Commonwealth School - Jobs Program

Jobs Program

The jobs program at Commonwealth is a system whereby students are responsible for setting and cleaning up lunch and the recess snack, and performing other custodial tasks such as emptying the recycling bins throughout the school. Each student with a lunch clean up job is assigned to either a "Red Week" or a "White Week" crew that alternates every other week, and a specific day during that week. Generally, the jobs for lunch clean-up are cleaning up the dining area and working in the kitchen, cleaning up plates and pots. Those who have lunch set-up, recess clean up and recycling jobs work once every week due to these jobs taking a significantly smaller amount of time. Student "crew heads," typically juniors and seniors, take responsibility for directing each jobs crew. The savings created by having students perform these tasks instead of additional paid staff pays for three full scholarships. Many Commonwealth students and faculty believe that the jobs program teaches students a sense of responsibility for the community; the program is often concisely described as "building character."