Corona Del Mar High School

A $1.5-million aquatic center will open next month at Corona del Mar High School. The effort to build the facility was spearheaded by the Swim for the Gold Committee, a private group that, over a 1 1/2-year period, raised the money to build it. The center includes an Olympic-size swimming pool, lockers for boys and girls, a weight room and offices.

What a difference $800,000 can make. The Corona del Mar High School Foundation spent that much money over the summer to clean and paint the school and outfit it with new computers and telephone systems. The finishing touches are now being put on a new language lab that cost the foundation $98,000. Even the parking lot got a make-over with new palm trees, benches and a resurfacing, all paid for by the foundation. "It really looks great," said foundation spokeswoman Kimberly Rothwell.

Corona del Mar High School basketball Coach Jack Errion is resting comfortably at home in Newport Beach following major surgery and a prolonged hospital stay. Errion, 59, underwent vascular surgery April 18 and was released from the hospital Sunday. While there, Errion had his aorta--the main artery from the heart to the organs--replaced with an artificial artery from the heart to the groin area.

School district officials said they are unlikely to change their "zero tolerance" drug policy despite a judge's decision to postpone the suspension of one student who allegedly violated the rule. Judge Robert Thomas ruled this week that Ryan Huntsman could return to Corona del Mar High School pending a March 17 hearing with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District on his suspension.

A suspended Corona del Mar football coach pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of having repeatedly had unlawful sex with his adopted teen-age daughter since moving to Orange County last year. Mark Aubrey Schuster, 48, was arraigned in Municipal Court in Newport Beach on 16 counts of unlawful sexual intercourse--representing one incident per month since June, 1994--and one count of oral copulation with a minor.

A new weight room will soon be the latest addition to Corona del Mar High School, thanks to parents and boosters who raised nearly $200,000. The new facility will be built next to the school's tennis courts and football field and will add about 4,000 square feet of gym space. The area will be divided into a weight room, a meeting room, coaches offices and outdoor space. The exterior design will match the existing Marian Bergeson Aquatic Center.

Carefully avoiding eye contact with the adopted daughter who accused him, a popular former Corona del Mar High School football coach was sentenced Friday to five years and eight months in state prison for having sex with the teenager as "payments" for poor grades, clothing purchases and permission to go on dates. Mark Aubrey Schuster, 49, received close to the maximum possible sentence of six years.