California Elementary School

Adams Elementary School Principal Gabriel Del Real was avoiding something at the end of the Friday's morning assembly. "But I have to do it because I promised," he said. "You promised, all right!" a student shouted from the crowd of kids sitting on the blacktop. Making good on his pledge, Del Real stepped into a chalk square drawn on the ground and prepared to be covered in silly string. As a reward for their 100% participation in Adams' jog-a-thon fundraiser April 24, two classes got to spray the principal from head to toe. Soon he was cocooned in pink foam while the audience screamed with delight.

The Daily Pilot asked students at California Elementary School, "What is the definition of good sportsmanship?" "Not arguing over anything. You just have to have fun, even though you lost." Beatriz Adanza, 10 Costa Mesa "When you listen to your team and you don't yell if you lose." Ivan Wilcox, 9 Costa Mesa "Being nice to people and always having a good attitude." Ariel Raphoon, 10 Costa Mesa "Being positive about the game — not being mad if you lost, and not saying bad things to the other team if they lost."

Deirdre Newman One pink rose blows gently in the wind at California Elementary School in Costa Mesa. Soon many more will join it, gracing the school with an ethereal beauty and elegance. It is the start of a rose garden to honor the loving spirit of Ellen Rose, a former teacher at the school who died of complications from breast cancer in 2000. On Thursday, a tearful crowd of former students, staff and parents dedicated the Rose Garden with members of Rose's family present.

Marisa O'Neil The Children's Water Education Festival should come with a disclaimer -- "Warning: You will get wet." Thousands of students, including classes from Newport-Mesa schools, enjoyed the eighth annual festival, put on by the Orange County Water District on Tuesday and Wednesday. Third- and fourth-graders visited exhibits designed to soak as well as educate them about conservation and environmental issues. "Our hope is that they will take everything they learn back to their schools, back to their communities, parents, brothers and sisters," festival director Rebecca Long said.

o7 The Daily Pilot asked students at California Elementary School in Costa Mesa: What's your favorite food and why? What's your favorite Thanksgiving food and why? f7 My favorite food is watermelon because it's sweet. My favorite Thanksgiving food is cranberry sauce because it tastes good and it's sweet. AMANDA WILSON, 8 Costa Mesa Turkey. Sweet turkey, because it's good. It's very good. And my mom gives me that for lunch, too. Just regular turkey.

A set of plans to rearrange and renovate fields at four Costa Mesa schools will be put before community members at two open houses scheduled for this week. The city is making its way through a process to design plans for new soccer and baseball fields at TeWinkle Middle School, California Elementary School, Davis Elementary School and Costa Mesa High School. Preliminary designs have been drawn. Wednesday night’s meeting at TeWinkle Middle School and Thursday night’s meeting at Costa Mesa High School will be residents’ first chance to suggest their ideas.

In response to aging and underutilized fields at four Costa Mesa schools, city officials are appointing a task force Tuesday to recommend how to fix the problems. Because the fields are used by the schools and the community, the task force will be made up of city and school district politicians, as well as homeowners’ association members and sports boosters. A preliminary list has 12 nominated participants, and it will be up to the council to accept or change the list at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Deirdre Newman NEWPORT-MESA -- While many district schools are celebrating growth in their Academic Performance Index, the ones that qualified for cash awards are starting to consider how the money may be used. Forty-five percent of Newport-Mesa Unified School District schools will receive the awards, which are mainly based on meeting their schoolwide API growth targets. The API is based on the results of the Stanford 9 testing, which took place last spring.

If you're cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, you can help a school in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District earn money for art and technology. California Elementary School in Costa Mesa is starting a drive to collect the box tops of Cocoa Puffs and other General Mills cereals -- as well as Betty Crocker products -- to redeem them for 10 cents each. The box-top drive is an easy way for the school to raise funds without sending students door to door or asking parents to dip into their pockets, said Pat Ary, past president of the California School Education Foundation.

Adams Elementary School Principal Gabriel Del Real was avoiding something at the end of the Friday's morning assembly. "But I have to do it because I promised," he said. "You promised, all right!" a student shouted from the crowd of kids sitting on the blacktop. Making good on his pledge, Del Real stepped into a chalk square drawn on the ground and prepared to be covered in silly string. As a reward for their 100% participation in Adams' jog-a-thon fundraiser April 24, two classes got to spray the principal from head to toe. Soon he was cocooned in pink foam while the audience screamed with delight.

Local schools welcomed in some new faces this fall. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District hired five new principals - four elementary, one middle school - to take over as their predecessors were promoted, retired and moved out of state last year. With kids heading back to school Tuesday, here is a look at the newest heads of California Elementary, Pomona Elementary, Killybrooke Elementary, Newport Heights Elementary and Ensign Intermediate schools. * Matt Broesamle, California Elementary School The Costa Mesa native didn't know what he wanted to do after college.

Late Monday afternoon, as the Mesa Verde Classic charity golf tournament wound down, it was clear that the scores weren’t going to be the best the club had ever seen. Mayor Allan Mansoor — a self-described “eternal beginner” — noted that the tournament was more about the fundraising. City Manager Allan Roeder admitted that he had just hit his first good shot of the day while playing the back nine. And a foursome of Costa Mesa fire fighters said they would have a great score if they were bowling.

A set of plans to rearrange and renovate fields at four Costa Mesa schools will be put before community members at two open houses scheduled for this week. The city is making its way through a process to design plans for new soccer and baseball fields at TeWinkle Middle School, California Elementary School, Davis Elementary School and Costa Mesa High School. Preliminary designs have been drawn. Wednesday night’s meeting at TeWinkle Middle School and Thursday night’s meeting at Costa Mesa High School will be residents’ first chance to suggest their ideas.

As Gilbert Villarreal walked the last few steps toward California Elementary School with his two young granddaughters, he and the girls were congratulated for finishing the roughly one-mile walk from their house in the nearby Mesa North community. The three were greeted with pastries and orange juice in celebration of Walk to School Day, an initiative instituted at many Newport-Mesa schools to encourage kids to exercise and learn how to walk safely. “When we were kids, we used to walk a couple miles in the snow through the hills,” Villarreal said, jokingly outraged that his youngsters were being praised for making it down the street.

In response to aging and underutilized fields at four Costa Mesa schools, city officials are appointing a task force Tuesday to recommend how to fix the problems. Because the fields are used by the schools and the community, the task force will be made up of city and school district politicians, as well as homeowners’ association members and sports boosters. A preliminary list has 12 nominated participants, and it will be up to the council to accept or change the list at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Two weeks into the season, the Costa Mesa Bullets were in limbo. With games coming up, the AYSO Region 120 girls' under-12 team had the players — well, sort of. "A lot of people were on vacation, so we weren't even sure we would have a full team," assistant coach Michelle Novoa said. But what the Bullets really didn't have was a coach. So, Novoa made a decision to volunteer her husband, Ivan. She now laughs. "There was just nobody who had the time or experience to pick up coaching, so I threw his name out there," Michelle Novoa said.

COSTA MESA ? There's an unspoken lesson this year at California Elementary School: Being in a sorority pays off. In December, the Costa Mesa school officially opened its new computer lab, featuring 35 state-of-the-art models with a number of student-friendly programs. The school's foundation paid for them with funds from a silent auction in May, but if not for a personal connection, the lab might only be half as full. Donna Swift, the foundation president, once belonged to a sorority with Kathryn Kolder, the executive vice president of Fry's Electronics.

The Daily Pilot asked students at California Elementary School, "What is the definition of good sportsmanship?" "Not arguing over anything. You just have to have fun, even though you lost." Beatriz Adanza, 10 Costa Mesa "When you listen to your team and you don't yell if you lose." Ivan Wilcox, 9 Costa Mesa "Being nice to people and always having a good attitude." Ariel Raphoon, 10 Costa Mesa "Being positive about the game — not being mad if you lost, and not saying bad things to the other team if they lost."

Michael Miller Fourth-grader Daniel Cabrera can't remember much about his first time in an earthquake, but he'll be ready when the next one hits. "Once, when my family was going to go camping, there was an earthquake, and I slept through it," said Cabrera, 10, during Youth Ready to Respond day at California Elementary School. "When I woke up, there were cups and plates on the floor." After sitting through an earthquake simulation presented by the Costa Mesa Fire Dept.