Costa Mesa High School

If you would like to donate a prom or homecoming gown(s), dressy shoes and/or a handbag(s) for our event, please do so on Sept. 26 from 3 to 6 p.m. Please come on Sept. 27 from 10 a.m to 3 p.m. to select a like item. If you do not have a dress to exchange, the doors will open to you at noon and there will be a fee of $10 for each dress selected. Women Helping Women receives donations of special event dresses all year and will offer what they have on hand for our use the day of the event.

For video interviews with the Costa Mesa High School valedictorian along with those from other local schools, click here. Michelle Figueroa didn’t pay for her cap and gown until three days before her high school graduation ceremony. The Costa Mesa High School senior didn’t think she would make it after her turbulent childhood and her adolescence spent without either of her parents. When Figueroa was 5 years old, her father was sentenced to prison. Eight years later, her mother was arrested, imprisoned and later sent to Colombia.

The Award Winning Costa Mesa High School Cheerleaders will be hosting a summer youth cheer camp August 4-7 at Costa Mesa High School from 9:00 -11:00 am.  Cost is $60 if registered by June 30 after July 1 it increases to $75.  Girls going into Kindergarten through 8th grade can come and learn cheers, gymnastics, basic stunting and a dance. Participants will receive a t-shirt, snacks, ribbons and certificate of particiaption.  They also will have the opportunity to perform at a CMHS football game halftime at the New Scott Stadium.

Antwon Byrd Being the fastest kid in school might have gone to some students’ heads, but not Antwon Byrd’s — he is just looking forward to new competition when he starts at OCC. The 18-year-old track star is graduating from Costa Mesa High School today with mixed feelings. He said he is sad to be leaving behind lifelong friends, but ready for the next step in his journey. “I’m excited, but a little scared in a way about the transition,” Antwon said.

Costa Mesa High School cheerleaders have launched their annual toy drive this year, but unlike past ones, this time they’re aiming specifically to help local families. The girls will be collecting toys and gift cards and donating them to needy families within the high school’s zone set up by the district. That means families with children at College Park, Davis, Killybrooke, Paularino and Sonora elementary schools will get assistance this year. Normally, donations are sent to the Childrens Hospital of Orange County, or the Boys & Girls Club of America.

Wearing a brown halter top with matching beads lining her neck, one Costa Mesa student makes her turn at the end of the runway in silver high heels. Another shows off her sparkling jeweled brown jacket as she struts in front of onlookers. Cheerleaders know how to play to a crowd. Which is part of the reason three cheerleading squads from Orange County schools, including Costa Mesa High School, were chosen to be the models for a charity fashion show at God’s and Heros in Costa Mesa Sunday night.

COSTA MESA — When Jennifer Kuo set up a table for her nonprofit group at Costa Mesa High School on Monday, it almost took her back to her own high school days. Kuo, the program coordinator for the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, graduated from Costa Mesa High in 1995. On Monday, her group was one of four kicking off the school's second annual Service Learning Expo, in which more than a dozen organizations lay out publicity materials and invite students to volunteer.

COSTA MESA — When Costa Mesa High School students created a drive-in movie theater and an advertising firm last fall, they intended them to be fictional businesses. On Friday, they became very real indeed. The business students, who spent the year developing fictional firms as a class project, decided to use their knowledge to net real money after a pair of former classmates met with an unexpected tragedy. Ivan and Ivonne Ruiz, twins who graduated last year, lost their home in February to a fire — and for one night, on Friday, the Image Drive-In and Open Door Productions came alive to raise money for their family.

Rock songwriters have long had love-hate relationships with their cities of origin. A browse through the lyrics of Paul Simon ("Nothing but the dead and dying back in my little town"), Bruce Springsteen ("Now Main Street's whitewashed windows and vacant stores / Seems like there ain't nobody wants to come down here no more") and others amounts to less than a nostalgic jaunt. However, when Dan Krikorian got tapped to write a song commemorating the 60th anniversary of Costa Mesa, his hometown, he didn't have any grim tales to pack into the lyrics.

"Good luck AP test takers" scrolled across Costa Mesa High School's electronic marquee Friday morning. At Newport-Mesa Unified high schools this week, Advanced Placement classes culminated with exams that will determine whether students receive college credit for their efforts. Almost 100 students were prepping for that academic milestone with pancakes at 7 a.m. Friday in Mesa's cafeteria. "During the AP season these kids are working their tails off," Principal Phil D'Agostino said a few minutes before a class of 93 freshman and one sophomore headed to their test.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District on Tuesday night accepted the first installment in a grant program from the city of Costa Mesa that could add up to half a million dollars over five years. The city approved a $100,000 grant in February that will fund seven athletics improvements at Costa Mesa's high schools. Since then, the two campuses have applied for $96,000 in projects that the city believes will benefit the public as well as students. "This is a new project, and we're very grateful for the city to be working with our two high schools in Costa Mesa," Supt.

On a Monday in mid-April, a handful of students piled into a couple of cars in Costa Mesa and headed north. For some of the high schoolers it was their first time outside Orange County. They were on a trip with Save Our Youth, or SOY, the nonprofit that boosts education and combats violence for minority students on the Westside of Costa Mesa. After a three-hour drive, they arrived at UC Santa Barbara where a student took them on a personal tour. "He didn't just show us around, he explained some signification places of the school and what they had to offer," said Ricky Herrera, a junior from Estancia High School.

Costa Mesa is a city growing older, a city in full bloom, a table resting by the sea. So go the lyrics for an acoustic guitar song that premiered Thursday night during the city's first Mayor's Celebration, "The Art of Leadership," at the Samueli Theater. Dan Krikorian, a Costa Mesa High School alumnus and the school's current boys' basketball coach, gave a surprise performance of his song that proved to be one highlight of the event that city officials said will be an annual tradition.

The chief public school administrator for Newport Beach and Costa Mesa quickly dismissed with the elephant in the room. "The question usually is what did Prop. 30 do for our schools?" Newport-Mesa Unified School District Supt. Fred Navarro said. "Prop. 30 really kind of stopped the bleeding. " Navarro presented his inaugural State of the School District address Wednesday night after winning the top job in August. The nonprofit, nonpartisan citizens group Speak Up Newport annually invites the superintendent to the Newport Beach Yacht Club for the speech, much like it does with other governmental officials.

Some kids finish high school with no idea what the future might hold. Even though most go on to further their education, many have only vague notions of careers that speak to them. But for some, given the opportunity, a path that can lead to important and fulfilling work can emerge before they graduate. That is a goal of those who run Newport-Mesa Unified's Career Technical Education program, which is designed to expose students to practical learning in fields as diverse as film and video production, construction technology, and hotel, hospitality and tourism.

The Costa Mesa community breathed a big sigh of relief Thursday afternoon. Angela Jackson-Brunning was glued to a police scanner and Facebook all morning, awaiting word on whether 18-year-old Kyndall Jack had been found. Jackson-Brunning, a friend of Jack's mother, Dawn, had stayed home because volunteer rescuers were asked to stay away from Holy Jim Canyon, the area in Trabuco Canyon where Jack and Nicolas Cendoya, 19, went missing Sunday. By Thursday, the search had gotten "technical enough" to require only trained people, according to Orange County Fire Authority division Chief Michael Boyle.

On March 12, the school board voted to accept $15,000 to determine the final scope and cost of a new track and field at Costa Mesa High School. This was about as predictable as the sunrise. It was an offer they could not and dared not refuse because the Costa Mesa City Council has indicated that it may pay for the entire project. As the mortgage refinance guy on the radio says, "It's the biggest no-brainer in the history of mankind. " The question is not whether the school board will approve the final project once the study is completed, even though that is not a slam dunk.

While reading a Daily Pilot article ( "Costa Mesa may fund new high school field," March 3) a few weeks ago about the city's proposal to fund a new running track and field at Costa Mesa High School, I was struck by the following comment: "At the end of the day, we [the city] want to be the destination for every new family in Orange County. " This ambitious declaration by Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger, an avid supporter of youth athletics, seems innocuous enough on its face. Who would be opposed to enticing more families to settle in Costa Mesa?