Humboldt County honors five teachers at annual excellence awards ceremony

Humboldt County’s annual teaching awards put a public spotlight on the people keeping classrooms functioning across the county, from Dow’s Prairie Elementary School to Sunny Brae Middle School. The Humboldt County Office of Education honored five teachers at its Excellence in Teaching Awards ceremony at the Sequoia Conference Center in Eureka, drawing more than 150 colleagues, friends and family members on California’s Day of the Teacher.

This year’s honorees were Amber Coley of Dow’s Prairie Elementary School, Crystal Fennell of Stanley A. Murphy Elementary School, Jennifer Harvey of Alice Birney Elementary School, Hope von Werlhof of Washington Elementary School, and Rachel Whitaker of Sunny Brae Middle School. Together, the five educators brought 100 years of teaching experience to the ceremony, a figure that underscored the depth of institutional knowledge still anchored in Humboldt County schools.

The awards carry weight beyond the applause. HCOE said the program has been a staple since 1986 and is aimed at TK-12 classroom teachers who hold a California teaching credential, have at least five years of experience, and are identified as exemplary by coworkers, parents or students. In a rural county where recruiting and keeping teachers remains a chronic challenge, that kind of recognition matters. HCOE launched the Humboldt County Substitute Consortium in March 2023 to help address substitute-teacher shortages, a reminder that stable staffing is still a real issue in local schools.

The ceremony also stretched beyond a simple honor roll. HCOE said Bernie Levy of Cal Poly Humboldt received the Jean Olson Career Achievement Award for lifelong contributions to public education, children and the community. The county also said its 2026-2027 Humboldt County Teacher of the Year will be selected from among the Excellence in Teaching Award recipients, making the evening part recognition event and part pipeline for a larger countywide honor.

Students had a hand in the evening as well. Fortuna High School Culinary Arts students prepared appetizers, Eureka High Ag Floral Classes created the table bouquets, and Ian Hall’s Career Technical Education students made the engraved wooden cutting board awards. In a county where many schools are separated by miles and staffing strain can be constant, the event served as a clear signal: the work of local teachers is still being seen, and the system depends on it.