efforts and achievements, both in and out of 4-H, and submitting their completed 4-H portfolios and project books for the Ascension 4-H parish record book competition. Of those participating, 26 youth earned blue ribbon awards, with 10 record books being sent on to compete in the State 4-H Record Book competition.

The 4-Hers earning a blue ribbon in the Ascension Parish 4-H Record Book Competition were Katelyn Frank, Stacey Kloosterman, Seth Amedee, Kylie Cliburn, Ben Clingfost, Jenna Einsel, Hannah Godchaux, Alyssa Hymel, Ava Klieferle, Abby Lobell, Karlie Lobell, Walker Morrill, Avery Robinson, Ava Surla, Hannah Woodring, Case Bastin, Bryce Binning, Brodie Bourgeois, Shawn Comminey, Grace Ostermiller, Anthony Comeaux, Anna Frazier, Brady Houston, Allie Cliburn and Kinslei Scroggs.

The 10 following 4-Hers from Ascension Parish for being selected to move on to the State 4-H Record Book Competition: Seth Amedee, Kylie Cliburn, Katelyn Frank, Hannah Godchaux, Stacey Kloosterman, Abby Lobell, Kinslei Scroggs, Racheal Stewart, Alex Sullivan and Ava Surla.

The State 4-H Record Book winners from Ascension Parish 4-H were as follows:

National 4-H Congress Trip Award Winner to Atalnta, GA- Stacey Kloosterman

Seventh and eighth Grade Achievement Award Winners for the Louisiana Educational Trip to New Orleans and Baton Rouge- Kylie Cliburn; fifth alternate- Racheal Stewart; eighth Alternate- Abby Lobell

Sixth Grade Achievement Blue ribbon winners- Seth Amedee, Katelyn Frank, Ava Surla

Jr. Wildlife Tour Educational Trip to Grand Isle, LA- Kinseli Scroggs, Eighth Alternate- Hannah Godchaux

Superintendents Livestock Award Blue ribbon winner- Kylie Cliburn

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Ascension 4-Hers Master their Project Area - Weekly Citizen

ASCENSION PARISH- Ascension Parish School System leaders announced temporary buildings at four Ascension Parish Schools are being ventilated after volunteers and teachers complained of throat and eye irritation from a strong ammonia like odor. The complaints came when the buildings were getting prepped for students.

The buildings are located at Galvez Middle, Galvez Primary, Lake Elementary and St. Amant High.

Superintendent David Alexander said the ventilation is being done to rid the odor in the buildings. It was initially discovered at Galvez and Lake Elementary, but the School System decided to do ventilation at St. Amant as a precaution.

Balloon like plastic bags were installed to the windows of the T Buildings after environmentalists, air quality and engineering experts tested the buildings. They were consulted about the mysterious odor, that remains unidentified at this time. The School System said it's not harmful, despite people complaining of the throat and eye irritation.

Parents like Jessica Dufour want to make sure schools are safe for children when they return from summer break next week.

"That worries me," Dufour said. "They are just finding it out? Will it be safe for Wednesday when they start for school?"

Right now, Dufour is also troubled that the School System did not send out notices to the parents to let them know what was going on.

"I'm concerned that I had to find out through the media instead of the school contacting me to let me know what was going on," Dufour said.

Ascension Parish School Leaders were unavailable for an interview, but Superintendent David Alexander said the students' safety is their top priority. He said since the ventilation began, the smell is no longer there, and all will be re-tested before school begins.

The School System provided the following statement:

"While preparing for the return of school, we learned that some of the new temporary buildings that were closed with little to no air conditioning running during the hot summer accumulated a strong odor. We immediately engaged the manufacturer, air quality and engineering experts to assess the issue. As the odor was not present in temporary buildings that were used regularly over the summer, it is believed to be a buildup of new construction smells normally vented out from regular use. Although assessments revealed no dangerous levels in the classrooms, crews are currently venting the buildings to remove the odor and all buildings will be tested by environmental experts before the start of school."

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Ascension School System ventilating 'T' buildings at flooded schools - WBRZ