Missouri Students Hired For Work At Schools Amid Worker Shortage

There have been plenty of worker shortages in several different professions nationwide, especially within the schools across the U.S.

According to KRON 4, the worker shortage has affected the Northwest School District in Jefferson County. Instead of being short-staffed, they decided to take matters into their own hands and offer students the chance to apply for jobs within the district.

"Some of the positions have been short-staffed since last year," the district's chief operating officer, Kim Hawk, said. "We just have struggled to find any help at all, and if you drive around and look at the help wanted signs everywhere, you know the competition is stiff. So, we knew we had to come up with some other plan."

The district held a job fair last week to fill the positions. Some of the openings included cooks, maintenance and after-school childcare.

"We have kids that are very capable and able to hold good jobs in this community and other places of employment, so to reflect on that and say why wouldn't we use those resources within our own facilities," Superintendent of the Northwest School District, Dr. Desi Kirchhofer, told KRON 4.

From the job fair, 25 students applied and are currently in the onboarding process.

The district says the pay is in the minimum wage range and the hours are good for those in school. "We're going to actually hire more students than we have positions for, so we have the flexibility for the students' schedules," Hawk said. "So, if they have a big test coming up, we have the flexibility for their schedules because their grades and being a student is their first priority."

Since opening the positions to students, the district says they have received calls from other districts on how everything is working out.