Schools
Back to School with Green Teens
In the second part of our two-part series our Green Zone columnist returns to Environmental Charter High School for a tour on the first day of school.
Last week I wrote about my impressions of Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale and offered it as a viable alternative for environmentally oriented Redondo Beach students.
That column was recommended by an unusually large number of readers and attracted enough attention and questions that I returned to the ECHS campus again on the first day of school. I took the tour for a second turn and this time shot video of the students showing off their campus.
Before I began, Principal Jenni Taylor had some news for me that calls for a correction to what I wrote last week. At the time I said that no one from Hermosa Beach or Redondo Beach had yet chosen to attend ECHS instead of Mira Costa or Redondo Union High School, but I was wrong.
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First off, Principal Taylor herself is a very proud graduate of Mira Costa high school, she wrote me. She went on to add, "We did have one student from Hermosa Beach who also attended Mira Costa for part of the time. We have also had several students transfer to ECHS from RUHS after not being re-accepted on permits there—a few attend currently. Those students have done quite well at our school."
I was very glad to hear that and I think it bodes well for our beach communities to have some of our sons and daughters learning the unique lessons taught on that Lawndale campus. You'll see what I mean in the video.
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Lined up to share some of those lessons on my Aug. 31 tour were a trio of students—a senior, a junior and a sophmore. Not surprisingly, the senior did most of the talking but all three contributed their unique perspectives and it made for a well-rounded, entertaining and fascinating hour-plus.
In an unexpected bonus twist to our tour, our guides got a lesson of their own about the latest additions to the ESCH grounds. That course was taught by the workers who were hamering, building, reparing, upgrading and adding the finishing touches while we were there.
There was something new to learn everywhere we turned during our tour and it wasn't easy to boil it all down to five-and-a-half minutes of video highlights—but it was easy to decide to let the students' voices tell the story.
