Before a student ever greets a customer, rings up a sale or wraps up a craft, learning already has begun at the Jones Center in Granite School District.

It starts with sanding wood smooth, painting with intention and talking about quality and pricing — skills that translate far beyond the walls of the gift shop.

“We give students a lot of opportunity to try different things,” said Andrea Knapp, Jones Center gift shop transition specialist. “I make sure we talk about each skill like when they sand a project from start to finish, I ask, ‘Can you feel it? Does it feel smooth?’”

Jones Center students and staff help set up for the gift shop’s annual holiday sale. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

Students don’t rush through projects. Instead, they learn patience, repetition and pride in craftmanship. Mistakes are part of the process and lesson.

“When we paint, we talk about quality, not quantity. We learn to paint long strokes in one direction. We want to make sure they look nice and we try again if we need to,” she said.

Learning continues when products are priced and sold several times per year. Students talk about budgets, costs and reinvesting their profits back into the program.

“I try to make sure every student has a chance to do a sale,” Knapp said. “We load items into my van, then they take the bus to the District office, and they help me to unload. We set up displays for customers. Everyone has a different job. Some students help with money and bagging, others welcome people at the door and some restock; we all learn to work together as a team, but it’s taking blank wood from start to finish and having people buy what they make that gets them excited.”

A program focused on independence 

The Jones Center is home to Granite Transition Services, the District’s primary post-high school transition program. It serves about 90 students ages 18 to 22. Also housed there are 30 at-risk high school students and another 30 through Granite Peaks Adult Education.

“With our post-high program, we are training students to live as independently as possible,” said first-year Granite Transition Services Principal Michelle Searle. 

All transition students, called SCORE students, have an individualized education program and are working toward an alternate high school diploma or certificate of completion. 

“Abilities range; most of our students have intellectual disabilities,” she said. “We have students who are nonverbal, deaf or blind, and students with high-functioning autism who need more social communication.”

Despite those differences, students work together, even the at-risk students.

“They do well with our SCORE students. It’s a great opportunity to be with their disabled peers and help them,” Searle said.

Real-world learning

The Jones Center campus reflects real-world learning.

“We’re an archipelago of little buildings,” she said.

Those buildings house job sites that mirror future employment. Hospitality and culinary arts are central as students learn set-up, customer service and catering for meetings held on campus.

Students also learn behind-the-scenes skills.

“We have a full-service laundry; students learn to launder and press their own uniforms and tablecloths. We teach them these skills so they’re familiar and can do them all,” Searle said.

The culinary program includes a bakery, hot and cold kitchens and café. Students earn food handler permits and learn food safety and health standards.

At the bakery, they learn to make everything you can think of under the sun. People order items to take home and its especially popular with our holiday menus. People also come to our café where students can make and serve anything from a salad to a hamburger and fries,” she said.

Learning skills in the community

Students also work community job sites from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays at grocery stores, warehouse stores, America Red Cross and other local businesses.

Student Richy Chavez restocks freshly made baked goods at the Jones Center café. (Julie Slama/City Journals)

“They’re restocking shelves, hanging garments, stuffing hand-out bags, learning custodial skills—things they can apply to their lives,” Searle said.

Transportation is another part of their training toward independence.  

“We train our students how to use UTA so they can become more independent adults,” she said.

Daily lessons in adult living

Each morning begins with an hour-long adult living lesson and a class at the end of the day.

“They learn everything—budgeting, hygiene, workplace communication, even taxes,” Searle said.

Across the cul-de-sac sits a residential home which serves as a learning lab where students practice laundry, bed-making and cleaning.

“We need to make sure they’re prepared to live as independently as they can. We feel a huge responsibility to help them get to as close to that before they leave us,” she said.

Helping students now and in the future

Searle sees the program growing.

“We could definitely increase by 30%,” she said, adding there are two empty classrooms and community job sites could expand.

District administration also is looking to the future. 

“We hope to consolidate that program even further, perhaps at one of our closed elementary school sites so we can get them all under one roof,” said Granite School District Superintendent Ben Horsley, adding no decisions has been made nor timeline has been set. “The problem with the current location is you see a lot of relocatables (portable classrooms). It’s better for students to be under one roof. Jones Center has served us for a long, long time. Now that we have some other available facilities that could potentially provide services for them, we certainly want to take advantage of that.” Named after Hilda Jones, an assistant superintendent and director of special education, the Jones Center has served students since it opened in 1968. 

“We’re here to empower ability,” Searle said. “Our goal is to create independence our students need as adults. We want them to succeed and as we teach them those skills—painting a craft, baking a pie, pressing a tablecloth, riding UTA—they’re learning those skills toward independence.”