BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Stella Koenings and Peyton Emling opened their business for the second time on Thursday.

What You Need To Know

  • The Brookfield Academy Mini Economy started 25 years ago

  • Students in seventh and eighth grade set up a whole ‘real world’ simulation

  • They also design businesses, make a plan, and sell products to make income

  • The goal is to teach the students about the world outside of the school building

“The Camel Cat Cafe,” said Koenings. “It’s just something we made up as an inside joke, and we decided to name our business it.”

The Camel Cat Cafe can only be found at the Brookfield Academy Mini Economy on what is called a “Market Day.”

Their menu is small, but all the things they sell are home made. 

“We are selling mini donuts that are cake batter in a waffle maker, but the waffle maker makes mini donuts, and flavored popcorn that we made,” Koenings said.

The donuts were a brand new item for Thursday’s shop. They replaced cookie dough, which Koenings said didn’t sell well a few weeks ago.

“I’m both excited and a little nervous. As you can see, some of it spilled on the ride here in the bag,” Koenings showed Spectrum News 1’s Andrew Havranek. “I hope people will still buy them. They still taste really good. They look a little ‘eh’.”

Customers started showing up just after 2:30 p.m., ready to spend their peschos on whatever goods the students were selling.

A pescho is a coin currency used for the Brookfield Academy Mini Economy. They’re named after the head of the middle school when the program started around 25 years ago. 

It’s used for everything in the real-world simulation, from the market, to buying or renting lockers, and even paying taxes. 

The students owed one pescho to the “government” as a vending tax because of a law passed just before Thursday’s market opened. 

“It was passed about an hour ago,” said Augustus Jurgens, an eighth grader who collected that tax. “We needed to pass this law because since Covid really swept through us after Christmas break, a bunch of kids were gone so they couldn’t pay their taxes, and the government was actually going unpaid.”

The laws, the market, and the government are all developed by the students. 

As Jim Homan, the teacher who developed the mini economy 25 years ago, said, it teaches the students about actual life situations. 

“Really important basic things like pay yourself first, put aside a little bit of your own money, plan ahead so that when there is a disaster, you know when the car breaks down or when the washing machine breaks down, you’ve set something aside so you can handle that and that doesn’t become a disaster,” Homan said. 

And the hope is that these are skills the students will have long after they’re out of school.