NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Rita Shade Simpson
Clerk of the Board/Administrator
Salem County Board of Chosen Freeholders
92 Market Street. Salem, N.J. 08079
February 5, 2002
KIDS TAKEOVER COUNTY GOVERNMENT
SALEM -- Fourteen eighth-grade students from Salem County elementary schools will be "Honorary Freeholders" this Wednesday examining daytime County government operations and presiding over that evening's public meeting with their real Freeholders.
These student "government policy makers" will oversee road engineering planning and construction, business development, jail regimen, computer network administration to the quieter sides of farm policy and public mental health education.
That evening the Honorary Freeholders personally meet their adult counterparts and make recommendations on improving County government. Later, the students will officially be sworn in and complete their short term of office by learning the proper protocol of running a public meeting and then presiding for the rest of the meeting.
In addition, another 40 students will "job shadow" employees Wednesday in 18 County departments viewing various types of work and discussing workplace educational requirements. Together, all 54 children will be briefed in the Courthouse at 9:00 AM, after which they will be dispatched to their assigned departments until 1:00 PM.
Job Shadowing Day is part of the Salem County Schools-To-Career Initiative.