Dad, daughter both looking for jobs

This is the sixth in a series of stories about Class of 2009 graduates who have been impacted by the economic recession.

On Monday morning - the first official day of summer for recent graduates of Stillwater Christian School - Hilary Jones woke up to an unusual sight.

Her father was home.

"It's kind of cool to wake up on the first day of summer vacation and your dad's there," she said.

In past summers, Jones woke up on her first day of vacation to find both her parents at work. But this year Jones and her father, Bill, are in a similar position.

They're both home, looking for work.

Jones, like other 19-year-olds, wants a job so she can afford to buy a car, which she hopes will help her find an even better job.

Bill Jones wants a job to support his family. He has been unemployed since January, when Semitool laid off about 200 people in the Flathead Valley.

"It was kind of crazy," Jones said of the day her father got the news. "It was like, great, what do we do now?"

While looking for ways to tighten their proverbial belts, the family considered pulling their youngest daughter out of Stillwater Christian School, where she has attended since the seventh grade.

Had they considered the decision at the beginning of the school year, Jones said she would have been excited about it. But transferring to another school - probably Glacier High School - would have been more difficult when she had just one semester left before graduation.

"It was after Christmas. They really didn't want me to change schools," Jones said.

The schools' different graduation requirements would have created a problem, she added.

"I would have had to take like two P.E. classes a day," said Jones, who had never taken a physical education class in high school.

Transferring schools would have been a challenge - but staying at Stillwater wasn't easy, either. Private school isn't cheap, and Jones said her family has never been flush with cash. Keeping her at Stillwater meant dipping into a savings account.

"We decided it was too close to her graduation. It would be really disruptive" to pull her out, Bill Jones said. "We decided to leave her there and bite the bullet and pay for it."

It was a good decision, according to his daughter. She appreciated not having to transfer.

"At the beginning of the year, I would have been like, yeah, I want to go to Glacier," Jones said. "But halfway through the year, it's different."

The family was able to pay to keep her in school for the rest of the year, and on May 29, Jones was one of Stillwater's 16 graduates. She plans to take the next year off, get a job and devote her spare time to art and music, two passions she discovered at school.

"I also don't currently have money to go to school, so this year off thing could actually work out," Jones added.

She said she hopes to one day go to flight school and have a career in mission avionics.

"Ultimately I want to fly airplanes," she said.

While the last few months of her high school career were a little hectic after her father lost his job, Jones said she believes the change has been good for him.

"On the one hand, he and my mom are a lot more fun. They go on bike rides and are doing all this stuff," she said. "It's been really good for him to have something new instead of the same thing forever."

Bill Jones said he doesn't think losing his job affected his daughter too much.

"I don't know that it's been real difficult. I received a good severance package from Semitool, and we had savings," he said.

"It may be stressful because her dad's home all the time," he added, laughing. "But I don't think it's been stressful. Really, it's just different."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com