Six eighth graders from Williamsburg spent Tuesday morning February 2 observing and questioning the staff of Clermont County's Facilities Management as part of a Junior Achievement Groundhog's Day Job Shadowing project.
Students watched staff at work at the Old County Home on S.R. 222 and asked their questions over a lunch of pizza and soft drinks. Later in the day they toured the county's Communications Center.
Important things to remember? "We don't forget our pagers," Facilities Coordinator Wade Grabowski told the group. "That's like putting on ourshoes in the morning."
Important activities? "Reading and listening are two of the most important things you do in your life," said Buck Lester, Building Maintenance Supervisor. And studying of course.
Although the job qualifications for maintenance repair workers
like Don Verkamp are high school level education or its equivalent,
"It never hurts in any position to have higher education,"
Grabowski said.
Lester, for instance,signed himself up for courses on Heating,
Ventilation and Air Conditioning as well aselectricity.
No Facilities Management positions require college-level study
except the department's new Computer Aided Faclities Management
position, filled recently on a full-time basis by Carolyn Lindley.
Lindley, who studied Computer Aided Drawing at UC Clermont College,
worked part time for the department before beginning full time
employment recently. Her early projects have included updating
inventory floor plans.
Several Facilities staff members said they would have liked more
computer training in school.
"When I grew up two one-inch ping pong paddles bounced a ball across the screen," for the latest video game, said Grabowski, a 1981 high school graduate who also completed four years of college.
Today's students, who play computer games in the world of Nintendo
64 and PlayStation can still benefit from all the language, computer,
shop and engineering training they can get, either now or in the
future.
"In the last two hours, you've seen what we do, how we do
it. If we didn't have these skills, it would be a lot tougher,"
Grabowski told the group.
The six students from Williamsburg included William Becraft,
Matt Fox, Elizabeth Hauck, Allison Peters, Kevin Rice and Amy
Shaffer. Teacher Angela Johnson accompanied them.