By Leticia Miranda —
NBC News
While her classmates study civics or economics in class, Saniyya Boykin, a 17-year-old high school senior in Camden, South Carolina, prepares food for the next day's school lunch or cleans the floor of the cooks for $12.50 an hour.
“I want to have my own restaurant,” said Boykin, who plans to attend a historically black college after graduation and then culinary school.
"I feel like this will open up opportunities for me, like [to learn] the business from the inside."
Between noon and 3:30 pm, Boykin works with other students who are ahead in school credits and work part time to help run the school kitchen.
Some students do unpaid internships and work to meet the state's career readiness requirement for graduation, and others are students with disabilities who work as part of their curriculum.
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Boykin is one of a growing handful of teenage students hired by their own schools, as
districts across the country scramble to fill landscaping, office and cafeteria jobs
traditionally held by adults in their communities.
While many schools have begun taking unusual steps to deal with an acute teacher shortage intensified by the pandemic, the hiring shortage is also affecting the staffing needs of education systems in other areas.
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Around a third of schools have reported vacancies for maintenance staff for the coming school year, according to June figures from the Institute of Educational Sciences, a research arm of the Department for Education.
Some 19% of schools reported kitchen staff vacancies, and 29% said they had not filled all of their transportation positions.
Saniyya Boykin fills dessert cones for a student celebration. Courtesy of Heather Webb
For some districts,
students have become a job lifeline
that advocates, including some of the students themselves, say can open up valuable opportunities that a job making burgers after school might not offer.
And the administrators who run these programs say they've heard of other understaffed districts wanting to copy them.
At the same time, some education advocates
fear the approach threatens to undermine the mission of schools
and fail to serve the professional development needs of students.
In South Carolina's Kershaw County School District, which includes the school where Boykin works and studies,
about a third of kitchen staff will not return to work
for the 2021 school year, said Misha Lawyer, food services coordinator. from District.
Many left their jobs because they needed to be home with their children for virtual classes or feared contracting the virus, she said.
“It's really working with one hand tied behind your back,” Lawyer said of managers' hiring difficulties.
"We thought: Where can we look for employees we haven't thought of?"
Hardworking student Arthur "Bo" Norred with Roman Lawing and manager Heather Webb as they prepare food on August 15. Courtesy Becky Bean
So the district opened its non-teaching positions to students, who could apply like any adult applicant.
Administrators hired four students to work in the kitchens at a
starting salary of $12.24,
the same rate offered to adults with no prior experience, Lawyer said.
Teen workers help chop vegetables, prepare fruit and assemble meals for lunch.
Students like Boykin may start the school day later or leave school early because they have already met graduation requirements.
Some choose to take classes at the local community college, while others take jobs.
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“One of the questions I get asked a lot is: Are these kids taking jobs away from adults who need them?
Not at all," Lawyer said.
“Even if I were fully staffed, with no openings, I would always find room for these kids because they
are getting more out of this than just a check
. ”
Lexington-Richland School District 5 — in a suburb of Columbia, the state capital, an hour's drive southwest of Camden — also runs a student worker program, which board president Jan Hammond champions as a possible starting point for careers that do not require college degrees.
Faced with high tuition prices and the prospect of significant student loan debt, many high school graduates turn to trade schools or other college alternatives.
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“There is dignity in work, and there is need for work,” Hammond said.
“Students could go to a four-year college and go deep into debt and not find a job that makes a lot of money.
But if they pick up a skill, they can have a job right away,” he noted.
Neveah Grooms, an 18-year-old student at Columbia's Irmo High School, has been working as an administrative assistant in her high school's main office for the past year,
earning $11 an hour.
She wasn't drawn to the extracurricular clubs on campus and saw the job as a way to save for vet school.
"I've met a lot of people in the district, from community leaders to the mayor," he said.
"Let's say I need a letter for a university: meeting these different people, shaking their hands could, you know, be that letter," he added.
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Grooms works about three hours a day, sometimes during the school day, to meet the state's career readiness requirements for graduation.
She has worked in fast food and retail, but she says she prefers answering the phone and helping guests or parents who arrive.
“This [work] impacts me more as a student and in a professional way,” she said, “I feel like I am more respected by a lot of people in the school for the fact that I stepped up and took the opportunity to do this.”
But while students like Grooms can form valuable ties to community leaders through their positions, other students hired by their districts simply mow lawns or sweep classrooms for pay after school, as is the case. in the Northwest School District in Missouri.
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Mark Catalana, chief of human resources for the Northwest School District, said administrators make sure to work with students' schedules.
Catalana said he had employed 27 students at Northwest High School in Cedar Hill during the past school year and that at least 11 planned to return this year.
They are paid between
$12 and $14.25 an hour.
"It's a win-win situation," he opined, "they get to make some money, and we get to fill a void."
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Schools have traditionally hired students over the summer as tutors, or for babysitting summer programs, said Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, a nonprofit advocacy group.
However, in her opinion,
"the purpose of a public school is to serve students, not the other way around."
Burris worries that students' paid jobs could put a strain on their learning.
"When you start intruding on that sacred instructional time...and instead give them a low-paying job, that's not going to lead to a career for the student."
Some experts say that high school students need more than a flexible schedule and a modest salary to successfully launch into the world of work.
"Young people need access to social capital and mentorship,
opportunities to advance their careers, opportunities to make decisions and have a say in what they're doing at work," said Thomas Showalter, executive director of the advocacy group National Employment Coalition. Youth.
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Showalter said districts should consider increasing their student employment efforts by connecting
children with a local training provider,
for example, who might offer certifications in hospitality or food.
More formal, training-based programs might better translate into the skills and experiences that pave the way for a successful career, he added.
Meanwhile, both Lexington-Richland School District 5 and Kershaw County School District call their programs a success and plan to continue them even if the job market eases and hiring adults becomes easier.
More districts could soon follow suit.
“We have received many inquiries from other school districts in the area,” says Catalana, “we share everything we do and try to help other school districts fill their vacancies as well.”