TUSTIN : Student Store Doing Land-Office Business

Business was brisk at the student store Friday as youngsters lined up to buy hot chocolate and doughnuts.

Home economics students were readying their daily cookie sale and, before the day was over, students expected to net at least $50.

Outside the fifth-grade earth-science classroom, a student was selling necklaces fashioned out of stones. She grabbed the day’s receipts from a box and happily flashed $56.

Over at the computer lab, students were designing business cards and greeting cards that could be sold at the student store, while students at an art class were designing rings and pendants for a local jeweler.

Welcome to Columbus Tustin Middle School, where the 900 or so students are learning to be entrepreneurs. Welcome to the school of the future.

“Relevancy is the big issue,” said Principal Robert Boies. “We want to make sure that what the students are learning is meaningful to their lives.”

The key, Boies said, is to build an “authentic learning environment” so that students learn in “real world” situations. As an example, he said, students will learn math better by keeping books for the student store and having a professional accountant check their work.

Boies said curriculum changes were started this school year when Columbus Tustin became one of 27 middle schools statewide to be designated a “demonstration school.” Under a state grant, each school will receive $105,000 annually for five years. The money will be spent to “restructure” each school into a “school of the 21st Century,” he said.

Boies said that at Columbus Tustin the centerpiece of the restructuring efforts is on student-run businesses. Among the businesses already started are the student store, a computer production company, a video production company, a cookie company, a publishing company and an arts enterprise.

In December, with an initial capital of $400, members of the student government converted a storeroom into the student store. The students conducted a market study to determine what products to sell.

The students did all the preparation, from working up a price list to scrubbing and painting the walls, Boies said. The store sells chocolates and doughnuts, pens, pencils, notebooks, candies and T-shirts.

Business has been so good, Boies said, that the school district has asked the students to limit selling food because it is luring away customers from the school cafeteria.

Sara Erickson, 14, an eighth-grader, was the first store manager. Another eight-grader, Robbie Flower, is the current manager. Six other students form a committee that helps run the store.

“I learned that it’s really hard to start up a business,” Erickson said. “There’s a lot of problems to solve and you do what you can.” However, she said she liked the experience and wants to set up her own business some day.

“I like being in charge. I like being the boss,” she said.

Students get on-the-job training in budgeting, sales, advertising, accounting and business management, said Jack Billings, a social studies teacher who is the store adviser. The proceeds will be used for field trips, to buy plaques and awards for students, and for athletic uniforms.

Although some of the businesses are making money, Boies said profit is secondary.

“We’re in the first year of the program, yet we have already realized some of our five-year goals,” he said.