Havre teacher wins donation, to be featured on KRTV

Havre Daily News/Nikki Carlson

Havre High School special education teacher Shaylee Lewis, center, shares her favorite childhood memories with her English class to help them come up with their own favorite childhood memories to write about in their journals Thursday afternoon. Lewis will be featured on KRTV Monday at 5:30 and 10 p.m. after winning the TV news station's One Class At A Time grant.

TV crews don't make a lot of appearances on the Hi-Line, but Havre High School special education instructor Shaylee Lewis recently caught the attention of CBS affiliate KRTV, from Great Falls, with a request.

Lewis applied for the TV station's "One Class At A Time" program, where KRTV and First Interstate Bank give $250 to one classroom every week during a school year.

Lewis' application was for a new espresso machine for the Blue Pony Espresso coffee shop run by her and students in her life skills class on Friday mornings. Then business grew beyond their expectations.

"It is a unique story, the kids are learning this great life skill, " Eric Schermele, a reporter for KRTV who did the story on Lewis' class, said. "Being up there was pretty cool too, just seeing a job for a little bit... really makes a difference. "

Lewis set up the coffee shop where her students rotate through four positions in the job and then get to keep the profits.

"The job skills the kids get out of having Blue Pony Espresso has been amazing, " Lewis said. "Customer service experience, being punctual, keeping things clean, learning if we made a bad coffee we learn customer service by making the customer another one; just things they need to know for their lives after high school. "

Managing the profits of the burgeoning business is a whole other life skill Lewis hopes to instill by helping the students put their earnings in a bank account and eventually work to budget a trip to Great Falls, thinking about gas, food and the prices of activities. Online shopping is another skill Lewis is covering.

"Studies show that if you learn in a natural environment, you hold onto those lessons better, " Lewis said.

Eric Schermele's story about Shaylee Lewis' class and the Blue Pony Espresso shop will air on KRTV on Monday's evening news at 5:30 p. m. and again at 10 p. m.