Counselor to retire after 33 years
Cutter Morning Star Elementary School counselor Tab Tucker has impacted thousands of lives throughout his 33-year career with the school district.
Today at 3:30 p.m., the community is welcome to wish Tucker well in his retirement during a reception in the district’s multipurpose building.
Tucker said he moved to the school district when he was in 10th grade.
“My parents built a home here when I was going into 10th grade,” he said. “I stayed connected and went to college, and this was my first job 33 years ago. I’ve been here my whole career from teaching sixth grade to counseling, and so this has been my career right here. It’s been a privilege to serve Cutter Morning Star for my career.”
Tucker spent seven years teaching sixth-grade math, social studies, health and science before becoming the school’s counselor. Counseling is his passion, he said.
“Counseling to me is such an opportunity to encourage children. Just to listen to and encourage them. To help them with their situations from friends, to school, to helping them with their family situations. It’s just been about encouraging them through whatever they’re going through,” he said.
“Everybody I feel like just needs a little extra help every now and then. As a counselor, just to be there, support them and let them know somebody is here for you that just wants to listen and help.
“This is my place. My wife taught here for several years. I raised my daughters here all the way through school. This is my school. This is my heart here at Cutter Morning Star for these kids, for this community,” Tucker said.
Over the years, he said, he’s seen the district grow and change as well as the generations of students he has taught.
“I’ll go to the store and see kids and I know I know them,” Tucker said. “They’ll tell me who they are or sometimes I’ll remember. I see the grandparents of the children, and their children I taught so now they’re the grandparents and I think ‘How is that over 33 years?’ I guess it happens one day at a time. You get up, come in and help kids one day at a time and then turn around and it’s 33 years later.”
Superintendent Nancy Anderson said Tucker is a legacy within the district who cannot be replaced.
“When I first started here 11 years ago as principal I could not have done my job without him,” she said. “Not just as principal, but
as superintendent, he has always been so supportive. He is so good to our kids. He is so good to our staff. I just don’t know what we’re going to do without him. We’re going to fill that position, but we’re never going to be able to replace him.”
Anderson said that, in a recent conversation, Tucker told her he was unsure what he was going to do after 40 years involved with the district as a student and as an employee.
“He said, ‘You know Dr. Anderson, I’ve been getting up every day for 40 years and driving to Cutter Morning Star. I’m not sure what I’ll do when I get up,’ she said. “I said ‘You just get up and you keep driving over here because we’d love to have you here.’”
Anderson said Tucker has been a positive influence in not only students’ lives, but faculty’s lives.
“He’s just a Godly man; he’s such a positive role model for our kids. He is an asset to this faculty and staff. He will do anything you ask him to do. He’s unbelievable. It is going to be a big void without him here. I can’t speak highly enough about him,” Anderson said.
“He has touched so many lives, we would love for anyone to come and congratulate him, wish him well,” she said of the reception. “We would love for anyone in the community (to come) because he has touched so many lives all these years.”
Tucker said he plans to continue supporting the district wherever he can after a much-needed break.
“It will be a while because I plan to take some time, but one of the things we have a food program where we send food home for the weekends to serve some of our kids. I’d like to at some point come back up and volunteer to help pack them and maybe even hand them out again,” he said. “I hand (food) out on Fridays to make sure the kids have what they need and tell them to have a good weekend. … I’d like to stay involved with things like that and come to athletic events and things like that.”
As of Monday, Tucker still had not shared his plans to retire with his students; however, he planned to incorporate it into his lessons with them during their last few days of school.
“I talk with all my students about careers and try to get them to think about the different things they want to do and what they’re gifted to do, and doing stuff that they enjoy,” he said. “I’m going to talk to them at some point. I’ve been so slow to do that, but this week I’ve got to talk to them about how we talk about careers and we talk about retirement, and that it’s part of the career process.”