As students walk into the cafeteria, they can smell all sorts of different foods. The Youth Entrepreneurs of Kansas (YEK) class sells items for Market Day.
In previous years, the YEK students made a profit from Market Day.
“It has been a cash business only. YEK provides cash to the teacher and then shares that money and provides that money in the form of loans to the students,” YEK teacher Matt Childers said. “The students use that cash to purchase their goods and then sell them and any profit they keep after they use it to pay back their loans.”
This year, students were required to put the leftover money into a YEK account. Childers spoke to Superintendent Matt Ward and Director of Finance and Budget Dale Nuckolls about money management related to Market Day.
“There are regulatory concerns related to certain cash and this is a cash-intensive project,” Childers said. “Beyond that, there are regulatory and statutory concerns that they have related to students making a profit or making money while at school as part of the class.”
Senior Kayla Houghtaling is frustrated that she does not receive any profit from Market Day.
“This is very frustrating because we worked hard and now we are getting no profit,” Houghtaling said. “I was going to use some of the leftover money to buy Christmas presents for my family.”
Seniors Grace Kaufman and Jenna Litton chose their product based on a discount opportunity at Chick-Fil-A.
“We knew that if we chose that we would have a better opportunity of making more of our profit back,” Kaufman said.
Since the new money rule was put in place,Kaufman tried to find the brighter side of the new situation.
“It sucks because it feels like it kind of got ripped away from us but I mean, it’s still nice to be able to bring the food here and experience everybody buying all our food and stuff,” Kaufman said.
Childers’ YEK class focused on business plans and some crash course marketing, in order for students to find success in their Market Day sales.
“I don’t think that students and faculty will see a difference as far as this semester’s Market Day,” Childers said. “The goal of my students is that this is the best Market Day ever.”
