Food Truck Business: Byron High School Awarded Bush Foundation Grant

Byron High School was awarded a $45,000 Bush Foundation Grant to help reimagine the purpose and focus of school to meet the needs of all students in today’s world. This work is operated by 2Revolutions, a national education design lab, in partnership with the Bush Foundation. 
 
The grant will support the creation of a self-sustaining business within Byron High School to provide students with authentic applied learning experiences in running and maintaining their own business. The food truck business will be a collaboration between the Business and Family and Consumer Science (FACS) departments and will give students an entrepreneurial and culinary experience in the food truck business.
While the Business and FACS departments will oversee the food truck business, other departments have also indicated an interest in providing support. The Agricultural department has a greenhouse that we will be able to use to grow fresh vegetables and herbs. The Industrial Technology department will help maintain our equipment.  Several community members will donate time and money to help with this opportunity. 
Teacher and co-author of the grant, Ryan Radke shared, “I’m beyond excited for our District, our students, and the people of Byron. It is going to be a great experience for everyone involved. I can’t wait to get started with fellow teacher Josh Benards as he will be working along with me on the business side. Also, we will include many other departments in this adventure including Agriculture, Art, and Industrial Technology. Thanks to all of those who’ve helped this ‘Dream’ become a reality.”
 
The School Design for Individualized Learning mission is in developing educational systems that help kids reach their full potential. Byron superintendent Dr. Joey Page believes that the idea aligns very well with Byron’s strategic priority of personalizing learning for all students in pursuit of their academic excellence. This idea has the potential not only to impact our students and our community but can be a prototype that can be used on a larger scale-within other departments, and especially school districts across rural America. Creating startup businesses not only provides students with real-world “résumé-ready” learning experience but could, long-term, lead to an increase in growth and economic development in rural communities. Students will be equipped with the design thinking methodologies and foundational knowledge of running their own business, and we desire to foster and grow our nation's next generation of entrepreneurs.
 
Byron Public Schools is coordinating focused work on the power and potential of individualized learning models and supports learning experiences anchored in the following principles:
•       Deep, Individualized Learning — in which students learn in ways that match how they learn, who they are and where they aspire to go in life. Students receive academic content when and how they need it to move forward in their learning.
•       Commitment to Student Agency — learning experiences that promote and build student agency and ownership of learning.
•       Authentic Experiences & Assessment — that embrace learning experiences and assessments of understanding that are interesting, engaging and connected to the real world.
•       Tech “Enabled” — schools understand that learning is supported by technology, but “tech” by itself is not the solution to developing innovative and individualized learning experiences.
•       Serving All (Equity) — with a strong commitment to serving all learners.
 
School Design for Individualized Learning is designed to help achieve this goal by giving educators a unique opportunity to develop and implement individualized learning plans in their schools.  The guiding goal for the Bush Foundation’s education initiative is to be a national leader in providing individualized education that meets the abilities, backgrounds, and aspirations of all students.  School Board Chair, Sharon Kreitinger stated, “What a phenomenal opportunity we have here. The shared mission of The School Design for Individualized Learning and Byron Public Schools will further expose our students to expand upon and learn real life/applicable skills that are needed for success in whatever career path they choose.  I am very excited to see this idea come to life as we watch our district, staff, students and community work together to make it a reality.”
 
2Revolutions is a national education design lab striving to transform the American education system. They work with entrepreneurial leaders and practitioners within K12 and Higher Education to design, build and implement new learning models and help catalyze the enabling systems that prepare students for success in the future.