Teaching assistant recounts 11 years at Westside, balancing caregiving and a growing catering business

A teaching assistant at Westside said she has worked at the school for about 11 years and balances her role there with caring for a child who has cerebral palsy and running a local catering business.

"I moved home after 18 years and I became a substitute teacher... I fell in love with it," the teaching assistant said, describing her path from substitute to a permanent teaching-assistant position. She said administrators encouraged her to accept the job — "they said, Miss Guess, you have to take this job" — and that she accepted the second offer.

The speaker said she trained as a chef at Johnson and Wales for four years and worked at Emory University before family circumstances led her to pause that career to care for her child, who she said was born at "a pound and 10 ounces" and has cerebral palsy. She said she was able to return to school work while also starting a catering business.

She said her catering venture, Tasha's Heart and Soul, grew from one or two events a year to about five a month. "People were just asking me, hey, are you still cooking?" she said. The speaker added that she continues to work at the school and gives "100% to whatever my task is." She described being recognized "on a upper level" as "truly amazing."

The remarks emphasize the combination of school-based work, family caregiving and small-business entrepreneurship. The transcript includes a short, unclear phrase referencing "milliliters" that could not be reliably interpreted from the recording; that phrase was not used to draw conclusions about the speaker's remarks.

No motions, votes or formal board actions are recorded in the provided transcript excerpt. The comments close with the speaker saying Westside is "like a family" and that "our kids... love coming to school."