The smell of freshly brewed coffee filled the air as Tucker High School exceptional education students tied their aprons and went to work making hot drinks for faculty members on a recent morning. Tavern On the Hill is the student-run coffee shop that has gotten a lot of buzz around Tucker High.

“Teachers love it,” said Angela Watson, an exceptional education teacher at Tucker. “We always get compliments on our great service.”

Every Wednesday and Friday students get to brush up on their social, customer service, and counting skills by hand-delivering coffee, apple cider, and hot chocolate to teachers around the school for 75 cents per cup. Teachers place orders with GoogleDocs, which allows the students to pick up some technological expertise.

“They have so few opportunities to learn functional skills,” Watson said. “So Dr. [Gwen] Miller, (Tucker's principal) came to us with this idea and we ran with it. It livens up the campus and gives the students a huge self-esteem boost. They take value in it and are so proud of their real-world job.”

Once students master jobs like grinding coffee and adding creamers, they “graduate” to more difficult jobs like delivering coffee to teachers or counting money.

Tavern on the Hill has also fostered community partnerships between the exceptional education classes and places like Chick-fil-A and Panache.