Posted: Jan. 19, 2010

Brown Deer — With 17 fruit smoothies to make, orders for coffee and hot chocolate coming in via email, messenger, or from the occasional staff member who stopped by, the Falcon Café was busy during the first teaching block of the day at Brown Deer High School on a recent morning.

Three students counted and bagged fruit for individual smoothies, while others filled the remaining beverage orders. Because of the amount of work, two para professionals, Catrina Brooks and Annette Lloyd, worked on the large smoothie order.

The Café, opened in late October, is an example of one way that local school districts used federal stimulus money for education. The renovation and upgrade of what was once the school store and more recently office space cost $78,000.

The Café, built with the assistance of BSI, incorporates as many green features as possible in its design. It is a functional work-training area. With a large work table, a raised counter with stools, a refrigerator, sink, coffee pots, and a front-loading washer and dryer, the café and its student workers churn out more than drinks.

Creating jobs for training

"I am a great believer in jobs," said special education teacher Karen Herda. "But with the economy, the availability of jobs and cuts in the (district) budget, we devised jobs within the district."

Herda has eight students in her class.

"They are older teens and we work to maintain academics but they need to learn how to work," Herda said.

She divided the class into two work groups based on math skills. The groups alternate working in the café. The service-oriented work started with the basics.

"They need to be able to have a conversation, make eye contact with the teachers who come to the café," Herda said.

They also need to be able to count, read and follow directions, and prepare a variety of beverages. The café also offers muffins, purchased at Sam's Club and warmed in a microwave.

"We just finished the smoothie unit," Herda said. "They had to be able to show me they can make a smoothie."

Cory Christian has the recipe down pat.

"You take the fruit you want, put in the yogurt and the juice in the blender," he explained.

The yogurt is plain, the juice is orange, he further explained.

Herda said classroom teachers are allowing students to buy a smoothie as a reward for getting a project done on time or some other classroom milestone. There are lots of flavors, from strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, mango, pineapple and banana to various combinations of the fruits.

The washer and dryer are not only used for café laundry but for the boys' basketball team uniforms and towels, a job the students took over this winter. They also produce all the identification cards for all students and staff in the district and spend several days a week in the Administrative Services and Middle School offices where they help with mailings or other work.

Funds maintain special education

Director of Pupil Services Jim Hecht said the money used on the café was only a portion of the roughly $354,000 of federal stimulus money that came into the district for the school year.

"Between $160,000 and $180,000 was used to reduce our maintenance of effort requirement," Hecht said.

The state requires the district to spend at least as much as it spent in the previous budget for special education unless there has been a big change in the needs of the district, such as a student with higher needs leaving. Most of that money was used for salaries, to maintain positions that could have been cut in the district budget.

Hecht said high school special education students in the past have had work experiences at Culver's and Alexian Village but transportation to Alexian proved to be an obstacle.

"If we had a dedicated person for transition activities, we would be able to do more," Hecht said.

At a glance

Federal stimulus money in other school districts:

Fox Point-Bayside: ARRA Funds for Title 1, $56,356, used for reading materials and training, literacy assessment and other items; other ARRA Funds, $293,432, used for teachers, computers, SMART boards for five classrooms, professional training, augmentative communication devices and more.

Glendale-River Hills: ARRA Funds for Title I, $68,000 used for two reading para-professionals; $195,000 in Special Education federal ARRA money split between staff (three para-professionals), special education materials, and active boards.

Mequon-Thiensville: $854,334 in ARRA Special Education funds, used in part for salaries, purchase of iPhones to assist students in transition programs

Maple Dale-Indian Hill: $13,804 in Title I ARRA funds - for instructional materials and student intervention; $252,450 in ARRA Special Education funds, noncapital/capital supplies, staff development, speech and language student services

Nicolet School District: ARRA Special Education funds of $303,668, used for salary and benefits for special education staff

Shorewood: Title 1A, computers and software for students to enhance reading skills; professional development for teachers to improve intervention skills in reading and math; improve parent skills for assisting their students in reading and math; use of MAP testing to assess progress of students and guide instruction; computers and software to enhance reading skills, $85,582; salary and benefits for a special education teacher and aide, computers, software, tuition and more for special education students, $361,777, ARRA funds provide substitute teachers for teachers' professional development time

Whitefish Bay: $291,000, tuition for special education students to be placed in appropriate educational placements, supplies and materials, equipment and salaries and fringes for special education aides