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A new program soon to start at Bonner Springs High School may benefit a combination of students, parents and even the city.

At a Bonner Springs-Edwardsville Area Chamber of Commerce lunch Thursday, March 4, BSHS business teacher Joe LaCicero gave a presentation on a program he will be starting when students return from spring break later this month. The program is designed to help students get summer jobs by assessing and developing a list of skills in the classroom that would also make them hirable during the summer. One of the most important of these skills, LaCicero said, is the ability to network.

“Once they realize networking with teachers can help them get jobs, things are going to change,” LaCicero said.

Students will give themselves a score from 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest, on a list of 15 skills, including whether they take pride in their attendance record and whether they can bounce back from adversity. LaCicero will then evaluate the students and make phone calls to businesses looking for summer workers.

The incentive of possible money in their pocket, LaCicero said, can only help to push students to begin developing the skills if they don’t have them already. He said these skills will also help to raise test scores, which will in turn raise the status of the school district for prospective homeowners, which will in turn help to raise property values. In short, he says, the program is a win-win situation for everyone.

“… one thing I do know is that as the schools perform well, and we’re all being judged by these numbers, parents will make a decision about where they want to send their kids to school. They’re going to try to get the best bang for their buck,” LaCicero said in an interview following the chamber meeting. “It’s all about supply and demand.”

LaCicero said it is the benefit to his students that is the most important to them. He said such a program would show them that developing these very necessary skills would put the control of their own lives into their hands.

“One of the primary goals of the program is to help students realize that they have the power to create opportunities,” LaCicero said. “I want each student to realize that he/she has the great power and that power can come through effective professional relationships and through being proactive with formal education.”

LaCicero said he already had many students who exhibited some of these important skills; it would just be a matter of pushing them even further.

“I’m really excited about the prospect of doing this,” he said. “And I can’t help but think that it’s going to be wildly successful and the kids are going to benefit greatly.”

Also at the lunch, the chamber:

• Heard a presentation from Chris Ozimek, marketing director with Schlitterbahn Vacation Village Waterpark. Updates to the site’s upcoming full season included that ground would be broken on the riverwalk, which will include shops that visitors can travel to via a waterway system, this spring. Completion on the riverwalk is expected in 2012.

In addition, Ozimek said the waterpark would be opening May 14, and it was now in the process of hiring its summer staff, with more than 300 jobs being available. More information about how to apply can be found at schlitterbahn.com/kc/.

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