5:30 P.M. On The Job

By Andrew Goldstein

As Webster Groves senior Rob Greenhaw reaches the Hollywood Video cash register, he recognizes classmate Elizabeth Kirkpatrick, fancied up in her white-ruffled tuxedo shirt, black patterned vest, and bow tie. Rob hands his video selection to Elizabeth, who scans it in, smiles and asks mischievously, "Simon Birch?" Rob, defensive, replies, "It's supposed to be good."

Once the school day ends, Webster Groves Statesmen choose their videos, their meals, their gas and their clothes carefully, because they know the chances are good they will be served by a schoolmate. These days being 16 in Webster Groves typically means a car and a job, mixing up to 40 hours a week at work into the already delicate balance of school, friends and family. Some students work to save for college or to help their parents pay the bills, but most do it for cars, insurance and clothes. "Working lets me establish my independence," says senior Nick McCormick, who, somewhere between varsity-football practice and homework, makes pizza at Cecil Whittaker's three nights a week. "And I'm saving up to buy a car." Teachers and parents here recognize the value of introducing kids to the "real world," but with paychecks competing with grades and late-night shifts rivaling term-paper deadlines, more and more students are asking, How many hours are too many?

Not seeing any more customers, Elizabeth grabs an armful of freshly returned cassettes and begins to stow them. "Putting the videos away is so monotonous," she says. But she is making $5.90 an hour and claims her work here "is really easy." Between Hollywood Video and nearby Kraus Farms Equestrian Center, where she teaches horseback riding, Elizabeth works 40 hours a week. This year she plans to earn $14,400--nearly what her mother makes as a bank teller.

Most weekdays, Elizabeth starts work at 3 p.m. and is finished by 8. On Saturdays she puts in 11 hours at Kraus Farms, a job she keeps as much to ride horses as to earn extra cash. Sunday is her "hell day": she starts at Kraus Farms at 8 a.m., teaches until 5 p.m., grabs some food, drives to Hollywood Video and works there from 6 until 11 p.m. "I'm sure I'm sacrificing my health," Elizabeth says, "but I'm actually doing better in school than I ever have."

Other student workers aren't so responsible. "Too many times I've had kids come in to school at 10:30 a.m. saying they had to close up at work the night before," says assistant principal Clark. "Students," he says, "find it harder to say no to their boss than to the school." Take, for example, Darrin Cayton, a senior who is desperately trying to turn his life around after wasting his first three years of high school. Darrin realizes he wants to go to college, so he's working hard in his classes, hoping to do well enough to get into Webster University. But Darrin also works at McDonald's 30 to 40 hours a week. "I need the money to do the things I want to do," he explains. "But I'm always tired."

Fatigue and missed assignments aren't the worst of it, either, says Faye Walker, a teacher at Webster for 23 years. "Too many kids are missing that quality time," she says. "When the parent gets home, the child goes to work. When the child gets home, the parents are asleep. Kids can work and get good grades, but when do you see each other?"

Clark is looking for an answer. He sits on a committee of teachers, students, parents, community leaders and local employers that is developing a "School First" contract. The details are still in the works, but the hope is that businesses that sign on will employ students for no more than 20 hours a week (Clark would like the limit to be 16) and will not let students work past 11 p.m. on school nights. Clark also wants employers to assign each student a "workplace mentor"--someone at work, maybe even the boss, who looks after the student's academic life, makes sure he or she is going to school on time and is making good grades, and who can help a student get reduced hours if need be. The initial response of business people has been positive, and Clark hopes School First will happen by the end of the year.

Elizabeth manages her 40 hours a week quite nicely. She's getting A's in all her classes; she keeps Friday nights free for her boyfriend, who, she says, "is my social life." And most Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, Elizabeth, her parents and her 12-year-old brother Conner find time to eat together as a family.

Elizabeth did have to sacrifice varsity field hockey. And earning so much money made her, at least for a while, rethink her college choices. While she once saw Meramec Community College as the "slacker way out," she actually considered spending two years of college there in order to continue teaching horseback riding. Her mother convinced her otherwise.

It's 8 p.m. Elizabeth hangs up her vest and bow tie. She's already finished her homework, so after dinner with her family, she plans to go to a friend's to watch movies and play video games. She's not sure what she would have done all day if she hadn't spent it working at Hollywood Video.

--A.G.