Aaron Maccarone, located in room 67, is a Big Sky teacher involved in the school’s vocational education program. 

Vocational education helps mentally and physically disabled students prepare themselves for the future and helps them find future occupations. There are about 25 kids a part of the program in total this year at Big Sky, according to Maccarone. About 20 to 25 kids are in his class, and students involved also work with another teacher, Jeff Boespflug, to learn hands-on job skills. 

Through voc ed, Maccarone specifically is in charge of monitoring students making and selling popcorn, and of the red vending machines around the school known by many for having a variety of energy drinks, like Monster and Reign. 

On a recent day in Maccarone’s class, students prepared the popcorn machine by filling the kettle with butter before adding the kernels, and after it was done being made, they put most of the popcorn in plastic bags to be sold.  Some of the popcorn was also put in paper bags for personal consumption. 

For Maccarone and his students, vending machine options at Big Sky have been changed recently and replaced with diet or zero sugar options, which many students have been very upset with. Not only have students been upset, but Maccarone said he doesn’t fancy these new changes either.  

“Sales have gone down drastically,” Maccarone said. 

However, this is not a problem entirely due to those classes to be not about profit but being about a “self-sustaining business model,” Maccarone said. 

The reason for this vending machine product change is a national program called Smartsnack, which includes new guidelines made by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, according to the program website. The new guidelines restrict what schools are allowed to sell based on how many calories the food and beverages have, how healthy they are, and how big the serving size is.

However, these new changes haven’t stopped Maccarone from being able to run the vending machines or sell popcorn. 

Besides  Maccarone’s voc ed class,  Boespflug is known for helping students make and sell merchandise specifically for Big Sky. 

The way he and his students make it all, whether it’s a shirt or a water bottle, is that Boespflug uses different machines for different items. 

For shirts or clothing, he uses a heat press to apply any images he wants on clothing, he said. For everything else,  whether it’s wood or metal, he uses a laser engraving machine to apply whatever design he wants or that is ordered. When asked about Big Sky’s voc ed program, Boespflug said  that “compared with the other schools, we definitely have the biggest voc ed program.”  

When asked why vocational education is important, Maccarone said, “[it helps] not by giving them actual jobs but instead gives [students] the skills they need to be and stay employed.”