A teacher with many talents has taught at Carter High School for twenty nine and a half years: Mr. Cunningham who currently teaches Contemporary Issues. He’s a stunning and fun teacher to have in class. He makes the class interesting through demonstrations of battles by using students as examples of soldiers.

Jacob Clifton, a senior, remarks, “Mr. Cunningham has killed me in every war or battle example in American history, Civil War to modern day.” He began laughing as he recalled this. 

It is just one of the ways Mr. Cunningham has gotten the students engaged and made them feel like they were part of the action. Many students that had his class previously take his other class, Americans at War, just to be in his classroom again. Jacob Clifton is just one example of the variety of students that were entertained by his bizarre stories and fun ways of learning. If you had him for third block, you would find yourself practicing Kung Fu during the twenty minutes of activity time. He would grade you on participation and how well you executed the movements. Kaitlyn joked, saying that “It’s almost as if he’s training his own army for battle.” 

 Before being a teacher he was in the army. He was stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War. He explained that being in the army is not something you forget, when he was asked what he enjoyed most about it, he said, “Driving through Europe in the tank.” 

After the war, Cunningham decided to teach. One thing he got from the army was the excessive use of nicknames. He commonly renames his students; when he was asked why, he smiled and said, “To give them something special, that somebody cared enough to name [them].” He then went on to name off some of his students. “Giggles, Smiley,  and Jack Rabbit”: aka Kaitlyn Oliver, Aliyah Trammell, and Jacob Clifton.

“It’s a name that represents me!” Says Kaitlyn Oliver, a senior. Every day, a handful of students will walk up to him and he will address them by their nickname. Most students have never heard him call them by their real name. 

He’s an extraordinary teacher that deserves to be recognized. He’s done a lot for his students and managed to gain respect from them. There is no teacher like Mr.Cunningham. 

“He’s living history,” said Jacob.

Carter High School has gotten a new cross country coach for the 2019 season. Makayla Dudley takes over as CHS’s new cross country coach. This is her fourth year teaching health and gym at Carter Middle School and has coached basketball, track, and cross country in that time. Coach Dudley states, “I’ve kind of fallen in love with the last few groups I’ve coached, and they’re now at the high school . . . but, I kind of wanted to continue that so that we could build our program. I also really want Carter to be seen as a running school.” She explains that she thinks it is important to start them in the program in middle school and carry it through to high school. Coach Dudley coaches both the middle school team and the high school team. She gets help from Coach Bain from CHS, Mrs. Heartness, and Mrs. Simpson from CMS. Austin Cardwell, a ninth grader, has been running cross country for Coach Dudley for a year and decided to come back for the high school season after finding out that Coach Dudley was the coach. He says his favorite part of the sport is simply “Just running.” The team motto is, “Give it your best and one more step.” She says it in hopes that they will take that motto and use it in everything. Dudley says, “Whether it’s [using the motto] on the cross country course and a runner is like ‘I only have one more step and then I’m done’ or even in the classroom. Just give it your best and take one more step to challenge yourself one last time.” They are still recruiting runners to make a full team, so people that are interested see Stephanie Bain or email makayla.dudley@knoxschools.org. The first race is August 31st at Victor Ashe State Park starting at 9 am, so feel free to come support your school’s team!

Carter High School will be holding the homecoming football game on Friday, September 27 at 6:45 p.m. We will be competing against South Doyle HIgh School. All homecoming candidates have taken on the challenge to raise money for a specific sport or club within Carter High School. The young ladies have worked arduously to raise a minimum of 900 dollars. The sponsor of the winning candidate will receive 90 percent of the proceeds raised by that candidate. Eighty percent of proceeds raised individually will be distributed to the sponsor. Everyone should come out and support our homecoming candidates, as well as our football players who are currently practicing diligently for the event. Rebecca Pollard, Head of Student Government Association (SGA), said, “I think it is important students get involved in things not only inside but outside the school day.” She encourages Carter High School students to come out and observe the candidate who wins. Caleb Daugherty, starting defensive tackle of the CHS football team says, “Bring everyone out to come watch; the team would love to have all the support considering we have put so much work and dedication into the game.”

To help students get excited for the game, during the week leading up to homecoming, all students will have the option to dress for spirit week according to the following schedule: America day, cartoon day, country versus country club, meme-day, and green and white day. Monday, September 23rd, students and staff will have the option to wear all things red, white, and blue in correlation to America day. Tuesday, September 24th, cartoon day, you should dress up as your favorite cartoon characters: for example, Spongebob, Ninja Turtles, or Alvin and the Chipmunks. Wednesday, September 25th is Meme day: dress up as your favorite meme. Thursday, September 26th, is country vs. country club. If you choose to be country you may consider wearing a flannel and boots; on the other hand, country club supporters will possibly wear khakis and dress shoes. On September 27th, all students will be able to wear green, white, gray, or black. All freshmen should wear green. Sophomores should wear gray. Juniors will wear black. The senior class will wear white. SGA leader Ms. Pollard, says “Student’s should show school spirit.” Mary Grace Neal, sophomore SGA representative at Carter, says, “Students should dress up; it makes school more fun of an atmosphere.”

At the very beginning of the 2019-2020 school year the library got a serious upgrade to the computer chairs. The previous chairs that were there have been there since the school opened decades ago. The new chairs are Node swivel chairs with a storage space underneath for backpacks, books, or anything you need while using the computer. They have a lifetime warranty and fit any size student. The librarian Ms.Davenport states, “I am very grateful and excited that Ms. Messer approved and funded the new chairs.” “The chairs were very expensive and are meant to last a long time,” states Ms. Messer.

The CHS newsletter informs and keeps you up to date on all things new with Carter High School. Students in Mr. O’Malley’s journalism class interview people in the Carter community and create the articles you will find on this site. They help spread the buzz going on to the Carter community. Stay tuned to this page to see updates and new content!