Estancia High School

Got some old tires in the garage you want to get rid of? The Costa Mesa Sanitary District and Costa Mesa are teaming up for a used tire collection to recycle them. You can drop off the used tires from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the city’s corporation yard, which is across the street from Estancia High School, 2300 Placentia Ave. Unmounted and mounted tires will be accepted for no charge. Recyclers can use the material for playground coverings for local schools or for road paving.

Kylie Wilson Balancing divergent expectations from separated parents was difficult for Kylie Wilson, but the Estancia High School senior came up with a solution that allowed her to continue on her path to medical school. Kylie has wanted to be a doctor as far back as she can remember. Her dad was a ski patrol officer in Big Bear and through him she came to relish the adrenaline rush of medical emergencies and the satisfaction of healing people, she said. Because of her dad’s knowledge of science and math, Kylie spent her high school years living with him. He encouraged her to concentrate all of her effort on her studies, while her mom was adamant that she get a job and learn about responsibility and commitment.

Editor's Note: Daily Pilot reporter Michael Miller spotlights two outstanding students from five area schools. For more student profiles, click here . For the first 17 years of her life, Jaspreet Kaur lived with her family in the Punjab region of western India. Her father was a farmer while her mother worked as a housekeeper. America seemed like such a faraway land that, according to a popular saying in her region, the country had no sun or moon. Before her sophomore year, Kaur's parents moved the family across the Atlantic to give their children better opportunities for the future.

High school took Taylor Schow five years to finish — four in the classroom and one in the hospital and rehabilitation center. Just two years ago, near the end of her junior year, she fainted at Estancia High School and was rushed to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian with a brain hemorrhage. Her family and friends never imagined she wouldn’t leave the hospital for two months. Because she was in the highly regulated intensive care unit, most of her friends couldn’t come and visit her, and she lost touch with them.

COSTA MESA — Cyndie Borcoman looks around the special-education classroom at Estancia High School twice a month and sees a wide range of young people — some handicapped, some not; some struggling to read and write, and others tutoring them as best they can. But Borcoman, the on-site leader for Santiago Creek Community School in Santa Ana, sees a definite link among all the students. Her school, run by the Orange County Department of Education, services at-risk teens who have dropped out or been expelled, and like many special-needs students, they haven't always had people counting on them to succeed.

Editor’s note: This is the first of three parts. Sweatshirts bearing Australia’s flag have replaced cardinal red and gold spirit attire at Estancia High School. A didgeridoo, the indigenous Australian instrument, lay in a corner of the Costa Mesa school’s administrative office. “Australian Youth Ambassadors Arrive January 16, 2010,” a banner on the school’s website announces. On Saturday, Estancia will open its doors to seven exchange students from the land Down Under.

Abby Koff’s cellphone recognizes only five numbers by voice command. Those numbers are assigned to her mom, her two older brothers, 9-1-1 and “Pops.” When Koff was a fifth-grader at Victoria Elementary, her father died in an accident. She felt drawn then to Costa Mesa Officer Jess Gilman, her school’s DARE representative at the time. She nicknamed him Pops — not because he consoled her about her father’s death, but because he did not. “I don’t know how to explain it,” said Abby, now an Estancia High School senior.

COSTA MESA — About 150 people poured into Estancia High School's gym to celebrate the life of Jim Scott, an avid school booster who pioneered the building of the school's football stadium that today bears his name. The memorial coincided with the Battle of the Bell, a ritual he created in the mid-1980s to foster community traditions and a friendly competition between Estancia and its cross-town rival, Costa Mesa High, said son Jim Scott Jr. The ceremony began and ended with a bagpipe, whose player wore a red kilt and Scott Clan shirt.

COSTA MESA — A delegation of Estancia High School students returned Monday from Sacramento where they spent five days doing the jobs of senators, lobbyists and a trial court defense attorney. Estancia sent 19 students to the state YMCA Youth & Government's 63rd annual Model Legislature & Court conference, a mock legislature and judicial government where students learn how the process works by doing it themselves. Students wrote and introduced bills, covered the proceedings as print or broadcast journalists and lobbied legislators to support or kill a bill as the worked in the State Capitol building.

FRIDAY Expo and Fun Night The Costa Mesa Community Run Expo and Family Fun Night is from 5 to 9 p.m. at Estancia High School, 2323 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa. FRIDAY TILL SUNDAY Pacific Playwrights Festival South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, will hold its 15th annual Pacific Playwrights Festival. For more information, go to http://www.scr.org . 'A Pure View' "A Pure View," an exhibition of Chinese paintings by Bo Hong, is at the Environmental Nature Center, 1601 16th St., Newport Beach.

The Costa Mesa Community Run unveiled a new 10K race course as part of its fifth anniversary celebration. The course, designed by California cross-country legend George Varvas, will take runners through Fairview Park and Talbert Regional Park, along the eastern bank of the Santa Ana River on April 28. Varvas is the race's new director and founder of the Woodbridge Invitational Cross Country Classic, which takes place at Estancia High School...

Grease Lightning is coming to Sonic. Estancia High School students dressed as Sandy Olsen, Danny Zuko, Betty Rizzo and the rest of the gang from "Grease" will take over as celebrity car hops from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at 3095 Harbor Blvd., Costa Mesa. Sonic will donate 20% of the night's proceeds back to the drama department when patrons present the event's flier. The students are promoting their upcoming production of the musical, which takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. March 8 through 10 at Estancia's Barbara Van Holt Theatre, 2323 Placentia Ave. Tickets are $10 for students and $15 for general admission.

COSTA MESA — Estancia High School's drama department is taking on an American theater classic about the Salem witch trials that uses allegory to connect the colonial-era story to McCarthyism. Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" made its 1953 stage debut and has been revived frequently ever since. But it's not exactly an easy show, particularly for high school students. "It's emotionally mature," said senior Riley Stack, 18, who plays John Proctor. "The last couple of years we did comedy dramas.

COSTA MESA — About 150 people poured into Estancia High School's gym to celebrate the life of Jim Scott, an avid school booster who pioneered the building of the school's football stadium that today bears his name. The memorial coincided with the Battle of the Bell, a ritual he created in the mid-1980s to foster community traditions and a friendly competition between Estancia and its cross-town rival, Costa Mesa High, said son Jim Scott Jr. The ceremony began and ended with a bagpipe, whose player wore a red kilt and Scott Clan shirt.

COSTA MESA - The barbershop was buzzing - literally - as the Estancia High School football team got their heads shaved Monday night. Community members, local officials and Estancia cheerleaders gathered outside talking and eating pizza as the players inside took turns getting shaved. As the hairs fell to the ground, their fellow teammates snapped pictures using cell phones and drank ice cream floats using the barbershop's root beer tap. "I don't care. It's hair," said junior Dustin Long, 17. "It grows back.

COSTA MESA — Politics boiled over into other areas of city life this week, as the Orange County Employees Assn. found itself having to explain why a private investigator was questioning parents of high school football players about missing campaign signs. "Scores of our supporters have reported their signs were vandalized or stolen from their private property," OCEA spokeswoman Jennifer Muir said Friday. "We attempted to look into and resolve the matter privately so that nobody got in trouble.

The Costa Mesa High skate team is dominating the OC Skateboarding League school teams series this season. Costa Mesa skated against rival Estancia High School, and three other high school skate teams: Northwood, San Clemente and Mission Viejo on Friday at Volcom Skate Park in Costa Mesa. With some of the best skating of the season, Mesa’s team, led by Senior Dominick Walker, took first place with three riders in the finals: Michael Scheidt, Sterling Wright, and Walker.

COSTA MESA — Jim Scott, a passionate Costa Mesa schools booster who led projects that included a new football stadium at Estancia High School, died Saturday of heart failure, his son, Jim Scott Jr., said Thursday. He was 85. A private memorial service was held for Scott on Wednesday in Corona del Mar. A service for the community is still being planned, with no time or date confirmed yet, Scott Jr. said. Scott was known for his tenacity and persistence in getting facilities constructed at Estancia and Costa Mesa high schools.

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.