“The coffee shop is our classroom,” stated Linda Loughner, an 11-year special education job coach at P-T. “The typical student is just collateral for our students to learn.”
The shop is run by P-T High School students who struggle to learn in a typical high school environment. By working at the coffee shop they are able to learn life skills at a pace they can understand while also working on social skills. The students all have an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) that states what different skills they might need to work on and then staff, like Loughner, help students master these skills.
“My favorite part about working in the coffee shop is to learn new things, working with my co-workers and being able to be a cashier,” stated Arnie Wade, a three-year veteran worker of the shop.
Students can be placed to work in the coffee shop for anywhere from one to four periods depending on their schedule and what skills they might need to improve on. While inside the coffee shop, students can work on life skills such as taking orders, socializing and handling change. The teachers help out to do their best in putting these skills to the test. In fact, everything within the shop is designed to help nurture those skills, including the prices.
“Everything we do in the shop is seen as a learning opportunity,” stated Loughner. “For example, the reason the cookies are 60 cents is to force the cashier to recognize a quarter, nickel and a dime.”
The coffee shop is located in the Media Center
The coffee shop is operated as a classroom, though not thought of as one typically by most students. The students working within the shop have grades they are given for working and it is handled like a classroom with different expectations and goals. On top of these grades, students working also get paid one dollar for every “shift” or period they work. The workers will then get a paycheck with the money they earned so they work on understanding a paycheck.
“I like to work both mornings and afternoons because I get to do the ‘speed round’ (busiest time of the day) in the morning and be a cashier in the afternoon,” stated Wade.
All in all, the coffee shop helps students with disabilities get working experience and the chance for a headstart in later years with jobs. In fact, they offer some students a chance at a job in the high school cafeteria after they have graduated to guarantee them a job after P-T.
If they do not get a student a job within P-T, they will watch over the student at whatever job they get post-high school for a couple weeks to make sure they are settled and set up for a possible career there.
“I ask myself the question of are they really going to use skills needed for social studies or chemistry, ” stated Loughner. “They [special needs students] need everyday job skills.”
On top of being a great experience for disabled students the coffee shop is a great place for the rest of the school and the staff of the shop is always trying to improve their customer experience with things like adding items to the menu. Their most recent addition was PopChips, which is an additional gluten-free option. They also added an electronic menu board which they said was much easier to update when they have a menu change.
“The coffee shop has changed many students from having a negative connotation of special needs students to wanting to come down and see them,” stated Loughner. “My students just want to fit in, and this has let them feel that.”
By Mia Williams