Fayette County Retired Teachers Hold Officer Installation in June
The Fayette County Retired Teachers Association (FCRTA) met on June 8 at Robert’s Steakhouse in Flatonia. The meeting was called to order by Co-President Peggy Halamicek at 1:28 p.m. Twenty-five members were present including three new members.
Kristi McBride, Executive Director of Parents as Teachers of Rural South Central Texas (PATRSCTX) gave a presentation on the mission of this national organization. PATRSCTX conducts home visits to help prepare families to send their children to school. They work with 1520 families in Colorado and Fayette Counties with children from pre-natal to five years old, visiting each family for one hour, one or two times per month. PATRSCTX Volunteers, including Bilingual Educators, help with screenings, finances, paperwork, clothing and any educational supplies needed by the family. Some of their current projects are a Learn and Playroom in the Schulenburg and Weimar schools during the school year for all students up to five years old, a lending Library for the family so the parents can read to their children and a Birthday Cake Kit to help with Birthday celebrations. Donations of any type, monetary, children’s clothing, school supplies and, of course, children’s books are accepted. In this PATRSCTX’s Silver Anniversary Year FCRTA was happy to donate 200 books to their Library.
At the conclusion of Mrs. McBride’s presentation, the Business Meeting continued. New members, Kathy Schatte, Kim Bonewald and Susie Grider were welcomed and given a goodie bag. Committee reports were given. Lisa Slinkard was recognized as the member with the most volunteer hours, 3,227 hours from Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 2025. The winner of a $25 gift card to HEB for the Book Raffle was Jeanne Wetjen and the winner of the Member Retention Door Prize was Donna Burton.
Under New Business the office of Secretary was unfilled. Chris Morrison moved to nominate Terri Wagner. The motion was seconded and Wagner was elected. She announced her resignation as Co-President and accepted the office of Secretary.
It was announced that the next meeting of FCRTA will be held Monday, Sept. 14, at New Life Methodist Church on Von Minden Street, La Grange. If you are a retired Texas public-school employee and member of Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA), please join us on Sept. 14 for our annual Ice Cream Social.
The next order of business was the Installation of the 2026-2027 FCRTA officers. Melanie Mica, TRTA District 13 First Vice President, presented an analogy of the Spider plant to describe the duties and responsibilities of the office, giving each one a potted Spider plant at the close of their installation.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:38 p.m.