Staff at Burrell Middle and High Schools have access to an exclusive coffee shop every Friday. But this is no ordinary café. This one is run by students with special needs.

By day, Rodney Schafer works in maintenance at Burrell School District. But as soon as the school day ends, he sheds his maintenance moniker and steps into the role of rocketry instructor, a title he’s held at the district for 16 years.

Along with all the usual excitement of a new school year, students at Stewart Elementary and Huston Middle Schools had an additional change to be excited about — new Chromebooks.

Students in grades 4 to 6 received the Chromebooks on the first day of the school year, and they’ve been using them in the classroom ever since.

As the Food Service Director for Burrell School District, Andrew Klipple is using his previous experience as a chef to provide healthier and tastier options for students throughout the district.

One of his biggest challenges is following the guidelines set by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which restricts the use of sodium, mandates increases in whole grain, and governs how many calories, vegetables, fruits, and protein each grade should have per meal.

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is an important new methodology backed by 30 years of research that reduces anxiety and aggression in students while also increasing focus and attendance. When educators are well-versed in SEL, this creates a loving and safe environment in the classroom to foster students' abilities to learn.

To help his middle and high school STEM teams get more career experience, Huston Middle School science teacher Shaun Reddick decided to think outside of the box.

About 10 years ago, he got in contact with Catalyst Connections, a local consulting and training services firm. They were starting a project that paired schools with manufacturing companies to give kids a taste of what it's like to work in the field.