Move over, Starbucks: Windsor High School library gets buzz |
On Board Online • November 19, 2012
By George Basler
Allen Stout starts his school day by handing out items to students and staff members who line up at a counter in the Windsor High School library.
Books? No, the 17-year-old senior is selling beverages and baked goods at the Blue Stone Café, a student-run coffee café located in his school’s library.
Borrowing a concept from Barnes & Noble and other retailers, Windsor Central School District officials opened the café three years ago in hopes of increasing traffic – and circulation – in the library.
“We wanted it to be the hub of the school,” said Jason Andrews, superintendent of the Broome County school district.
Coffee cafés have been popping up in school libraries nationwide, according to Susan Ballard, president of the American Association of School Librarians. No count is available, though.
Ballard acknowledged the idea of students sipping coffee and munching on muffins is quite a change from when she first started as a school district librarian in New Hampshire in 1975, when even bottled water near the stacks was frowned upon.
But Ballard said she has no problem with changes designed to make a school library a place where students feel more comfortable.
“From what I’ve heard anecdotally, to a person, everyone who has done this has a positive reaction,” she said.
That’s the case in Windsor, according to students and recent graduates.
“All the students are excited about the café,” said Rachael LaMantia, who managed the café two years ago and is now studying finance and accounting at Syracuse University. “It’s a cool thing to have in the library, and it‘s made the library a little more exciting.”
Creating the café was part of a larger initiative that involved upgrading the library’s collections, technology and e-books to have more materials that appeal to students’ tastes.
Besides marketing the library, Windsor school officials saw the Blue Stone Café as a place to give business students the opportunity to put classroom lessons to practical use.
“As a business teacher I’m always looking for authentic ways to teach the curriculum,” said Mary Jo Wardell, a business teacher and department chairwoman. “There‘s nothing more memorable than having them do the work themselves.”
Running the café is entirely the responsibility of students in the school’s entrepreneurship class as well as members of the Future Business Leaders of America club. They take shifts during their study halls and free periods. A student treasurer serves as manager, and others students are “back office staff” who deal with vendors and maintain inventory.
The café sells coffee, tea, hot chocolate, muffins, cookies, bagels, fruit and fruit drinks, and deliberately avoids selling donuts and high-calorie pastries. It opens after the breakfast period so as not to compete with the school cafeteria.
On a typical day, the operation attracts 125 to 150 customers during the business hours of 7:45 a.m. to 10:55 a.m. That’s a sale every 90 seconds.
“It’s always busy,” said Stout, the senior who handles the early wave of that clientele. “It gets a little crazy at times, but it’s a good crazy.”
The café is not intended to be a break-even operation, Wardell emphasized. She expects a profit, and so far the café has made one every year. The profits are pumped back into operations and into an account to provide scholarship money for students who work in the café. Last year, Wardell handed out $5,400 in scholarship money.
Students say they like the look of the café. The district’s art department designed and created wall murals and décor, and display space provides a prominent place for exhibits of student artwork.
The district used donations from local businesses to purchase the equipment and do plumbing and electrical work. Tompkins Bluestone Inc. donated tile which became the source of the name of the café, and Martino Tile installed it in a countertop and flooring.
School librarian Kari O’Donnell acknowledged she was initially skeptical about the idea, but she’s seen student traffic increase by 50 percent and circulation increase by 25 percent. And she‘s seen little disruption because the café is located within an enclosed space, behind glass doors. Now she encourages other schools to adopt the idea.
On a recent school day, some students sat at tables set up by the café while others brought their beverages and baked goods to desks inside the library. They sipped and munched while they studied or did research on computers.
“Of course some students do just hang out,” O’Donnell said. “But maybe they’ll pick up a magazine or book, and maybe I can rein them in.”
Some recent graduates are downright nostalgic about the café, especially those who worked behind the counter.
“I wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything,” Chris Stricek, who was the student treasurer of the café last year and is now a student at St. Francis College in Loretto, Pa. “Some of my best times in high school were in the café.”
George Basler recently retired from the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin, where he covered education. He now is a freelance writer for school districts in the Southern Tier.