Class offers hands-on experience

Kaylin O'Brien waiting on customer Erin Boyle at the student store. photo by Rongi Yost

Some Sisters High School students are getting first-hand business experience in a new class taught by business teacher Bill Blevins.

The class is called The Outlaw Outpost Student Store.

Students are split into groups and manage different areas and departments within the store at the new high school.

Duties range from accounting, inventory control, pricing and profit margin to promotion, advertising and keeping the web page current.

Senior Kaylin O'Brien agreed to take on the managerial role for the entire school year and has found it to be a huge undertaking. Kaylin works at the store every day after school and helps keep things running during the morning break time for students. She also takes care of all the ordering.

Customers will find an assortment of items in the Student Store from food and espresso to apparel. Hats, T-shirts, sweatshirts and sweatpants are on display in various colors and styles.

Another of O'Brien's duties is to schedule the shifts that the students are required to work.

"There's a big time accountability in showing up for your shift," said Kaylin. "If a kid doesn't show up for their shift they get a zero and it affects their grade, plus the other kids get mad."

Every day it's O'Brien's responsibility to get the rest of the students moving on their assigned jobs.

"Many times I'm bombarded with questions," she said. "Where's your keys? Can I change my schedule? Where does this go? Can I write an IOU?"

O'Brien admitted it's overwhelming at times, but also a lot of fun.

O'Brien has seen the business go from being in the red to a business that is making money.

"It's actually a working business," said O'Brien. "We started at zero and now we're in the black and doing pretty good. But it's been really hard! It's so frustrating making a profit and then realizing you need more supplies. Or, even worse, something breaks and we have to pay to get it fixed and that sends us right back into debt."

Just a few weeks ago the store's espresso machine broke and the store really felt the hit. Both teachers and students were getting used to having an espresso machine available to them and were becoming regular customers.

"When the espresso machine broke it was hard on all of us in the class," said O'Brien. "It was a big letdown. We were used to making big deposits and excited to be getting out of debt. The breakdown caused us a huge drop in sales."

The espresso machine is up and running again and sales from lattes, chai tea and more are back.

Manager O'Brien is learning much from the experience and hopes it will help her in the future as she plans on majoring in business next fall at OSU.

"I want to do something that will help small busi- nesses in Oregon to succeed," said O'Brien.

Shoppers can visit the store online to view the products by accessing Outlawnet.com; click on Go Local under Sisters Schools.

Follow the links to the high school's main page, click on Business Department and then on Outlaw Outpost.