Click here to download a PDF of the Curriculum Quote. Below is the cover story. We featured the Irondequoit High School business department. Our students will be ready when the state makes financial literacy a graduation requirement.   

* * * * *
The summer before his junior year, Finn Schlaefer was excited. The Irondequoit High School student was a lifeguard at Seabreeze Amusement Park and earning his first decent paycheck. By that winter, though, he had a problem. He was running out of money. It was a major reason he wanted to take the Career & Financial Management course at IHS.   

“I’m a little smarter than I was a year ago,” the senior says, smiling. 

Every IHS graduate will soon feel the same way. 

Ensuring that students who earn a diploma are “financially literate” is one of two NYS Department of Education proposals projected to be graduation requirements by the 2026-27 school year. West Irondequoit students are well-positioned for success because of its dream team of business teachers. Mr. Lou DiCesare, Mrs. Jeanine Lent and Mrs. LaVon Bucciarelli have worked together for 17 years. 

“To see other people understand that what you’re teaching is as important as you’ve always thought it was, it’s kind of a career goal – and cool to watch happen,” says Lent, who joined the IHS staff 23 years ago. “We believe in what we’re teaching.” 

IHS offers 10 business classes: CFM, College Accounting, College Business, Entrepreneurship, Entertainment Business, E-Commerce, Personal Law, Personal Investing, Sports Marketing and Virtual Business Management.  

DiCesare has taught at IHS for 29 years and built what was a dormant Irondequoit DECA Club into a state power that annually sends multiple students to nationals. More important: It helps students find their path or passion.  

“We tell ‘em all the time, ‘It’s OK to go through this and come out saying that you don’t like business. That’s what part of high school is about,” DiCesare says. “But, how do you know if you don’t like something unless you try it?” 

Bucciarelli’s work as the IHS Career Connections Coordinator, a role she added a few years ago, ties in nicely, too. Dozens of work study students not only earn and learn while at IHS, many also find their next step in life, whether it’s college, the military or workforce. The teaching trio are DECA advisors. 

“I want to go into engineering and, because of DECA, the business side of it,” says IHS senior Luca Scott, adding that Career & Financial Management (CFM) “taught me everything I know. The things I learned, like filing my own taxes and college loans, I will use them the rest of my life.” 

Learning “life-ready” skills aligns with the district’s work in determining its “Portrait of a Graduate,” which included work by administrators, teachers and parents/guardians. Senior Tessa Coeny says CFM gives lessons in “common sense,” such as Finn’s budgeting issue – do you have more money coming in than you do going out? DiCesare makes that lesson prominent, introducing it to students as something they must do every month for the rest of their lives. “If you want to be successful, the earlier you get that knowledge, the better,” Coeny says. 

She is one of the 39 students – among 150 in DECA this year – who competed in DECA’s state championships in March. Her and classmate, Alley Armitage, teamed up in the “Start Up Business Plan,” category. To help students get ready, DiCesare orchestrated a live simulation in February at IHS. He invited 14 adults, including teachers, administrators and local businesspeople, to serve as “judges.” Students gave their timed presentations and benefited from the feedback. 

Judge Alex Amorese is a 2007 IHS graduate and now in commercial real estate. He is continually impressed by the creativity of today’s students and appreciates what DiCesare and Lent taught him. “Wouldn’t be where I am without them,” he says. 

And that’s the payoff, the teachers say, seeing students go on to lead happy lives. “The kids that don’t get a medal (at DECA competitions),” DiCesare says, “they still won because they learned.” 

“DID YOU KNOW?” 

Last November, the IHS Business Department’s excellence teaching financial literacy was recognized nationally by W!SE. Irondequoit was one of 29 schools to earn a new “Platinum Star School Award.” For the previous 12 years, IHS earned W!SE’s “Blue Star” honor.