The Husky Huddle
This is the 'Husky Huddle,' the podcast that brings you closer to the heart of Olean City School education. Whether you're a parent, student, teacher, or a proud member of our community, this podcast is dedicated to providing insightful conversations, expert advice, and a closer look at what makes our district truly exceptional.
The Husky Huddle
Celebrating Academic Excellence At Olean High School
Recognition shouldn’t be rare—or reserved for a select few. We sit down with social studies teacher and Olean parent Joelle Perry to share how a homegrown honor roll celebration turned quiet effort into visible pride, grew participation to hundreds of students, and set a new standard for academic culture at Olean High School.
Joelle traces the spark back to middle school traditions and a candid post-observation chat that asked, “What could we do better?” The answer became a three-times-a-year celebration that blends heartfelt teacher tributes with irresistible incentives: a warm breakfast of home fries, bacon, and local donuts for early honorees, and a third-marking-period push for high honors capped by an extreme ice cream sundae buffet. Along the way, we talk about why students need to hear “we see you,” how naming specific behaviors—late-night study sessions, thoughtful questions, attendance, and steady participation—builds trust, and why the high honor threshold of 92 percent turns momentum into mastery.
This conversation is packed with practical details for educators and families: how to scale recognition without losing authenticity, how logistics and timing support learning, and how to frame excellence as a reachable challenge. Joelle’s message to students is clear and empowering: want excellence, plan the work, ask for help early, and bring the same effort to every class to become a whole student whose habits travel beyond the building. We also shout out the leaders who helped fund and champion the program, proving that budgets can reflect values when the goal is to celebrate achievement and raise expectations.
If you care about school culture, student motivation, and sustainable ways to honor academic excellence, this is your roadmap and a morale boost rolled into one. Subscribe, share with a colleague or parent, and leave a review telling us your best recognition idea—we might feature it next time.
So thank you so much for coming on the Husky Huddle. Um, this is our newest episode, and I am joined happily by Joelle Perry, who's going to talk to us today about the honor roll celebration activities that we have going on here at Oleanne High School. So, welcome to the Husky Huddle. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. So, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and then we'll jump into the honor roll celebration?
SPEAKER_01:Yep, absolutely. Um, my name is Joel, and I grew up and was born in Springville, New York. And I um also grew up with Mr. Perry. We both went to Springville and um we were interviewing against each other for jobs and uh realized that was not getting us anywhere. So for two years, we moved to Virginia, where we both taught social studies in Virginia. But after being away for two years, we really missed home and we missed family. And so Ole Ann High School had two social studies openings at the same time, and we flew home and we interviewed and we both were hired. And now I have been teaching for 17 years. Um, I did stay home for four years when I had my children. Um, but um, and that was a good decision for for our family. Mr. Perry kept teaching and stayed, so he's been here a little bit longer than me. But so yeah, I've been teaching for uh 17 years. And I have absolutely loved being in Olean. I love living in this community and I love teaching in this district. So um thank you for asking me to come.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely, and thank you so much. And I hope to have you back when it's time to talk about the corporate challenge.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I'd be happy to come back for that as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, that work is invaluable and always puts a smile on everybody's faces at the end of the school year. Good, great. I love all right, so we got a future booking for you as well. I'll be back. Thank you. So um we're here to talk about the first marking period honor roll celebration. So can you share with us what inspired you to start this celebration?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, absolutely. So not only am I a teacher in the district, but I am also a parent in the district. I have a son currently in 10th grade in my own class, and I have an eighth grader as well. And what I realized was my children at the middle school level were being honored quarterly at the middle school, and they were so excited to go to the honor roll celebration at the middle school. They would come home with beautiful certificates, they would talk about how they got to eat pizza with their friends, and they really felt important and that their work that was being done was being valued at the middle school. And I really felt that uh that was important, and we did not have that opportunity here at the high school, and so I went to um several different administrators and talked about how we can jumpstart those same opportunities at the high school to recognize and celebrate and promote academic excellence at the high school level.
SPEAKER_00:Wonderful, that's awesome. So um this celebrated this celebration started last year.
SPEAKER_01:Correct, yes.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, can you share a little bit about how that first event went?
SPEAKER_01:The first event went wonderful, and the students were so excited because they had not been recognized at the high school level, and we had almost 375 students being celebrated the first time, and the joy and excitement that they had told me that we were doing the right thing. Wonderful. And the immediately when we were done, the next question was when does it happen again? That's awesome. Yeah, and this spans across the grade levels, like eight through twelve. Eight through twelve, and we do the celebration three times a year. We do not do it after the fourth marking period because we're on summer break. So, yes, so we celebrate the first three marking periods.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. So, what were some memorable moments or highlights from the first uh celebration?
SPEAKER_01:So, in the first celebration, I came up with this idea of asking guest speakers, guest teachers to come and highlight some of their favorite moments or some of their um hard work that they see in the classroom. And it was really nice to uh Mr. Rosinski was nominated to come and talk, and the older group actually picked Mr. Perry to come and talk, and they really did a great job just expressing how grateful the teachers in the building are that these students do put in the work every day. They do want to do well, um, they want to participate, and just having that recognition was really an important special moment between these teachers and the students.
SPEAKER_00:And that's awesome because think about it. Many times you're in class, you know your teacher is happy that you put in an effort, but do how often do you actually hear that from your teacher that says, I see you when you come into class, I see that you're reading, and I see you asking those questions when you don't understand, and I see it paying off with those higher grades.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and I'm so glad that you said that because I do believe that was what Mr. Perry said. Like, we see you. You know, we know that you're staying up late. We know that you're working extra hard. And what we want you to do is we want more of you to be seen. You know, the goal is to get the number to grow every marking period, and it's working. The numbers keep going up. Um, the students are already talking about it, they're talking about what food is being served, they're looking forward to it. Um, so I'm excited that they're excited. You know, the program, the celebration, it's working.
SPEAKER_00:That's wonderful. And once they start asking about the food, you know. Yes, yes, what is being served? Yeah, that's awesome. So um, are you planning on expanding this this year? Is this celebration gonna have more snacks? Like, what is the extra spice that's being given to the honor roll celebration?
SPEAKER_01:So I don't know if we want to call it an extra spice, but we have added an extra level or challenge to it. So the first marking period and the second marking period will be all encompassing of the honor roll. The third marking period is the coveted level. That will be for high honor roll only. And that will be our extreme ice cream sundae buffet.
SPEAKER_00:I love this. This is awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so that's we're really trying by the end of the year to really push our students to reach that 92% and above.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And um, you know, it for the for the students that have been to marking period one and marking period two, we thought it was important to try to raise the bar just a little bit more and encourage them to hit that high. So, yeah, so for the third marking period, the ultimate Sunday buffet, wow, for our high marking period only is what we'll be taking.
SPEAKER_00:And this celebration occurs first thing in the morning.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, well, so that will be periods probably seven and eight. Yeah, so we don't want to sugar them up and send them back like 8:30 in the morning. Go to class.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I love that.
SPEAKER_01:So for this uh first marking period, um, we talked it over and we decided we were going to do a breakfast. And so working with Dan Dunklman has been great. Yeah, we are doing um home fries and bacon and um donuts from Reed's food barn.
SPEAKER_00:I love that. That's awesome. That would inspire me to be on. Yes, yes. So, what message do you want to send to students who are striving to make the honor roll in the next marking period? So we've got a little bit of time now, and then there's the next one. So they've got three to aspire to, especially that third really special one. Yeah, but what's the message to them?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, my first of all, my message is that we are very proud of you. We, you know, we do appreciate you, we do see you, but know that um we are joyful that you're in this building every day, and we want you to continue to work hard and we want you to uh be productive outside our school building. You know, the end goal is to gain skills that you can use outside this building. And uh we are really trying to create a whole student here, right? And we want you to work hard and not just one class here and there. We want you to work hard in all of your classes and become a whole student and be someone that can be productive in our community and do well outside our building. So we really want to celebrate the whole student that you've done well in all of your academic classes. Keep working. Um, you know, take pride in your work, take pride in your effort and know that we see you and we're proud of you.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. So before we wrap up, is there anyone that you would like to thank for helping make the honor roll celebration possible?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you, Dr. Morris, for helping to, you know, move this along in the right direction.
SPEAKER_00:So thank you. I appreciate I am always in support of supporting our kids to be the best huskies they can be.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, absolutely. Um, I'd like to thank um Mrs. Ballotta, Jenny Balotta, for providing the funds needed because there are a lot of students that we are uh feeding at these celebrations. So thank you. Um, Mr. Austin, uh him and I, he this actually came about when he evaluated me and he asked me my honest opinion and said, what could our building be doing better during our post-observation? And this is when it the inception actually occurred, was in my post-observation meeting with him. Wow. And so Mr. Austin encouraged me to uh get it rolling, see what we could do. And so I'd like to thank Mr. Austin for his support as well. Yeah, and Mr. Adriano has been wonderful as well. He likes to come down and say a few words, and you know, I think it brings him joy too. This is uh, you know, the high school his building, and he likes to see hardworking students be rewarded and set the tone for other students to try to achieve.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely setting the tone for excellence. Yes. All right, and so we will end with our final, final, but very important question. What advice would you give to students about setting goals and working hard throughout the rest of the school year?
SPEAKER_01:My advice is that anything is achievable. You know, you have to you have to want it. That's right. You know, no one can make you go and achieve excellence. You have to want excellence, and anybody can achieve excellence if they just put their mind to it. So um, this building is full of supportive, encouraging uh teachers that are here for you when you need them. Um, but put just one foot in front of the other, and before you know it, you'll be having an ice cream celebration yourself. So I encourage every student in this building to challenge themselves and to work hard, and success will show up before you know it.
SPEAKER_00:That is great advice. Thank you so much, and thank you so much for the work that you are doing to support our huskies as they are moving in mass towards an honor roll celebration. And I appreciate all the work that you put into this. This is a lot, and I can't wait to have you back on the Husky Huddle for our corporate challenge celebration as well.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me.