FAIRMONT — Fairmont High School is in the process of creating a coffee cart that special education students will use to sell coffee to teachers and staff during the week.

Kristin Tietje, a special education teacher at the high school, said they are funding the endeavor through a STEM grant. Tietje wrote the grant for $1,500. It was approved and the money was used to purchase two coffee brewers, three airpots, a cart and the coffee.

She explained that in order to receive the grant, her project had to do with science, technology, engineering or math.

“For my students, it has to do with math,” Tietje said. “They will be doing all of the accounting behind it. The staff will be ordering coffee through technology. They will be getting a Google form and ordering it online, which will be sent to a spreadsheet. My students will print out the spreadsheet and have all the coffee orders for the morning.”

She said students will then need to calculate how much coffee to make. They will fill the airpots and collect how many creamers, sugars, flavored creamers and other special items requested by staff.

Before Tietje received the grant, she had to make sure there was enough interest in offering the service, so she sent out a survey. Within 24 hours, 48 staff members said they were interested.

The money received will go back into buying more product. Tietje said John Kasper, owner of Graffiti Corner in Fairmont, helped her figure out what she would need.

“He came in and trained my students on how to use our coffee brewers,” she said. “Even though I’ve worked in the restaurant industry in the past, I wanted a community member to come in and teach the kids. It’s fun to have a community connection.”

They will be using coffee grounds from Graffiti Corner.

As for coffee mugs, Tietje said they ordered tumblers for each staff member. Students from Bob Bonin’s mechatronics class will engrave the mugs.

“I had a design in mind and he sent a few students to me, and I showed them some Google images I had in mind, and they were able to put it all together. Each mug will have the teacher’s name on it,” Tietje said.

The metal tumblers will be Cardinal red and include the inscription “Cardinal Cafe.”

Tietje’s students will deliver the coffee the first hour of the school day. At the end of the day, they will go back around, collect the mugs and wash them.

Brad Johnson’s woodworking class will build vertical drying racks that the students will use after washing the mugs.

“I’m thinking we’ll start doing it two days a week to get the students used to it. We want it to be a special thing where staff gets to order Mondays and Fridays or something like that,” Tietje said.

She hopes to see the coffee cart rolling down the hallways after the start of the new year. She noted that the mechatronic class has many mugs to engrave.

Most of the special education students are integrated into some regular education classes but have Tietje for several hours per day. She said the students that need to learn entry-level job skills will run the coffee cart program.

In addition to working on math skills, the students will gain communication skills and learn about hygiene.

High school co-principal Jake Tietje recognizes the dual benefit of the new program.

“It’s a great opportunity for our students to connect with our staff and it’s something they can take pride in,” he said.