Common Grounds has been a new thing for all of us. Whether you didn’t get to eat breakfast, or you have some time to hang out after school, the cafe is a cool place.  Since there was a lot of buzz in the cafe’s opening, I decided that it should be worth a story. 

I talked to a few different people.  Erin, a director at SAGE dining, has given me some information. Common Grounds was designed to be a study area for students to be able to charge their phones, computers, do work, and hang out, and the school could have some retail. The CFO, food services, old director Carrie Watts and Stephen Garry had the first idea of building the cafe.  As they say “team work makes the dream work.” They wanted the students to have a relaxing space.  The ideas were to make it modern,  have charging areas for kids’ computers and phones, and just have the ability to enjoy snacks in between classes.  I know that a lot of the seventh grade has really enjoyed being able to go there after school to get coffees.  After interviewing Erin, she told me that the coffee isn’t where it would be if it had sayed open through COVID, but they are almost there.  As staying open and preparing to open back up went, there was lots of work to do, including: flushing the water pipes, recreate the menu, and putting in furniture.  Training people, deep cleaning, and ordering food were also on the to do list. Ms. Erin said the best thing about the cafe was that she could take pride in having been a part of it, and having the students enjoy it.