Superintendent's On the Move Series

The month of September is designated as Attendance Awareness Month and Humboldt City Schools used this recognition as an opportunity to reinforce the importance of being in school, everyday, on time. We have appointed Attendance Coaches throughout our district who are calling upon our chronically absent students to let them know we need them in school and to, hopefully, identify their reasons for missing school and help them to resolve any obstacles to their daily attendance.

Since the inception of our team, we have seen a positive drop on absenteeism! Because this is proving to be a successful process, our coaches will continue to work with their assigned students throughout this school year in hopes to curb absenteeism as well as strengthen our testing scores by students being in the classroom.

We have lots of good news to shout about in our academics as well as in our athletics! Shout out to our Viking Sr. High Football team for earning a 6-0 record so far through the season! We celebrate Homecoming this week and we would love to see everyone in attendance to cheer on our Vikings!

Lastly, we want to wish each of you a wonderful Fall Break! Yes, it is here and we hope you have plans to relax, refresh and rejuvenate during your time away. Thank you to everyone for working hard these first two months of school. Let's come back refreshed and ready to dive deep into our Literacy Launch and continue the good work we have started!

Dr. Janice Epperson
Superintendent

Humboldt City Schools

There was fierce competition between the grades at the Battle of the Grades Kick-off on the First Friday in September! Grade Level Houses represent a focus in the Portrait of A Graduate Program:

7th Grade = V for Visionary

8th Grade = I for Innovative

9th Grade = K for Knowledgeable

10th Grade = I for Inspiring

11th Grade = N for Noble

12th Grade - G for Graduate

The grades played Minute to Win It Games and were informed where their classes ranked in absenteeism and test scores. It was a lot of fun and excitement. We can't wait to see what's next!

Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation (GELF), in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE), will host the third annual Opportunities with Literacy (OWL) Fest this September. The mobile bookstore experience will visit 40 Priority elementary schools across Tennessee, offering students and educators the opportunity to select high-quality books and literacy materials—completely free of charge. OWL Fest is designed to build home libraries, promote reading engagement, and support literacy development. Tennessee remains the only state in the nation offering an initiative of this kind on a statewide scale.

Through a collaboration with Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, Pre-K through 5th grade students will each receive six engaging books to take home. More than 16,000 students will benefit from the distribution of over 74,000 books during the 2025 OWL Fest events—all at no cost to families or schools.

East students received their books in September and they had a great time choosing their favorite books from those provided!

September celebrates our Grandparents! East and Stigall provided lunch opportunities for selected grades to invite grandparents to celebrate their day. Click the photo to view a video highlighting a few of our grandparents and their students.

September 15 - October 15 is recognized as Hispanic Heritage Month. The ESL Department of Humboldt City Schools hosted the Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration in honor of our students of Hispanic heritage. During the celebration, families enjoyed snacks reflecting the Hispanic culture, participated in Salsa Dance lessons and played Spanish Bingo for prizes!

Our athletes and coaches have been working hard this season! Our weeks are filled with Volleyball and Football schedules and when they are not playing, they are practicing! As the seasons begin to wind down, let's keep supporting our athletes as they begin their quests for play-offs and tournament play. Most notable is the outstanding season our Sr. Viking Football Team is having with an undefeated 6-0 season through the end of this month! We begin October with our Homecoming game followed by three more regular season games. Come out and support our Vikings at home and on the road! They are working hard to compete on the field and in the classroom!

The littlest Vikings are loving to learn to read! Literacy Night for Stigall Families was held on September 17th. The staff lead fun and educational games, provided lots of snacks and families enjoyed spending time learning with their students! The United Way "Words on Wheels" library was available for students to explore as well.

Our first Epiphany Training Day took place this month as we begin to work together to fine-tune the program in our schools. Jerry was this month's trainer from the team and worked closely with all of our teachers. He demonstrated the basic teaching techniques that will help our students develop a vocabulary that is strong and help them to understand how to deconstruct words in order to understand their meaning.

We were honored that Coach Ronald Abernathy was chosen as this year's honoree for the Educational Innovator by the Humboldt Chamber of Commerce at their Annual Chamber Banquet. Also nominated for this award were: RaShonda Wade from Stigall Primary, Emily Parrish from Stigall Primary, Brandi Martz from East, Kelly Vonner from Humboldt Jr. Sr. High School and Dr. Janice Epperson, Superintendent. We are so proud of all these leaders in our district and appreciate the posthumous recognition of Coach Abernathy.

Congratulations to our Superintendent, Dr. Janice Epperson, for receiving her 5-Year Anniversary Award from the State of Tennessee at the Superintendent's Study Council Meeting in Gatlinburg this month! Congratulations and thank you for all that you do for Humboldt City Schools!