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Shelton School’s CareerConnect asks Mason County to host short internships for high school students
Summary
Shelton School District’s CTE navigator asked the Mason County Board of Commissioners to allow brief, supervised internships at county departments to give high school students real‑world experience; staff will produce a logistics package and target a September start.
Jeff Slakey, the CTE academy navigator for Shelton School District, asked the Mason County Board of Commissioners to let county departments host short, supervised internships so high‑school students can get work experience and exposure to local careers. The district’s CareerConnect/CTE Academy ran a pilot last school year and wants to place students in county jobs for roughly 20 hours each, about 15 hours of hands‑on learning.
The program aims to match students to departments aligned with academy themes — business, manufacturing, health sciences and others — and to pair two students per placement to create a buddy system. Slakey told the commissioners the district worked with about 60 community partners last year, created about 80 internship openings and supplied roughly 1,200 hours of student placements. He said partners that cooperated included Mason Transit, the economic development council and private employers such as Sierra Pacific.
County staff and commissioners signaled support and asked staff to prepare logistics. Kayla and county staff will assemble a packet for department heads that will explain onboarding, confidentiality steps for sensitive placements (for example HIPAA training for health settings), transportation options (the district has worked with Mason Transit to bring students to placements) and scheduling. Slakey said the district prefers short, trimester‑friendly placements rather than longer internships that conflict with school calendars.
The commissioners and county staff discussed role suitability and limits for specific departments — for example, the sheriff’s office would not allow ride‑alongs but could run supervised, non‑hazardous activities — and encouraged hands‑on experiences where safe. The county’s plan is to pilot a small number of placements and expand if the program succeeds; staff targeted the second week of September as an initial window for placements and said they would coordinate with department heads to identify openings.
The board did not take a formal vote at the briefing; staff were directed to return a logistics package and a proposed onboarding process to the commissioners and to begin recruiting departments and mentors.
