MILL CREEK — Room 104 at Henry M. Jackson High School is not just a spot where high-functioning special-education students learn math, reading and writing.
It’s a place where they get to see firsthand how the three R’s can make them some money.
Students in Emily Sisson’s classroom opened a balloon business last week, thanks in part to a $500 grant from the Everett Public Schools Foundation.
The Floating Forward Balloon Shop is a chance for Sisson’s students to gain job skills in the classroom and figure out how to make a buck.
They cheerfully greet customers and write down orders, ring up the charges on a cash register, blow up colorful balloons with a helium tank, build their airy bouquets and deliver them each afternoon.
Money will be invested back into supplies and spent to pay for field trips.
“I wanted to increase positive interactions between special-education and general-education students,” Sisson said. “Something like this definitely helps in a high school environment. I think there will be a better understanding.”
Her students are taking their new responsibilities seriously.
“I’ve always wanted to own my own business,” said Nick Lavera, 17, a Jackson senior. “This is good life skills.”
“We actually get to do business with real money,” said Anna Cochrane, 17, another senior, after putting a $5 bill into the register. “It’s really cool.”
It’s still a learning process. At one point, Cochrane stepped a few paces back while Lavera was pumping up a purple balloon. She had already been startled earlier in the day when a balloon was overfilled.
“I heard one pop and it was very loud,” she said, putting her hands near her ears.
The students are also learning to use tools and cooperate with one another. Consultation and compromise are part of the job — for example, debating whether a silver balloon is a better color match for a bouquet than an orange one.
Lavera and Cochrane eagerly took an order from English teacher Heidi Simmons, who stopped by to order a birthday balloon bouquet last Thursday. Lavera took notes, asking a series of questions, while Cochrane poked buttons on the register.
“I am really excited for (Sisson) and her kids,” Simmons said. “They worked hard to get it going.”
With the business up and running, Jackson students and teachers won’t need to leave the campus to order a gift marking birthdays, anniversaries, graduation, sporting events or plain old friendships.
Jacob Schamer, a senior in basic education classes at the school, believes the students in Room 104 have found a successful niche.
“It’s pretty much standard to see a girl walking down the hall with balloons in hand,” he said. “There is kind of a balloon culture here.”
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.
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