October 5, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
DeKalb County High School continued its monthly observance Monday of recognizing a teacher, student, and parent or guardian of the month.
Each received a certificate from the school and a gift card for a meal from KFC. A different restaurant will be offering a meal gift card to each month’s honorees.
DCHS substitute teacher Ginger Caplinger was selected as Teacher of the Month while 9th grader Katya Hennessee, daughter of Brad and Renee Hennessee, is Student of the Month, voted on by the teachers, faculty, and staff. The parent of the month recognition was presented in memory of Mel Thompson, mother of DCHS student Kaydence Thompson. Kaydence wrote the winning essay in honor of her mother, who passed away last month, to qualify for the award
Katya is originally from the Ukraine, a country in eastern Europe, but she along with her now 13 year old sister and 11 year old brother were adopted by the Hennessee’s five years ago. For the last four years Katya and her siblings have attended school at Dibrell where her father worked as a school resource officer. This is their first year attending school in DeKalb County.
Until she came to this country, Katya didn’t speak English but over the last five years she has learned the language well and speaks it fluently.
“We met the children through an organization in Clanton, Alabama called Bridges of Faith,” said Katya’s mother. “They bring over 10 Ukrainian orphans three times a year for a cultural experience in the United States but their mission is to find forever homes for them,” she said.
Katya said she is thrilled to have been named student of the month and is enjoying her first year at DCHS. “I like all the positivity in the school. My favorite subject is math and I am in the FFA club”.
Caplinger was excited too after learning she was named teacher of the month.
“I am absolutely overwhelmed and floored. This is nothing I would have expected, I currently substitute for Jessica Griffith while she is on maternity leave and teach sophomore English,” said Caplinger.
For the last six years, Caplinger has made being a substitute a full time career. “ She has full on accepted the role as a full time teacher for those students. She has been doing everything in and out of the classroom. She has helped us with watching additional classes on top of the classes she was assigned to as a substitute. She was out for a little while but still she was assigning work for all her students and grading papers. I have never met a sub who would have even closely attempted to do something like that while they were not going to be at work at all. She goes above and beyond any of our expectations to help us out as a substitute and as a teacher. This is the perfect opportunity to award her for all the things she has done to help us and the students of DeKalb County,” said Assistant DCHS Principal Thomas Cagle.
“These awards are a way for us to acknowledge students who are performing exemplary each month. This isn’t always going to be for your straight “A” student . Its for those putting in the effort to make DeKalb County better each and every month. Every teacher can nominate a student and all teachers vote on the student nominated. Teachers are voted on by the administration. The parent of the month award is determined by student essays. Students can write an essay each month and nominate their parent for a chance to win. In the essays, students can highlight things the parents are doing in their life outside of school that we may not know about. For this month’s parent award we had double the amount of essays from last month,” said Cagle.