Newport Harbor High School

Deirdre Newman Thank God for cell phones. That's the attitude of administrators at Newport Harbor High School, who might have had to resort to smoke signals from their castle tower to communicate with the outside world after their phone and computer access were suddenly cut off this week. "There hasn't been a real problem with parents, since most people here have cell phones," said Kathy Murphy, administrative assistant to principal Michael Vossen, who has been entrusted with the school's emergency cell phone.

Simona Avram Newport Harbor High School Senior Simona Avram didn’t even know what the English word “tardy” meant when she moved with her mother and 12-year-old brother from Timisoara, Romania, as a freshman. Now she’s graduating near the top of her class, with 10 Advanced Placement courses under her belt. “I feel like I’ve grown up a lot and come so far,” Avram said. “It’s been miracle after miracle. It wasn’t easy; every single step of the way was hard.

Editor’s note: In celebration of graduation day, the Daily Pilot spotlights two outstanding students from each of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s five high schools.  For video of the students, click here.   The stereotypes of high school are well-documented. Gossip, drama and difficulty with friends have been a staple of the teen experience in the media — and no school may know this more than Newport Harbor High School, which recently became the subject of its own reality TV show.

NEWPORT BEACH — Eight decades of Newport Beach history came to a close Thursday morning as a crew began demolishing Robins Hall, the iconic building at Newport Harbor High School that is slated to be replaced under the Measure F school bond. With a crowd of about two dozen people, many of them former students, snapping pictures, an excavator set to work tearing down the walls on the building’s right side. The wooden structure crumpled like cardboard under the giant metal claw, revealing the barren rooms that housed classrooms for generations.

Most students at Newport Harbor High School have probably never spent a day at a campus without clean water, books or adequate classroom supplies. Someday, thanks to the efforts of a dedicated Newport Harbor club, children at Sacred Heart Secondary School in northern Uganda may never go without them either. This year, a San Diego-based nonprofit called Invisible Children called on schools nationwide to raise money for campuses in one of Africa's most troubled regions. The nonprofit announced this week that Newport Harbor High School, which was assigned to benefit the all-girl boarding school Sacred Heart, netted $44,042 — the most raised for Invisible Children by any school in the United States.

Victorian-style dresses, three-piece suits, sour straw candy and the scent of hair spray fill the backrooms of the Robert B. Wentz Theatre at Newport Harbor High School. It is an hour before the curtain goes up on closing night of the first production to be staged in the newly built New Loats Performing Arts Center. Student performers are getting into costume. The 500-seat auditorium is starting to fill. Yet not a word about the play is being spoken. “It’s a cursed play,” said drama teacher Gail Brower-Nedler, who has been teaching at Newport Harbor for 25 years.

"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.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Anderson of Newport Beach announce the engagement of their daughter, Kathryn Jane Anderson, to Brian Jeffrey Ortwein, son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard M. Ortwein, also of Newport Beach. Both are graduates of Newport Harbor High School and The University of Colorado at Boulder. The bride-to-be received a BA degree in Business where she was affiliated with Pi Beta Phi Sorority. She is employed by The La Jolla Group. Mr. Ortwein earned a BS in Architectural Engineering and is employed by TRI Pointe Homes.

Scott Beaver knows the difficulty first-hand of being an openly gay teen, but the deaths of three friends is what spurred him to action. Two committed suicide; a third succumbed to AIDS, the Newport Harbor High School senior said. "That has been the biggest influence on my entire life," Beaver, a 17-year-old Costa Mesa resident, said in an interview Tuesday. "It was terrible, and it's like, I can't let that happen again, especially at Newport Harbor. I mean, it's my school.

COSTA MESA - Classmates of a Newport Harbor High School teen hit by an SUV outside the school two weeks ago are raising money to help her family pay for her medical expenses as she recovers in intensive care. "Our goal is to raise as much money as possible to help the family's medical bills," said Alexandra Holbrook, 17, a Harbor senior. "She's just a really nice girl, someone you can't imagine this happening to. " Alexandra and her classmates were collecting donations in front of the Ralphs on 17th Street, a few blocks from where 17-year-old Crystal Morales was hit Dec. 6 while crossing Irvine Avenue toward Margaret Drive.

A half dozen Corona del Mar High athletes signed national letters of intent on campus Wednesday, the first day seniors in sports other than football, field hockey, soccer, track and field, cross country and boys' water polo, can fully commit to a college. Alex Musselman, the Daily Pilot Newport-Mesa Dream Team Player of the Year in girls' water polo last season, chose the UCLA women's water polo program. Pippa Saunders signed with the UC Berkeley women's water polo program. Musselman, a goalie, and Saunders, a versatile player, each earned first-team All-CIF Southern Section Division I honors as juniors.

A recent Newport Harbor High School graduate was named a National Merit Scholarship winner in the final round. James T. Kirk was awarded a scholarship by New York University, according to an announcement made Monday in a news release. Kirk was one of 1,700 students nationally chosen in the final round and joins 6,600 students selected earlier in the year. Winners were awarded between $500 to $2,000 scholarships for up to four years from the university they plan to attend.

Gary Grimes II met Jackie Rieser while attending a fifth year of high school at Western Reserve in Dayton, Ohio, in preparation for entry into the United States Naval Academy. Grimes grew up on Lido Isle, the son of Sharon and Gary Grimes . He attended Newport Harbor High School prior to heading east. Jackie knew almost at first sight that Gary was her guy. At 17, she told her father, Harvard-educated attorney John Rieser , of Dayton, "I'm going to marry this boy. " Nine years later, on Dec. 30, 2010, Gary Grimes II, a 2007 graduate of the Naval Academy assigned as the training officer on the U.S.S.

COSTA MESA — Nicolas Jaber is organized. The Newport Harbor High School junior keeps his schedule on his iPhone and a planner. He keeps a political journal to reflect on current events and jot down theories. But it's not warm and fuzzy like a teenage girl's diary, he is quick to point out. He also finally broke down and brought a file cabinet up to his room. "No teenager should have a file cabinet," he joked. Nicolas isn't complaining about the reasons he needs to get more organized.

COSTA MESA — A 17-year-old Costa Mesa resident has died of his injuries in a fire at a local apartment complex, the Orange County coroner's office confirmed Friday. Luke Upton died at 11:16 a.m. Thursday at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, according to the coroner's office. Upton, a student at Newport Harbor High School, was pulled from a burning garage at 145 Melody Lane in Costa Mesa about 3:30 a.m. Thursday and transported to Western Medical Center, said Costa Mesa Fire Battallion Chief Bill Kershaw.

Barbara, a member of Gamma Phi Beta met and married  Lt. Commander John N. Echternach at the University of Washington in 1947. They spent a few years in Beverly Hills, John's hometown, and Newport, R.I., before they settled in Newport Beach, California.  Combined, they dedicated more than 50 years of service to the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. John taught at Newport Harbor High School and Barbara worked as an instructional aide at Mariners, Anderson and California elementary schools.