High 5 Heights Opens To High Fives

PALOS HEIGHTS, IL — Shoppers were lined up at the door Wednesday for the grand opening of CHSD 218’s High 5 Heights, a first-of-its-kind retail store that trains adult students with special needs who have graduated from Richards, Eisenhower and Shepard high schools.

No other school district in Illinois or anywhere else in the United States operates a full retail store and training center to provide the experiences for skill development, employment, personal and social growth, and the marketing of goods. The concept is precedent setting and should become a model for other adult transition programs in the United States, where students with special needs learn skills to equip them for independent lives.

Located in what was once a dry cleaners, High 5 Heights, or H5H, will operate two adjacent facilities at 12213 S. Harlem Ave. in Palos Heights. The first will provide job training in heat transfer press, laser engraving, embroidery, Cricut, graphic design, and other transferable work skills.

The second, High 5 Heights, will provide retail store training opportunities such as customer service, communication, and quality control. The store has hired its first two employees from Dist. 218’s adult transition services, which serves students aged 18 to 21 with special needs from Eisenhower, Richards and Shepard high schools.

H5H expands on High 5 Apparel, the business operated the last 10 years out of the adult transition program based in the Dist. 218 administration building, 10701 S. Kilpatrick Ave., Oak Lawn where students create products that are sold within their campus or at local craft fairs and pop-up shops.

More than 100 gathered for the ribbon cutting that included Robert Straz, mayor of Palos Heights, Dist. 218 administrators and school board members and dozens of community members who just wanted to shop.

Students in the adult transition program will order, inventory, SKU, display and participate in the sale of all products giving them training and experience in all aspects of retail sales and marketing.

ATP vocational coordinator Kerry McNicholas will manage the H5H store along with other District 218 staff members. Two graduates of ATP are the first employees hired to work at the facility.

Courtesy of CHSD 218

“This is truly a one-of-a-kind experience for our students with special needs and all of District 218, none of which could have happened without the encouragement and support of Superintendent Dr. Josh Barron and the Board of Education,” Dr. Sue Feeney said in a news release, Dist. 218 associate superintendent. “I feel truly blessed.”

Last year D218 Director of Special Education Kerri Piscitelli, and Feeney set out to find a site to expand the ATP training program. With Barron’s encouragement, they drove Dist. 218 neighborhoods to locate an appropriate property.

When they called the realtor to ask about the Harlem Avenue location, they discovered she already possessed a district connection as a parent of Shepard students, and herself a family business owner in Palos Heights. Their conversations would move the idea to reality.

With federal funding earmarked for special education, Piscitelli and Feeney began to create the reality for their students. Soliciting help from the District 218 Foundation, community architects, JP Architect, LLC, and Dist. 218 O & M staff, the newly leased spaces were renovated.
The genesis of H5H dates to the arrival of McNicholas in District 218 over a decade ago. While working for Chicago Public Schools she managed a similar program like High 5 Apparel.

With the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship curriculum as a guide, McNicholas and her colleagues developed a training program for retail entrepreneurship within District 218.

Students voted on the name “High 5 Apparel” a decade ago. Recently, they voted to add “Heights” to connote location as well as reaching new job training heights. They also voted to add the slogan, “H5H: Our products guarantee a high five!”

H5H will sell goods including custom clothing, seasonal décor, greeting cards, wood working, crochet, paintings and drawings, and much more, all created by ATP students and graduates.
The store also will carry goods created by adults with special needs who sell at a regional and national level. Half of the products will also be purchased from wholesale vendors and sold at H5H.

High 5 Heights, 12213 S. Harlem Ave., Palos Heights, will be open for shopping from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and most Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Right now the store carries a lot of holiday merchandise, but the inventory will rotate often with the seasons.