Like school districts across the country, the Northwest district, just outside St. Louis, has been limping through the year with too few custodians, food-service and childcare workers. Then its leaders hit on a new, COVID-driven idea: they hired students to fill those jobs.
The district organized a job fair in early November, publicizing the event with announcements on the public-address system, and with emails sent to every student in 10th grade or older. In a room off the high school’s cafeteria, about 25 students sat at tables with district officials. Some were “interview-ready, articulate and confident,” while others were nervous and stammered a bit, said Kim Hawk, the district’s chief operating officer.
Nearly all got jobs. Northwest hired 20 students to work part-time, filling the nine positions it had open in maintenance, food service and before- and after-care. The teenagers started their jobs last week. Now the district is drawing notice for trying a new tactic to manage one part of the staffing shortage that’s hobbling districts nationwide.
“It’s funny that this would be innovative,” said Northwest Superintendent Desi Kirchhofer. “It’s a solution that’s been there all along: students. But we didn’t think about it before. Now we have to think differently.”
Emily Downs is one of the students hired to do custodial work. A sophomore, she’s cleaning classrooms and offices at Valley Middle School, where she was a student only two years ago. Emily is happy for the...
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