Before the grand ceremony began, DECA teacher Lee Geffert announced he would be naming the DECA student of the year. Holding the plaques, he called senior DECA president Thatcher Bartlett to the front of the room. Geffert started listing out reasons why Bartlett won the award, a big part being his role in launching an official school store. Bartlett was in disbelief but happy to be recognized for his dedication and leadership in the club.

“I’ve been wanting to get that for the past three years,” Bartlett said. “To finally have that felt really good after.”

Last Wednesday, Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) held a grand opening ceremony for the first school store called “The Roost,” which has been open for business ever since.

DECA built the retail store at the intersection of C and E halls downstairs and merged it with their food-based store called “The Perch”.

Principal Chris Choat, assistant principal Bill Parker, Bartlett’s family members, the CTE department, district officials, DECA members and teachers around campus attended the opening ceremony.

Geffert said he decided to give the DECA student of the year award before the ceremony, because he wanted to acknowledge Bartlett’s role in launching the store with his family there.

“I thought it would be a good opportunity to shock him and give him a big surprise that he wasn’t ready for,” Geffert said.

Geffert said the ceremony was a really special occasion, especially because they got to honor everyone’s part in making the store a reality along with providing the opportunity for students to have one.

Bartlett said he felt very accomplished and proud at the ceremony. He is also very excited to teach the underclassmen how to run the store and pass down his legacy to them when he graduates.

“It provides a sense of achievement that a high schooler was able to make this giant store and this giant impact on his high school,” Bartlett said.

The ceremony had two ribbon cutting events. Bartlett cut the ribbon to open the Roost side of the store, where merchandise is sold. Choat and Parker cut the ribbon to open the Perch side, where food is sold.

After the ribbon cutting, Bartlett gave a tour of the store and explained how it will be operated, how the machines work and answered any questions the guests had about the store.

Choat said having a school store that’s open all day will be a “game-changer”, because they now have an official place where people can get RHS gear.

Bartlett said he was super excited that they were even able to do the grand opening because of the delays with construction. The biggest setback was when they found a four foot brick wall they didn’t anticipate. Because the building is so old, there were no blueprints from its original construction, and they assumed the wall was concrete. They ended up getting a special permit to cut through the wall which delayed the store’s completion to the end of the school year.

“It was long awaited, but overall, it went really, really well,” Bartlett said.

Choat said whenever an outside company has to work during the school time, the construction typically ends up getting delayed to the summer. The fact they got the store open during the year was a huge victory to him.

Next year will be the Roost’s first year of operation, with plans to produce shirts for most RHS clubs, organizations and sports teams. In year two, they aim to handle all RHS apparel. By the third year, they hope to run the store full time and begin accepting outside orders in addition to serving the school.

Bartlett said he really hopes the store grows in the following years. He’s been training DECA and entrepreneurship students on how to run the store. He said they’ve done an awesome job of learning what each machine does, how well each process goes and what to do for every step.

“I’m hoping that they can take that and lead other classmates and other class members who will be working in the store,” Bartlett said.

The Roost’s first official order was making shirts for Architecture club. They will start taking student orders next year after they figure out all the “knickknacks” such as how to print in the highest quality and how to avoid any potential mistakes.

Next year, the Perch is expected to be more speciality-based and they will heavily focus on their free days where they can sell Chick-Fil-A sandwiches instead of the sliders. But they will still sell cookies and sliders on Tuesdays through the Perch’s door.

Bartlett said the Roost’s expected revenue in the next two to three years is about $300,000 a year. He really hopes they will achieve that by taking orders for the districts, community and people in the Dallas area.

“But we have to start somewhere,” Bartlett said. “And right now we’re starting within the school, doing small orders and really building up who we are first.”