Taft Students Organize a Cool Project

WOODLAND HILLS — Although some students at Taft High School will graduate before bond-funded air conditioning is installed in Los Angeles Unified School District buildings, they wanted to do something to encourage younger students to stay cool and in school.

On Wednesday, 40 seniors from Nancy Schroeder’s Mass Media class visited several fourth- and fifth-grade classes at Calvert Street Elementary School. As part of a senior class project, they passed out several electric fans to cool down cramped and stuffy rooms, and also gave punch and cookies to the students.

“We wanted to drop by to tell you that you are our future,” Schroeder told an audience of about 30 sweltering fifth-graders. “Please stay in school. Things will get better very soon.”

While some of Schroeder’s students mingled with the fifth-graders, talking about life in high school, others helped install the fans in strategic locations.

Schroeder, who previously worked at a local TV station, said her students got the idea to distribute fans from newspaper accounts of how money raised through Proposition BB will be used for air conditioning, among other improvements, but that it could take as long as four years to install the cooling systems in some schools.

“We’re studying public relations right now, and the kids thought that this was a good opportunity to make a difference,” Schroeder said.

Believing that students learn better through experience, Schroeder said her class organized the event by first researching which elementary school needed the most assistance, then earned money for the fans by organizing fund-raisers and issuing news releases to the media.

Their efforts worked. Aside from The Times, several news organizations responded to notices of the event.

“It’s a great exercise on how to set up a public relations campaign,” Schroeder said.