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Schenectady parks staff outline 2025 summer recreation and employment program
Summary
Parks staff described a summer program that will place roughly 40 youth across four parks, hire ~15 recreation leaders and 25 seasonals, and run sports and learning activities with community partners.
Billy Jackson, a parks staff member, presented the City’s 2025 summer recreation and employment program and a plan to hire seasonal staff to run activities in four parks.
The program will operate in Hillhurst, Jerry Burrell, Central Park and Steinmetz Park and will hire about 15 recreation leaders and 25 seasonal assistants to run organized and general activities. Jackson said the city is coordinating with community partners including the Boys & Girls Club, the school district, YMCA, Schenectady Soccer and local baseball and cricket organizations to provide coaching, clinics and pop-up educational sessions.
Program components include organized sports (basketball, tennis, baseball, soccer, cricket), arts-and-craft and “interactive” learning games that staff said are intended to blend recreation with informal learning. Jackson said donated tennis equipment and some pickleball paddles will be used at Hillhurst and Jerry Burrell parks; pickleball equipment will be concentrated at Hillhurst. Central Park programming will include horticulture and landscaping work with Cornell Cooperative Extension and a nature pop-up program run by the Scary Learning Center (three hours/day, five days/week during the program). Steinmetz Park will host basketball, fishing days coordinated with the fire department, and other neighborhood events.
Jackson told the committee the city intends to post seasonal job openings in late March and interview in April; staff estimated hiring about 40 youth in total. He said hours and specific schedules remain tentative and will be finalized as partners confirm availability; some sports and activities (for example baseball) will be daytime only so as not to conflict with tournaments. Jackson said the program will emphasize recruiting locally—through neighborhood contacts, school athletic staff and community organizations—and that the city is planning a kickoff training day for all recreation leaders.
Why it matters: the program is the city’s primary summer employment and youth-engagement effort for 2025, combining sports, job experience and a limited number of learning modules. If staffing or partner commitments change, Jackson said schedules and offerings would be adjusted accordingly; the program remains subject to final hiring and partner confirmations.
Next steps: job postings were expected near the end of March, interviews in April and a program start in July for some partners (gardening work shifts begin later, per planting schedules). Jackson asked committee members for feedback and promised to finalize hours and partner schedules as recruitment and coordination continue.
