The Oskaloosa Community School District is planning to open what it’s calling the Oskaloosa Spirit Cafe on the downtown square in an effort to foster entrepreneurship and empower students with special needs.
Sarah Deronde, a special education teacher at the high school, says the ultimate goal is to provide opportunities for all students to thrive and offer a meaningful contribution to society.
“It started off as kind of a dream for placement for my special education students, to give them the skills they need to get into our community, find jobs, get the skills that they need to be successful, create more sustainability in our community, those kinds of things,” Deronde says, “and it’s kind of just grown from there.”
Employment will be open to all students as well as to adults in the community with special needs who want to learn skills, from basic jobs all the way up to management. Deronde hopes to get culinary arts students involved in the cafe as well.
“We have a full industrial kitchen,” she says, “but what we offer now will be a very simple coffee, so you can get a cup of coffee or tea, but it’ll have some brunch-lunch options, so some breakfasts, and some basic lunch stuff, like sandwiches, soups, salads.”
The walls of the cafe will be a showcase for student art, and there will also be a “service wall” where students and others can advertise their talents, from making t-shirts to mowing lawns.
“We have a young lady who potentially will be starting and opening her own shredding company,” Deronde says. “She has very limited usage of her arms, but one thing that she enjoys doing is shredding papers, and so we will advertise that for her.”
The cafe will be having several soft openings in the months to come so students can get comfortable in their new roles, with the goal of a grand opening sometime this summer.