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.

"Les" is more when it comes to honoring local students. Last week the Costa Mesa Chamber of Commerce distributed its annual Les Miller Outstanding Student Awards . The stirring, 33rd annual ceremony was at the Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa hotel. Awards and scholarships were presented to several dozen Costa Mesa high school and college students. I love the Les Miller awards. For many years, while I served as an administrator at Orange Coast College, I witnessed the awards being presented to deserving students and student-athletes.

Families moved around a terrace at the Hilton Costa Mesa/Orange County hotel, munching on cupcakes and cookies. With glasses of water and sparking apple cider in their hands, the families listened as students tried to sell them on their businesses. "Do you like coffee?" junior Kurt Williams asked anyone who passed his booth. Kurt created a virtual business delivering everything from cafe au lait, espresso and Mexican hot chocolate to milk and orange juice between midnight and 6 a.m. Costa Mesa High School's Business Academy hosted a showcase Monday evening at the hotel on Bristol Street to give families a look at what their children have been working on all year.

Costa Mesa High School Athletics has partnered with SoCal Kicks 4 Kids and the Costa Mesa Police Assn. to adopt Henryville Junior-Senior High School in Henryville, Ind., which has been devastated by the recent tornado. The groups are looking to help the Midwest school rebuild its athletic programs through collection of new or slightly used athletic gear, and cash donations. Items can be dropped off at Costa Mesa High School, 2650 Fairview Road, or the Costa Mesa Police Department, 99 Fair Drive.

The Costa Mesa High School Foundation is hosting "An Evening Under the Stars" benefit from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Noguchi Gardens, 633 Anton Blvd., Costa Mesa. The event will raise money for educational opportunities grants for students in the Costa Mesa High School zone. The foundation has funded more than $200,000 in grants since its inception in 2003. The event is in partnership with the city of Costa Mesa, the Costa Mesa Conference and Visitor Bureau and Mastro's Steakhouse.

Costa Mesa High School played its first varsity football game 51 years ago this month. I was there. It was Sept. 23, 1960, and the senior-less Mustangs traveled south to play the Ramona High School Bulldogs 13 miles southeast of Escondido. Costa Mesa High began its third fall semester of operation that year, and enrolled only freshmen, sophomores and juniors. No seniors. Ramona's football team opened the 1960 season as the defending CIF small-school champion, and was favored by sportswriters by 20 points over the Mesans, who were without a single player with varsity experience.

The school board will recognize on Tuesday the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Teachers of the Year. Costa Mesa High School's Dana Kahawai, 30, and Newport Elementary School's Terri Clarke, 31, will receive the honors. Kahawai has taught English at Costa Mesa High for the past four years and spent one year at Estancia High School. She currently teaches regular and Advanced Placement English classes for sophomores and AP English literature for seniors. The Santa Ana resident and Estancia alumna is the advisor to the senior class, the National Honor Society and the California Scholarship Federation.

Editor's note: This corrects the amount of the bonds in the headline. COSTA MESA — The Newport-Mesa Unified School District can start selling up to $100 million in bonds to fund campus upgrade projects. The school board on Tuesday night unanimously approved selling bonds for the construction of two middle school "enclaves" and two theaters at Costa Mesa and Corona del Mar high schools and begin planning the renovation of Newport Harbor High School's Davidson Field.

COSTA MESA — The Los Angeles Times and Daily Pilot recently donated a share of the proceeds from the annual Pilot Cup youth soccer tournament to the city's after-school program. The newspapers donated $750 to Recreation on Campus for Kids after School, or ROCKS, which was threatened by a recent round of city budget cuts. Because the Pilot Cup is sponsored by the newspapers, the city and the school district, The Times and Daily Pilot donate a portion of the proceeds to a public cause after the tournament concludes.

COSTA MESA — School's out but the school board race is in session. A small group of candidates have taken out papers to run in the Nov. 2 election. As the 5 p.m. Aug. 9 deadline looms at the Orange County Registrar of Voters, there are four open seats on the seven-member board. Incumbent Judy Franco said if anybody wants to witness chaos, they should head to the registrar about an hour before its Santa Ana offices close. "If there's no opponent, then as an incumbent you don't have to file anything," said Franco, a veteran school board member who's served for nearly three decades.

John Ramsey was the finest sports public address announcer I ever heard. Bob Sheppard, the legendary P.A. voice for the New York Yankees, died recently after more than 50 years behind the microphone. I had heard Sheppard at Yankee Stadium. He was, without question, a luminary. Some called him "The Voice of God." But if Sheppard was The Voice of God, then Ramsey's booming basso profundo had to be "The Reverberating Echo of the Big Bang." Ramsey could introduce Sandy Koufax and make the hair on your neck stand up. During his more than 30-year career, Ramsey was the voice of the Dodgers, Angels, Lakers, Raiders, USC Trojans and many other teams and events.