The Ideal School : Artesia High Students Put Their Dreams on Paper

On a hot weekend in the Brea foothills, 77 Artesia High School students gathered at the Firestone Boy Scout Reservation with a mission to create the perfect school.

For some, the perfect school included classes with more discussion and fewer lectures, or an open campus with no dress codes, or higher-tech classrooms or more electives that directly relate to students’ lives. The big dreamers pined for a campus with stables, fast-food restaurants and movie theaters. And then there were others who simply wanted more restrooms and better food.

This group of visionaries, ages 14 to 18, used the three-day retreat last weekend to design a prototype of the ideal campus, curriculum and teaching style. The retreat was funded with part of a $52,000 state planning grant to restructure Artesia High School. The ultimate goal is to create a setting for making a more successful student.

“We want to make this futuristic, and more like a college setting,” said senior Angelo Salisbury. “We want lecture halls with stages and (separate) buildings for each subject.”

“Come on! You’re not in a university,” said another student.

“But this is what we want, not what has to be,” said junior Lenka Mynar, while one of her classmates continued drawing the indoor Olympic pool.

It was late Saturday afternoon and neither the heat of a meeting hall without air conditioning nor swarms of gnats could diminish the enthusiasm of the students, who divided themselves into teams of seven. Each group stretched butcher paper across long tables and went to work designing a master campus.

Senior Alfredo Leon penciled in his designs for a modern theater and a high-tech auto shop, complaining that currently they have to work on cars manufactured in the 1960s.

“This is pretty exciting,” senior Jeanette Crenshaw said. “We’re all talking and sharing ideas. We want to have a school that’s a better place.”

The students, chosen by their Artesia High School homeroom classes or from student organizations, agreed that they wanted longer classes for fewer days a week, and a guidance period where they could discuss problems and build rapport with teachers.

“Kids want to be more than just a number and a body,” Assistant Principal Gene Hawley said. “That’s coming in loud and clear.”

Artesia High School draws its enrollment from Hawaiian Gardens and parts of Lakewood, Cerritos and Long Beach. Most of its students are minorities, and for some, this was their first experience away from home. Students bunked six to a room in small but air-conditioned quarters and dined on “pretty good” chili with varying degrees of spiciness prepared by chemistry teacher Nolan Noble. In the evenings, they played cards and games and hiked.

“We relax but we don’t get to go crazy,” said Charles O’Bannon, a 16-year-old guard on the school’s championship basketball team. “It’s an honor to be here.”

Students and teachers found themselves thinking along the same lines when it came to improving their school, history teacher Hal Stonebraker said. “Students and teachers are frustrated. They both want more time to support one another.”

Stonebraker’s wife Dian, also an Artesia High teacher, agreed. “Students and teachers have to believe in this. If kids believe what they’re saying and then buy into it, things are going to change.”

Artesia officials also are seeking input from parents, local colleges, the business community and alumni. They hope their efforts will result in another grant that will allow them to implement some of their ideas.