Facing a shortage of older workers, the Franklin County Board of Elections is tapping into a youthful resource to staff polling booths for the November election.
Nineteen senior students from the Eastland-Fairfield Career and Technical School District are participating in the Youth at the Booth program, which trains high schoolers 17 and older to serve as poll workers and pays them the standard rate of $110 for their efforts.
"This is our third year for Youth at the Booth," said Eastland Career Center Director Deb Stephenson following an Oct. 15 Eastland-Fairfield school board meeting, "and this year we also served as a training site. Some of the students, who are placed at polling stations throughout the county on Election Day, aren’t even old enough yet to vote, but they want to be part of the process."
Participants receive two hours of training and must report to their assigned stations by 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 4 for the 14-hour day. Students are also members of the career center’s PEACE Club-an extracurricular organization focusing on politics, education, and community involvement-which prepares and distributes a non-partisan voter’s guide to students and staff.
Students achieve
Stephenson said seven students in Business Professionals of America were screened on Sept. 25 as potential candidates for the Region 14 Leadership Team. Out of six available offices, the Eastland team filled five positions including President, Stevie Myers, Amanda Clearcreek High School; Secretary, August Barnes, Groveport; Treasurer, Brook Corbin, Canal Winchester; Historian, Sarath Ien, Groveport; and Parliamentarian, Kenee Hall, Groveport.
The National Technical Honor Society chapter at the Fairfield Career Center held its annual induction on Oct. 13 and welcomed the following area students into the organization: Feven Ayalew, Health Tech of Reynoldsburg; Ellen Bowens, Health and Recreation Services of Groveport; Joyleen Duran, Health and Recreation Services of Canal Winchester; Amy Hoy, Health Tech, of Groveport; Catrena Sizemore, Health Tech of Groveport; Stacie Wade, Health Tech of Canal Winchester; and Mercedes White, Health Tech of Reynoldsburg.
Other Eastland-Fairfield news
•An insurance claim from February, when a Republic trash hauler ran over a light pole on the Eastland campus while the auto academy was under construction, was finally settled following board action. Superintendent Dr. Mark Weedy said the driver attempted to flee the scene, but an on-duty construction manager took pictures of the pole and the truck as evidence. The claim was settled for $8,860.
•Weedy also reported on upcoming construction projects and an inventory of present buildings.
"We’re in the process of documenting our current facilities to get an actual footprint," Weedy said. "It is difficult to get a design if you don’t have an actual footprint."
The district plans to build an addition and renovate the Health Academy and could go out for bid and begin construction as early as March or April of 2009. The science lab is scheduled for renovation in 2009-10, followed by Commercial Art and the culinary department.
