Costa Mesa High School

Jim De Boom Starting your own business? Looking for ways to strengthen your new business? Elmer Biggerstaff, president of the Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa has announced that the club has just initiated a free community service project just for you. Members of the Rotary Club have joined together to offer complimentary e-mail and phone coaching to start up and existing business owners as they engage in the free...

The 50-member Costa Mesa Kiwanis Club, in connection with American Youth Soccer Organization Region 57, will be holding its annual pancake breakfast for the benefit of Region 57 and the club's youth activities. The breakfast will be held at Costa Mesa High School today from 7 a.m. to noon. Breakfast is $4 for an individual or $13 for a family of four. Everyone is invited, said Fran Ursini. You will enjoy a delicious pancake breakfast and Kiwanis fellowship.

o7The following schools made the largest gains this year in the percentage of students scoring as proficient or advanced on standardized tests. f7 SCHOOL GRADE 2003-04 2004-05 INCREASE ENGLISH Paularino Elementary 2 30% 62% 32% Killybrooke Elementary 5 26% 54% 28% Andersen Elementary 2 63% 87% 24% Eastbluff Elementary 2 64% 84% 20% Newport Coast Elementary 3 51% 70% 19% TeWinkle Middle School 6 25% 37% 12% Corona del Mar High School 11 48% 70% 22% Corona del Mar High School 8 56% 70% 14% Costa Mesa High School 8 27% 47% 20% MATHEMATICS Killybrooke Elementary 5 14% 46% 32% Mariners Elementary 5 62% 87% 25% Victoria Elementary 3 40% 63% 23% Ada Middle School 4 27% 48% 21% Wilson Elementary 3 34% 54% 20% Pomona Elementary 3 15% 34% 19% Eastbluff Elementary 2 75% 94% 19% Eastbluff Elementary 5 60% 78% 18% Kaiser Elementary 5 36% 54% 18% TeWinkle Middle School 6 19% 31% 12%

For the second time in four years, the Estancia High School football program has suffered a tragic, unexpected loss. First, Matt Colby died in September 2001 after a football game during his senior year at Costa Mesa High School, where he had transferred after playing for three years at Estancia. Now, another Estancia player and former teammate of Colby, Brian "Bubba" Kapko, has died too early, too soon. The 19-year-old died early Sunday in a car accident.

Steve and Jeanette Early of Huntington Beach were awarded the Best of Show and Best Interior honors for their 1956 GMC Suburban truck during the recent Top Banana Pre-Father's Day Classic Car Show and Fest at the Orange County Market Place in Costa Mesa. . . . Edison High School junior Jodi Jones was awarded the Girl Scout Gold Award last month. This is the Girl Scout's highest honor. She volunteered more than 120 hours to Hoag Hospital's Pediatric Ward and constructed 75 activity kits for three different age groups.

COSTA MESA -- The Costa Mesa National Little League Major All-Star team, which has won the Mayor's Cup for the past four years, is in search of a fifth title as it defeated the Costa Mesa American All-Stars, 7-3, at Costa Mesa High School Thursday in the first game of a best-of-three series. The Nationals jumped to an early 1-0 lead in the first inning after pitcher A.J. Roth, who is a Daily Pilot Dream Team member, reached first base on a fielder's choice, stole second, and was driven in by Victor Trujillo, another Dream Team member, who doubled to right field.

For Mifanwy Kaiser, prison was one of the most accomplished times of her life. For years, Kaiser prepared inmates for high school GED testing in Oldham County, Ky. When she took the job teaching inmate students, only one or two out of seven would pass. So she had them write poetry about the information they had difficult retaining. "I always use poetry in everything I do," Kaiser said. Writing poems on the information they had trouble remembering helped the inmates emotionally connect with what they were learning.

Mike Sciacca The next time you watch a college football game, chances are you might run across an athlete that Greg Dies and Dan Valentine came across first. Dies and Valentine run the Huntington Beach-based National Sports Service, which works hand in hand with local high schools and junior colleges by providing game film and information to universities on the recruiting trail. The service receives game film from these various high schools then, in turn, makes copies and sells the films to four-year programs across the country.

Five years after voters passed a $110-million school bond measure, district leaders are going back to the ballot, seeking $282 million more. At a special meeting on Wednesday, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to place an item on the November ballot that would allow the district to issue $282 million in bonds for school renovations. If voters approve the measure, which will appear on the special election ballot Nov. 8, district officials say they will have the resources to add new libraries and science labs, construct performing arts centers and pay for long-awaited athletic facilities at Costa Mesa's two high schools.

Mike Sciacca Mike Groscost walked away from Huntington Beach High School's annual spring football game at Cap Sheue Field with a cautious optimism. Groscost has been involved with this game before, both as a player and as an assistant coach. He has witnessed such optimism on several of those previous occasions and in some instances, that exuberant anticipation in the spring translated to a fruitful season in the fall. But during last Thursday's game, Groscost's perspective was a bit different as he viewed the contest in a whole new role: that of head coach.