By Joe Olenick<br><a href="mailto:joe.olenick@lockportjournal.com">E-mail Joe</a>
After a very successful first year, the Lockport High School Distributive Education Club of America is being rewarded.
On Tuesday, the Board of Education approved the establishment of an adviser stipend for the DECA club, which effectively makes it an official extracurricular activity for Lockport students. In the DECA program, students compete in business and marketing competitions, learning business fundamentals, as well as other skills such as public speaking.
“It’s getting kids excited about business,” Superintendent Terry Ann Carbone said.
The stipend is $1,000 for two advisers who will be sharing the position, teachers Jill DiTullio and Krista Beiter. DiTullio and business teacher Linda Connolly made a presentation about DECA to the school board Aug. 19. The teachers said DECA brings together skills from other classes besides business and fits with what students are learning.
“There is nothing in our curriculum that needs to be changed to enhance DECA,” DiTullio told the board.
In its first year, DECA had 62 members, including 30 who participated in the regional competition at Lewiston-Porter. From there, 18 students qualified for the state competition in Rochester, with 10 winning awards. Three students came within a point of advancing to the national competition in Louisville, Ky.
DECA competitive events included a written test, as well as different scenarios, such as coming up with a marketing plan or creating a radio commercial. Some scenarios had students explaining how to expand their business in a cost-effective way, or how to keep customers when a rival business opens nearby. Judges then score the students based on their performance.
Costs for being involved with DECA come to about $1,500 per student, but all funding except for the stipend comes from fundraising activities the club does. During its first year, fundraising events included the DECA members running a slushy machine and organizing a fashion show and a dance. The DECA members also participated in community service projects with the American Red Cross blood drive and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.
