For the month of January, the “You Make a Difference Award” was passed to Mr. Dale Homolka. The art teacher received it from his colleague Ms. Arnold, and expressed that he was “surprised” when his name was called. He went on to say that he felt this way because “there are many dedicated faculty, staff, and administrators at JHS that are here for the students” who deserve the award.
Arnold, a math teacher at Jacksonville High School handed off the honorable prize to Homolka because of his diligence and progressive ideas and thoughts that help to improve our school. Arnold has worked with Homolka for the past few years on PASS Advisory (Positive Attitudes=Student Success), a mentoring program designed to assist students on orange level or below and help them improve their behavior and academics. Through co-chairing this program with Homolka, Arnold has learned a lot about the JHS art teacher. She states that she has “observed him go above and beyond to help students be successful in both his classes and in other subjects.”
In acquiring this honor, Homolka says that the biggest accolade is undoubtedly the recognition from his peers. He always strives to be the best he can be in order to help his students succeed. He expresses that “when [he sees] former students out in our community being successful… [he feels] an award of accomplishment that the work we are doing at JHS is paying off.”
This achievement only reiterates what Homolka believes in. He explains that a quote by the author, Maya Angelou conveys this belief: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” The line, which is now on Homolka’s nightstand, serves as a reminder for him to persist and keep moving forward. It is clear that the best that he has done so far has truly had an impact at Jacksonville High School and will continue in years to come.