Report card

Patriotism has been on display at Harbour View School. Principal Roni

Ellis said that students school-wide have participated in a fund-raising

program called, “Nickels for New York,” where monies received will be

sent to the Firefighters 911 Disaster Relief Fund, benefiting the

spouses, children and family members of those firefighters killed in the

collapse of the World Trade Center.

Astronauts set down in Mesa View

Five U.S. astronauts touched down in Huntington Beach last Wednesday

for an extensive visit with students at Mesa View Middle School.

The space explorers spent nearly an hour describing their July 12

flight aboard the shuttle Atlantis on a mission to the International

Space Station, where they delivered and attached the U.S. air lock,

Quest, also known as the ISS joint air lock.

The air lock allows crew members of the space station to enter and

exit the station for studies and repair work outside.

The Atlantis crew -- Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Charles Hobaugh

and Mission Specialists Michael Gernhardt, James Reilly and Janet Kavandi

-- all delivered the same strong message to attentive students: if you

want to do something, set your goals, work hard and you can probably

achieve whatever you want.

All five expressed great joy in the space flight and told students

what a wonderful experience it was to see the earth 500 miles below them.

“It was a wonderful experience for our students and faculty,”

Principal Lon Hyland said. “We all were connected by the tragedies of the

day before, and the visit by these astronauts was really an uplifting

experience for our kids.”

The astronauts’ visit to Mesa View was made possible by the help of

NASA Space Flight Awareness Directors Sheree Rannow, Bill Johnson and

Scott Pilon, who were all present at Tuesday’s session with the students.

NASA and Mesa View have been partners for the past three years in

helping students and school staff members gain firsthand experience with

the space program.

Ocean View seeks volunteers

The Ocean View School District is seeking applicants for its special

education community advisory committee. It is a committee of citizens,

educators and community agency representatives who are appointed by the

board of trustees.

The committee meets at least four times a year to fulfill the

responsibilities established by the education code. Those

responsibilities include advising the board of trustees, establishing

annual priorities, assisting in parent education, recruiting volunteers,

encouraging community involvement and supporting activities on behalf of

handicapped children. Parents of both non-hadicapped and handicapped

school-age children are particularly encouraged to apply.

Applications are available at the district office, Student Services

Department.

Croft national merit semi finalist

Huntington Beach resident James Crofts is one of eight National Merit

semifinalists from Mater Dei High’s Class of 2002.

Crofts has been selected based on his results in taking the

Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test. More than 2,000,000 students

nationwide took this test in October and only 16,000 of those students

have been declared semifinalists.

Crofts now has an opportunity to continue in the competition for 8,000

Merit Scholarship Awards valued at more than $32,000,000.

To become a finalist, semifinalists must have an outstanding high

school academic record and submit SAT scores that confirm their earlier

qualifying test scores.

The announcement of the finalists and the scholarship awards will be

made starting in April, 2002.