Special Ed, Biz Club Students to Open School Store – Your Help Needed!

by | Nov 9, 2014

It’s not called Genius Hour for nothing – EG High School teachers have been working on a collaboration between students with developmental disabilities with business-loving students, using the early Wednesday morning teacher time known as Geniur Hour.

But the effort will cost some money, so teachers have put out the call to anyone over 18 to vote all this month on a $2,500 school grant from Farmer’s insurance. (You can vote here – EG’s proposal is among the top 20 in terms of votes but only just barely – more info below.)

It started last year, when some teachers got together to talk about ways to create a school store.

“Pat Page visited lots of schools last year when she was Teacher of the Year,” said Life Skills teacher Fran Healy, referring to Patricia Page, business teacher at the high school and, indeed, last year’s Rhode Island Teacher of the Year. “One thing she noticed was the branding, if you will, of other schools – the school spirit and the logos. A lot of people wore the logo every day.”

At EGHS, there were dozens of different “Avenger” logos. Art teachers Deanna Agresti and Stacey Munzert enlisted students to create a new logo, one for athletics and one for academics.

Next, they created an online EGHS store, where people can buy all sorts of items with the EGHS logo. That’s been up and running since the beginning of the school year.

“The next thing we wanted was to find a co-curricular activity that my students be involved in with Mrs. Page’s Future Business Leaders of America club,” said Healy.

Here’s where the grant comes in.

Healy and Page decided to get their students working together on an in-school store, a kiosk where things like pens, pencils, t-shirts, even license plate covers, could be sold to students during lunch or advisory periods. (Don’t worry, Boosters, there won’t be overlap with Booster Club items, Healy said.)

The idea is that the students work together on inventory, project management, contract and vendor negotiations, marketing, finance and client relations. Healy’s students could help with inventory (counting), marketing and selling (client relations), while the business students would handle the other areas.

“This enterprise will serve to develop a sense of unity across the student population while developing transferable skills,” reads the grant description.

“We don’t always have the opportunity for our students to work with the other students on a project so this is a really good project,” said Healy.

You can vote every day through November but Healy urges voters to make sure you take the extra step of verifying your vote (an email will be sent to you after you vote and you only need to click on the “verify” button). Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/LifeSkillGrant

Editor’s Note: My son, James, is in Fran Healy’s Life Skills class.

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Julie Powell
Julie Powell
November 10, 2014 7:37 am

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