Schools

Irvine's Northwood High School is a California Distinguished School for 2013, State Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced Thursday. The Irvine Unified School District campus is one of 218 middle and high schools across the state to be awarded with the honor, according to a news release from the California Department of Education. "These schools have gone the extra mile to provide high-quality instruction that puts their students on the right path toward career and college," Torlakson said in a prepared statement.

Residents can raise money for their local schools while getting their grocery shopping done. Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is now registering for its 2011 Shop for Schools fundraising program, which donated $90,000 to Orange County schools last year. Schools can earn $1 for every $20 receipt collected between Sept. 15 through Dec. 31 at any Fresh & Easy store. The school that raises the most money in California also gets a $5,000 bonus. The program is open to any K-8 school within a three-mile radius of any Fresh & Easy store.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District maintenance workers were painting over graffiti — some of it reported to be racist in nature — at a pair of schools Monday morning. Newport Harbor High School and Mariners Elementary School were "tagged" with graffiti over the weekend, according to Newport-Mesa Unified spokeswoman Laura Boss. She said the vandalism was reported to Newport Beach police and that officers came out, took pictures and are in the process of investigating.

CORONA DEL MAR — Four Corona del Mar schools were briefly locked down Thursday as Newport Beach police searched the area for an estranged husband accused of hitting his wife. For more than an hour, kids and faculty from Lincoln Elementary School, Harbor Day School, Pacific Shores Day School and Newport Center United Methodist Preschool were kept in their classrooms until police cleared the area without finding their man. The suspect, 47-year-old Mark Ward from Nevada, did not pose a danger to the kids, police said.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District wants help identifying employees who go above and beyond the call of duty. The district will honor its quarterly "Super Star" employees at a May 28 board meeting, but first nominations must be submitted. Submit names at http://www.nmusd.us/superstar anonymously or publicly by April 30. The Super Star awards selection committee will then winnow the suggestions to between 20 and 25 people to be honored by the school board. Every employees nominated will receive a congratulatory letter, and all selected Super Stars will receive a pin, certificate and personal engraved star from the school board.

The Daily Pilot edition dated Feb. 8 offered an interesting contrast between two sincere advocates concerned with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District's successful accomplishment of its mission to properly educate and prepare its graduates to be all they can be. Views were presented by Pilot columnist Steve Smith and school board Trustee Karen Yelsey. Smith's front page-column ("City Life: Hubbard could be re-hired") suggested a competent checklist for avoiding contractual obligations that have plagued past N-MUSD administrations.

A few months before his untimely death last October, Steve Jobs was visited by his longtime business rival Bill Gates. The two technology giants talked for hours, at one point discussing their visions of what schools of the future should look like and their mutual disappointment that the educational establishment had failed to fully embrace the computer age. This small but telling anecdote was mentioned in Walter Isaacson's excellent, exhaustive...

A couple of Newport-Mesa Unified School District schools will see what their peers have to say about them in a few months. Costa Mesa High School will be greeted by the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges Saturday, and Estancia High School was just visited by a committee from the organization that evaluates schools, according to school officials. The WASC accreditation allows the schools to be seen as valid, said Tom Antal, director of secondary education for the school district.

COSTA MESA — To lighten parents' paperwork in signing children up for the next school year, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District this summer will test an online registration system at Costa Mesa and Corona del Mar high schools. If the pilot run is successful, officials said, the program will be expanded to other campuses. The school board approved a contract Tuesday night with Jireh Information Systems Inc. to try a school registration and student management software program, K-12 Online.

Big West bids The University of Hawaii, Cal State Bakersfield and UC San Diego have applied for membership in the Big West Conference, according to multiple published reports. The three schools submitted information to the Irvine-based Big West office before a Wednesday deadline. The Big West currently is comprised of nine California schools, including UC Irvine. The Big West features baseball, as well as men's and women's competition in basketball, soccer, tennis, track and field and golf.

"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.

City and school officials in Costa Mesa certainly agree on the merits of a $100,000 grant for athletic facilities at two local high schools. They just can't quite agree on the delivery method - even after the money's supposedly arrived. The grant originated with the city of Costa Mesa, but the city and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District disagree on where it went from there. City officials insist the money is distributed through a youth sports nonprofit, Costa Mesa United.

TORRANCE - One hard hit wasn't going to end 21 years of futility in the first round of the CIF Southern Section baseball playoffs for Estancia High. That hit is all the Eagles produced on Friday at South Torrance in the first round of the Division 4 playoffs. The hit came in the top of the first inning, when Steven Macias' line drive almost ripped off the third baseman's hand. Joe Aldape took off his glove to check what was left of his left hand. The hand actually grew. At one point, his coach, Grady Sain, wasn't sure if the swelling was going to stop.

MURRIETA - Calvary Murrieta's star softball pitcher, senior Chelsie Keller, was feeling sick Tuesday morning. So was her batterymate, freshman catcher Sarah McWaters. At about 10:30 a.m. they delivered the bad news to Warriors Coach Celeste Ducharme. "I said, 'Don't go home, let's see how you do in warm-ups,'" Ducharme said. "It was one inning at a time. " Six innings was all it took for the home team in the CIF Southern Section Division 5 wild-card playoff game. Keller threw a no-hitter as the Warriors routed Estancia, 15-0, ending the Eagles' season.

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.

MONTEBELLO - The bond between baseball brothers on the Estancia High team only became stronger in the third inning at Montebello High. A wild-card playoff game in the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs can bring out the best in players. Yet, a highly questionable call against the Eagles also seemed to trigger some big-time energy from Estancia. The Eagles responded well from a controversial hit-by-pitch judgment call. They scored five runs over the final four innings and pushed past Montebello, 7-1. Estancia will play at South Torrance (17-10)

NEWPORT COAST - The first thing that caught the eye of Coach Gabriel Reyes when he and his Panorama City St. Genevieve team arrived at Sage Hill was the high school baseball field. "We don't get [to see] these type of baseball fields in the [San Fernando Valley]," said Reyes, while marveling at the manicured infield, the trimmed outfield grass and the 12-foot fence around it, and the batting cage behind the visitors' dugout. While St. Genevieve had never played on a field as nice as Sage Hill's, the host school had never seen a pitcher quite like the one it faced Tuesday.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District has picked out seven athletics improvement projects to build with a $100,000 grant from Costa Mesa. The money is the first installment of what could add up to half a million dollars in grants from the city in the next five years if Costa Mesa chooses to continue the program as it has projected, according to a resolution the council approved in February. The money is meant to fund capital improvements at Costa Mesa high schools where the public has access during non-school hours.

The Estancia High and Sage Hill School baseball teams are the lone survivors/playoff squads from the Newport-Mesa area. Both teams were assigned Tuesday wild-card games when CIF Southern Section playoff pairings were released Monday. Games are scheduled to begin at 3:15 p.m. In Division 4, Estancia (16-9), the Orange Coast League third-place team will play at Montebello (15-9), the Almont League second-place team. The winner will play at South Torrance (17-10, Pioneer League champion)

BOYS' TRACK AND FIELD CIF Southern Section Division 2 preliminaries MOORPARK - Newport Harbor senior Marty Taylor qualified first in the discus throw with a personal-best heave of 190 feet, 4 1/2 inches and he qualified first in the shotput in 60-9 1/2 at Moorpark High on Saturday. Taylor is one of three Sailors advancing to the CIF Southern Section Division 2 finals next week at Mt. San Antonio College. Will Fortier and Ramsey Hufford qualified in the shotput with marks of 53-4 (seventh)