Students Make City Government Their Agenda

By Curt Seeden on Thursday, August 1, 2024

Third-grade students from Cox and Courreges Elementary schools got a crash course on civics June 5 at the city’s annual Youth in Government Day.

More than 200 students visited City Hall to learn about various city departments, like Community Development, Public Works and Recreation & Community Services.

City Manager Maggie Le welcomed the students and introduced them to the city’s various department heads.

Local government is actually a part of the school district’s third-grade curriculum.

In all, the students learned about 14 city departments, including Administration, Community Development, Finance, Fire, Human Resources, Information Technology, Police, Public Works and Environmental Services.

“What a pleasure it was to welcome third graders from our local elementary schools and give them a glimpse into what it takes to run a city,” Mayor Glenn Grandis said. “They had the opportunity to visit all departments, including Finance, Police, Fire, and Information Technology, and even had the chance to be a mayor and run a City Council meeting.”

The students had the chance to visit the city’s traffic control center, which shows views of the city’s key intersections to monitor traffic flow.

They also got close-up looks of fire trucks, ambulances, police cars and Republic Services trash trucks.

It was an eye-opening field trip for the young students, and they acknowledged the great time they had in thank-you letters they sent to City Hall after the visit.

Noted Hailey Pham: “One thing that I learned at the trip was the traffic lights are really big. Another thing I learned is that people try to hack into the computer. The last thing I learned is that people don’t clean up their dogs’ waste. Thank you again for doing all that stuff for third graders.”

Added Lily Huynh: “I learned so many things, like sewage water can be cleaned. SWAT vests weigh up to 50 pounds!”

“The enthusiasm of the participants was heartwarming,' Mayor Grandis added, 'and hopefully, they now have a better understanding of what it takes for a city to have paved streets, public safety and clean drinking water.”

Cox teacher Christine Carrasco said, “The Youth in Government field trip is one that we look forward to every year and that students seem to enjoy the most. After learning about local government in class, our students get a chance to expand their understanding by learning directly from multiple departments. As we move through each station, it’s awesome to see the students learn how much thought and work go into maintaining our city.”