Applications are now open for the Town of Camp Verde Parks and Recreation summer jobs. The Heritage Pool is looking to fill lifeguard vacancies that pay $16.15 hourly or $17.75 to be Recreation Leader: Pool Supervisor, and the Summer Day Camp is hiring camp supervisors with a pay of $17.65 an hour.
“I don’t want to shoot ourselves in the foot, but this will be my 11th summer with the pool, and I we have never had a problem with staffing,” Parks and Recreation Manager Shawna Figy said. “Even in 2020 … we were one of the only pools open, and we did not have a problem with staffing. Our pool is a popular place for our teenagers to want to work. It’s a fun place, and word of mouth spreads.
“One of the challenges we do have is with our pool supervisor … because of the experience requirement.”
The town usually gets pool employees onboarded by the
middle of March because lifeguard paid training usually coincides with spring break before the pool opens on Memorial Day. The pool closes on Labor Day. Camp employees also usually start in March in order to start activity planning ahead of the camp opening on Monday, June 1, and ends on Thursday, July 23.
Typically, the town hires six camp supervisors and Figy said she is still confirming how many employees are returning from last year “we have at least three of our former staff returning.”
Usually, she hires 15 to 18 lifeguards that also tend to be made up of 50% returning staff and 50% new hires, she said. Lifeguards and the lifeguard supervisor must have their certification along with CPR and First Aid, and the total number of openings Figy said also depends on the number of people that want to work 20 hours or closer to 40 hours.
“It is a great place to work, especially for our lifeguards,” Figy said. “It’s a great entry-level position as a lifeguard.”
“We’ve had staff come in, and then they go on to college and continue being a lifeguard at the college level for a job,” she said. “The pool supervisor, I think it’s a great position for someone like a teacher — somebody who has a passion for aquatics and is looking for some additional income in the summer.”
Camp supervisors must be at least 20 years old with structured childcare experience, and program development and supervisory experience are preferred.
“We get to have a lot of fun with the kids,” Figy said. “I think all of our counselors and our previous supervisors at camp — the highlight of their day is the kids that they get to work with. We teach and give them learning experiences without it feeling like school. So the counselors get to have just as much fun with the kids as the kids have going through camp.”
The Heritage Pool has had to close early in recent years because of equipment issues; however, Figy is optimistic that will not be an issue this season.
“All of our mechanical equipment has been addressed,” Figy said. “We have new filtration … we have a new chlorinator, new filter, the heater was replaced a couple of years ago … The issues that we know we are going to need to address in the near future are the plaster and the internal lining of the pool and also our gutter system. However, we’re working on our Capital Improvement Project and making a recommendation … for doing renovations to our current facility. Our plan is to open this summer, and we’ll see how it goes. We could run into some problems if the tiles on the bottom of the pool start coming up … but from a mechanical standpoint, we’re in a good place.”
To apply for the vacancies visit campverde.az.gov or contact Camp Verde Parks and Recreation’s Recreation Supervisor Tiffany Smith at (928) 554-0828 or tiffany.smith@campverde.az.gov.
