Salinas' innovative Millennium Charter High School gets five year renewal from county.

Just a year and half after it opened its doors, Millennium Charter High School's charter was renewed earlier this week by the Monterey County Board of Education for a duration of five years. 

The Weekly did a story about Millennium—which puts a media and arts spin on the core subjects—in advance of its opening, and what seemed like an exciting, bold experiment then has withstood the test of 18 months:  

"The school’s three Wi-Fi-connected classrooms include a communications lab with four high-def projectors and computers with multimedia software. A gadget-filled trailer on the back of a semi-trailer truck, called the 'Tech Mobile,' is outfitted with 19 desktop computers, eight wall-mounted screens and a satellite Internet connection."

A statement sent out by the county says the when State Superintendent Tom Torlakson visited the school in January 2014, he called the school a “role model for the rest of California.”

"This is a great day for MCHS,” said Millennium Charter High School principal Peter Gray in the Jan. 20 statement. “I'm grateful to County Superintendent Dr. Nancy Kotowski and the Monterey County Board of Education for their continued support and faith in Millennium Charter High School."

In other Millennium related news, the county Media Center for Art, Education and Technology's "Techmobile"—a semi-truck trailer outfitted with 19 desktop computers, eight wall-mounted screens and a satellite Internet connection—will be showed off by Millennium students at the state's Department of Education Jan. 27 from 10am to 3:30pm.