Eight Richmond students are spending their summer getting real-world work experience, and the city school system is the richer for it.

The students are making real money -- $8.50 an hour for 40-hour workweeks -- putting into practice computer skills they learned in the classroom.

The school system is saving big money by having the students do work contractors once did and by keeping in use computers that in the past would have been relegated to a warehouse.

In salary alone, the savings are more than $5,000 a week, based on the $25 to $30 an hour the system used to pay contractors to do the kind of work the students are performing.

Factor in not having to replace 477 desktop computers -- at $500 to $650 each -- that have been repaired and are ready for at least another year of service, and the savings could top $300,000.

"It's a win-win," said Kavansa Gardner, who as manager of the Information Communication and Technology Services department oversees 12 full-time technicians responsible for about 10,000 computers. "What we've done is saved money, and students get real-life experience."

The experience began late in the school year, when students taking certain computer courses were asked to apply for the summer jobs at the Richmond Technical Center, the school system's vocational campus on North Side. The process taught them the importance of résumés, applications and interviewing, Gardner said.

Three of the students are spending the summer in a shared office on the second floor of the north building. They're making posters, mousepads and other items, including online presentations, to support the new technical help desk being set up by the information technology department.

"It feels good knowing I made something that is going out to the whole school system," said Edmund Burke, a rising senior at Huguenot High School whose poster about the tech desk will make its way into schools this fall.

The rest of the group -- five students, plus one volunteer -- is spending the summer with computer technician Jim Bane in a steamy converted carpentry shop on the first floor.

Hundreds of computers, and one seemingly out-of-place drill press, sit along a side wall of the room. A little room off to the side includes shelves full of spare parts: power supplies, fans, memory cards and the like.

In the back of the room, by the roll-up door that leads to the parking lot, sits a small pile of rejects.

In all, Bane and his crew have found new life for about 95 percent of the computers they worked on.

"The kids went at it like army ants," he said. "They came to us with a skill set they hoped to enhance, and I got a staff.

"I'm not a teacher," he said. "I'm a technician. They handled it well."

. . .

It was all in a day's work -- lessons learned, included -- the students said.

"It's a great experience," said Richard Hairston, a rising senior at George Wythe High School. "When I first started, I thought I knew something. But I learned there's a lot more to learn."

Ieshia Barnes, a rising senior at John Marshall High School, said the amount of work never was overwhelming.

"We're a motivated group," she said.

If they stay motivated, they'll have part-time work throughout the school year.

The plan, Gardner said, is to keep his new staff in place after school.

"It helps streamline the whole process," he said.

The more the students work, the more the department's 12 full-time technicians can concentrate on the bigger problems that pop up.

And working computers, he said, make for happy teachers.

"Happy teachers can teach," he said. "That's the goal."
Contact Zachary Reid at (804) 775-8179 or zreid@timesdispatch.com.