El Segundo High students present Civic Day projects, offer land-use ideas to city

We’re here inside the El Segundo City Council Chambers for Civic Day Part 1, tradition that's been going on in El Segundo for the last few years, an announcer said as students prepared to present projects to city officials.

The event brought El Segundo High School students into the council chamber to present semester-long projects that teachers and city staff framed as practical exercises in local government. “What you can expect from Civic Day part 2 is the excellence, the magic coming together,” an event speaker said, describing students’ prepared presentations and videos.

City staff and teachers emphasized that students tackled real local issues, notably land use and zoning. “But it's actually a very important project, as we kinda look at what land use is and zoning is for the next few years,” a city official said, adding that the city has in previous years “taken ideas from this project … and actually tried to input them.” The official said city staff expect to review student work and “it'll be in a couple months, and we'll see what they come up with.”

Students described the exercise as hands-on civic learning. One student said the program allowed them to see “how willing everybody was to kinda explain and show us around and tell us kinda the workings of the city,” and another said participating made them more likely to stay involved in civic matters. Teachers and organizers framed the event as a bridge between classroom civics and practical governance: “The whole city, the school board, the principals, the students, all interacting together,” a teacher said.

Organizers noted this is a multi-part program: Part 1 involved shadowing city officials; Part 2 was students presenting their final projects to the council chamber. The presentations used a mix of group work and short videos, and students said they had worked on the projects throughout the semester. One participant described compressing the semester’s work into a short presentation: “For trying to squeeze it into a 15 minute video, we tackled really good issues, and I think we had really good problems and solutions.”

No formal city actions, votes, or policy decisions were recorded during the session. City representatives described the event as an educational exercise and a source of ideas that city staff may consider alongside other planning processes. Organizers said the city has previously incorporated student ideas and will review this year’s proposals in the months ahead.

Students, teachers and city staff closed the program with remarks celebrating civic engagement and the chance for young people to see local government in action. The event host concluded: “That's a wrap on Civic Day for the class of 02/2025. Until next time, I'm Egirdo de Lio.”