Our Story

We are The Academy of Business and Culinary Arts. We have been one of the four academies here at The Academies of Racine - Horlick since its inception five years ago. In that short amount of time, we have gone through two Academy Principals, four School Counselors, two Academy Team Leads and more than several Pathway Teachers. While we have been through our fair share of growing pains, we now feel that we have the right people in the right positions to be able to move our Academy and our students forward in a positive, career-centered way.

We house four distinct career pathways in the Academy of Business and Culinary Arts; Culinary, Accounting, Business, and Marketing. Our Culinary program is headed by Jessica Malacara. Ms. Malacara has been with us at the Academies of Racine - Horlick for the past 3 years, has been a teacher in the district for the last 6 years, and has worked in Racine Unifed for the last 13 years. With Ms. Malacara officially stepping into the role as our Culinary pathway teacher this year, her goals for the Culinary program are to give her students the culinary skills that they will be able to use both at home and in the workplace. In addition, she strives to incorporate into all her classes the soft skills that students will need to gain and maintain employment.

“I would like to see all my students with either a job in culinary or I would

like to help them go into higher education.” - Jessica Malacara

Our Accounting, Business, and Marketing pathways all begin with the same Level I classes of Business Seminar and Computers for Professionals. These classes serve as a foundation for the learning that goes on in the upper level courses for all three respective pathways. Marisa Dawson heads our Business pathway, teaching both those foundational courses as well as our Level II Business classes. Having previously been a Freshman Seminar teacher in the Freshmen Academy, Ms. Dawson is able to bring a unique perspective and approach to her role as a pathway teacher.

“Our Business pathways offer skills that are transferable to any type of

career since all companies need a business office to run their

business.” - Marisa Dawson

Meg King and Keith Cruise round out our pathway teacher team, each having joined us midway through the 2020-2021 school year. Even though they have only been a part of our Academy for a short time, they have already made a massive impact. Both Mrs. King and Mr. Cruise have been instrumental in moving forward the creation of an Educators Credit Union branch here at The Academies of Racine - Horlick, as well as getting the school store back up and running. Both should prove to be excellent experiential learning opportunities for many of our Accounting, Business, and Marketing students. Students and staff can expect that ECU branch to be competed by January of 2022.

“My focus/vision is to create real life experiences through things like

the school store and the new Educators Credit Union Branch, for my

students to incorporate the marketing and business fundamentals. And my

end goal is to create a “buzz” for students to pursue this line of work

after high school.” - Meg King

As a whole, we in The Academy of Business and Culinary Arts, are looking towards the future. Our Culinary, Health and Horticulture teachers are in talks with community partners in hopes to a way for become self-sustainable and adopt a “farm to table” program that will allow our culinary students to be a part of the entire growing, prepping and cooking process of how food gets to our tables everyday. And as our highly anticipated school store and Academies of Racine - Horlick branch of Educators Credit Union come to fruition this year, our Business, Accounting, and Marketing students will have the opportunities to be involved in the day-to-day operations of real life businesses that experience cash flow in and out.

We firmly believe that when adequately engaged and challenged, all students can and will succeed. And we believe that the experiences students will get throughout their time in The Academy of Business and Culinary Arts will only serve to further both their academic and career goals.