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SALINEVILLE – From running their first business to learning the building blocks of literacy, the oldest and youngest students at Southern Local School District are enjoying new opportunities with the help of Best Practices Grants from the Jefferson County Educational Service Center. The board of education accepted three grants of $700 each during their Nov. 11 board meeting.

JCESC Director of Curriculum Ron Sismondo recognized the three educators.

“Congratulations to those three and to your great teaching staff,” he said. Sismondo added Southern Local educators were valued participants in training such as studying state benchmarks during a recent Language Arts, English and Math collaboratives. “I appreciate what they do.”

Jessica Coleman is a prior JCESC Best Practices grant recipient from several years ago, when the grant allowed her to start a sensory area in the elementary school. Now at the high school, she and her Life Skills and Career-Based Intervention students have kicked off the Wigwam CafÈ to serve up hot and iced coffee and other beverages as well as snack items. Her students have taken the lead, building a range of skills including handling money and customer service and customer relations that will serve them well upon graduating. The cafe stands to benefit students throughout the district.

“They’ve done a ton of work already,” she said. “They came up with everything.”

The cafe has enjoyed a successful opening during a lunch and a parent/teacher conference. Students look forward to operating it during public events. In the future, they hope to include products from local businesses on the menu.

The profits will go to keeping the coffee shop running, and to offset the cost of other life skills projects like cooking or sewing.

“Using the grant money will allow us to purchase things to make it a little more long-term,” she said. Coleman said they conceived the idea while thinking of ways to serve while raising funds for other projects.

“The kids are really excited about running it. They worked really hard. They had a great time. A lot of the other students were excited about buying the items.”

For now, the cafe is open monthly, but word is spreading and students hope to open it daily or weekly.

“I look forward to seeing what the kids are going to do with it.”

Meanwhile, Tiffany Scheel at the junior/senior level of high school accepted a grant to bring in new math tools to benefit 125 students with 24 Ways to Think: A Math Fluency and Strategy Project.

About 125 students stand to benefit.

“I’m really excited to have received the grant this year. I first learned about the 24 Game from a former colleague whose son participated in a competitive school group, and I’ve wanted to bring a similar program to our students ever since, one that encourages math fluency, strategic thinking, and number sense through friendly competition,” Scheel said.

“My plan is to hold weekly math challenge sessions using 24 Game cards,” she said.

In these sessions, students will practice mental math, problem-solving, and teamwork in both individual and small-group settings. She said the activities are designed to improve computation speed, reasoning, and collaboration in a fun, low-pressure environment.

“The program also fills an important gap: some students who aren’t drawn to athletics don’t always have an activity where they can shine, and the 24 Game gives them a space to succeed, compete, and build confidence.”

Scheel said the 24 Game cards are reusable and adaptable across grade levels, with lasting benefits for classroom instruction and enrichment.

At the elementary school Tracey Richards was awarded a grant for her project to enhance language and literacy among the preschoolers. She has added oral language and phonological awareness activity bundles and sounds and letters activity bundles to her students’ classwork. About 20 preschoolers stand to benefit annually. Her project includes activities like alphabet trains, rhyming games, and storytelling boxes.

“Preschool age kids learn best through play, and these activities are giving us that tool to help us do that,” she said. “They’ll benefit in a lot of different ways. They’ll get it during whole group instruction, small group instruction, during their learning centers.”

The activity bundles have tools and exercises to encourage preschoolers to think more deeply about stories. One of the activities involves children using a storytelling board to fit events in a narrative in order.

Richards is a prior Best Practices grant recipient. Several years ago, funding enabled her to obtain STEM kits for her preschoolers. She is grateful for the opportunities the grant has provided.