ZHS seniors can earn $15 an hour working working for city while also attending classes
ZANESVILLE − A new student government program will begin next year, allocating 30 spots for students from Zanesville City Schools to attend classes while working for local government organizations.
Earlier this month, 17 high school students toured multiple divisions of the city to choose areas they are interested in for the next semester. Zanesville City School District is currently working with Ohio's Department of Education and is in the process of finalizing the program. It is anticipated that students will begin immediately after the new year.
Ten students have committed to the program so far. The program will offer a lot of benefits for both students and the city. Participants will have opportunities to work in a career minded environment early on while still receiving education and the city will be able to introduce public works careers to students.
"What brought on the idea was as a city, it makes it a challenge to get information out to people about what public works careers are," said Scott Brown, public service director. "And so, by working with these kids at the high school level it gives us an opportunity to introduce these careers to students before they graduate."
Currently, the program will work as a split schedule where students work four hours a day, five days a week and attend classes. The schedule is flexible depending on when individual students have core classes during the day. Students will receive a pay rate of $15.85 per hour through the city and they will also be participating in PERS, the public employee retirement system, giving them a year head start on earning credit towards a pension system.
To help prepare the students, through this this program with the state Ohio, the school district is applying for grants on behalf of the students to supply them with work attire such as steel toe boots.
From a short-term standpoint, this year the program will be just one semester long. The hope is current juniors who are interested will be able to sign up for tours in April. Once summer break comes and they become seniors, they will be able to begin working for the city during break, even before choosing which division to work for during their senior year.
"We'll have an opportunity to let them rotate through all the different public service divisions," said Brown.
Divisions students can pick from include sanitation, street department, vehicle maintenance, water treatment, wastewater treatment and water maintenance.
LVanNiel@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: New city program will give Zanesville HS seniors work opportunities
