Students shadow city staffers during Mayor's Youth Day

Grassfield High School senior Denita Whitefield uncovered a knack for wielding a gavel. School board clerk Alan Vaughan discovered, in his own words, “how easily (he) could be replaced.” And students who attend the city’s schools every day found out how the decisions are made that affect their lives.

Seniors from high schools across the city spent Tuesday shadowing Chesapeake city employees, ranging from the city manager to the fire marshal to city arborist, as part of this year’s Mayor’s Youth Day event. On Youth Day, students get an up-close look at the daily activities that make their city and school system run.

 In the afternoon, students who had taken on the roles of school board and city council members met for mock meetings. “Most of this stuff is a lot more than we think about when we’re in school,” said Whitefield, whose mentor was board chairwoman Sheila Hill-Russ. Whitefield served as the chair during the mock board meeting, calling on school board members who wanted to speak and asking for motions on agenda items.

“I like being in charge,” she said.

During the  25-minute board meeting, students discussed putting recycling into more of the city’s high schools – currently it’s only at Western Branch l – and keeping after-school activities safe during a budget crisis. Board members talked about the importance of keeping young people busy and making them feel connected to their school communities.

Towards the end of the meeting, the nine student board members voted unanimously to keep all after-school activities, even during the budget crisis.

“Clubs shouldn’t be affected by inadequate funding; clubs can try to fund themselves,” said youth school board member Mary Casteen. “The economy shouldn’t affect after-school activities.”

In the mock City Council meeting, nine students assumed the seats of the council members. They voted on two fictional issues: expanding the light rail into Chesapeake and the city’s amateur sports program.

Students came in front of the council members to talk for and against both issues.

Matthew Gregus, a senior at Grassfield High, cracked up the council chambers when he spoke against the light rail. In his off-the-cuff speech, Gregus said as a struggling hot dog shop operator, he would be unable to keep his business alive under the pressure of the extra taxes needed to fund the light rail.

Plus, he said, he would never ride it. “I prefer the privacy of my Honda Accord,” he said. “I don’t like to be around too many people in the morning.”

Gregus said he wanted to realistically portray a speaker at a city council meeting.

“There’s always that one guy who pleads for the common man. I tried to portray that the best I could,” he said after the meeting.

The mock city council also had some familiar faces. Councilwoman Patricia Willis sat in the front row to watch her daughter, Rosemary, be a part of the student city council. Chesapeake City Manager William Harrell’s daughter, Charity, was actually handling his job after shadowing her dad around for the day.

Charity, a Grassfield High senior who was just accepted to the University of Virginia, told her mother she could see herself doing the job of a city manager.

“Could she handle the job?” a reporter asked her dad.

  “No question,” he said.