Mara Parker, a 2021 graduate of Windsor Forest High School and a carpenter for JE Dunn Construction, is working on the Windsor Forest New High School project after interning through her school’s career-technical program, a report in the meeting transcript said.

The story matters because it shows a direct pathway from the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System’s CTAE (career, technical and agricultural education) construction lab and JROTC program into paid construction work on a locally significant school project.

Ken Slatz reported that Parker “works for JE Dunn Construction, the general contractor for Windsor Forest New High School.” Parker said of returning to the school community, “My name is literally written within the walls of the school.” She described hands-on training in the school’s CTAE construction lab as the place where she learned carpentry and obtained an internship that led to employment: “the program actually provided an internship to work with, the school system and different construction partners, and that's how I discovered JA Dunn and ended up applying.”

Parker also described personal development from participation in JROTC: “I joined JROTC because, I was really shy. Yeah. It's really helped with, being more outgoing, being able to work with people better in the teamwork in the teamwork aspect.” The transcript includes additional first-person remarks about leadership roles: “I was a squad leader for quite a bit of time and I was part of the jewel team. So we did all of our competitions. We marched in the parades.”

A school staff member in the transcript said Parker was ‘‘very dedicated to the program, very motivated to do everything that that we had to offer,” and added that Parker’s questions and drive helped both her and the JROTC program: “She was always inquisitive and you knew the questions that she was asking were those to make her better and try to figure out how how she could be better and also for the JROTC program, how she can make the program and the students around her to be better cadets.”

The transcript also includes a first-person remark about workplace experience: “I've worked with some great people over the years. You met Cyrus, so I've been working with him ever since I started, and, yeah, he's been great.” The narrator framed Parker as “a product of the construction program” who has translated school training into on-the-job skills.

The meeting audio identifies the employer (JE Dunn Construction) and the school system (Savannah-Chatham County Public School System) but does not specify program funding sources, the duration of the internship, the number of students placed through the program, or whether Parker’s employment was full-time or temporary. Those details were not specified in the transcript.

Ken Slatz closes the segment in the transcript with: “Mara Parker, proud graduate of the Savannah Chatham County Public School System, making a difference in our community. This is Ken Slatz reporting.”