Sierra Middle School

A play known for its sober and unflinching look at teen-agers and AIDS will be presented at Sierra Vista Middle School on Thursday night. "Secrets," a drama produced by the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program and previously shown at high schools across the county, has met with praise in Irvine since it was performed at Lakeside Middle School last month. "I think the information is very important," said Carolyn McInerney, the PTA president at Stonecreek Elementary School.

Los Naranjos Elementary School has been a part of Sue Williams' life since the campus opened nearly 20 years ago. Over that time, at least one of her four children has always attended the school. Williams, too, has become a familiar face, volunteering her time to a variety of tasks from raising money for special programs to typing and collating files. The Irvine Education Foundation this month named Williams as the group's parent volunteer of the year.

Nearly as fast as flames raced through the hills of eastern Orange County, telephone trees lit up Tuesday to spread the word that 11 public schools had closed as a precaution and thousands of students had the day off. On 10 campuses in the Irvine, Orange and Tustin districts, classes were canceled before the school day started about 8 a.m. One elementary school in the Tustin Ranch neighborhood shut down midmorning after teachers and students complained of headaches caused by smoke and ash.

She says this is fun. She claims this is cool. She swears that while the officials are shouting at her to get out of the way because a tennis ball is zooming toward her head at 130 mph, that nothing, not even a Pete Sampras smile, could be as exhilarating. Notice Kasey Vaughn over there in the corner of the court? Probably not. She is nothing more than 5 feet of freckles, braces, toothpicks for arms and a ball cap pulled low on her head. She is 11 years old, and in the sixth grade.

Some days, eighth-grader Luis Antonio Bonola skips lunch to type his assignments in the school's computer lab. Other days, he asks permission to skip class to use the lab. Luis, 14, must use the computers at Sierra Vista Middle School because his parents can't afford to buy one, he said. "It's hard because I can't do the reports," Luis said. "Sometimes my teachers won't let me go to the computer lab because I might miss the lessons." Soon, he won't need to ask.

Malibu Creek State Park is a good place to hike and take in the views, but that's not why 190 Sierra Canyon Middle School students are planning to head over there today. Eager to participate in an outdoor community service project, the Chatsworth sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders will join a state park ranger, California Native Plants Society volunteers and members of the Santa Monica Mountains Trail Council in a daylong cleanup of the popular park.

Granada Hills' Kennedy High School wood shop could easily be mistaken for its famous counterpart at the North Pole, as students put the finishing touches on holiday projects as diverse as walnut grandfather clocks and wooden treasure chest aquariums. Branden Silverman, 17, is hard at work building a folding chair, which he is donating to Fire Station 87 in Granada Hills.

Sometimes dreams can become a reality. Yuliana Cabrera, 9, has won $10,000 for Burton Elementary School for new playground equipment. The fourth-grader was the grand-prize winner in a contest--sponsored by the Kimberly-Clark Foundation--in which she drew the playground of her dreams. "I was so excited to find out I had won," the doubtful artist said of her crayon masterpiece showing a tennis court, swings, slides--even a swimming pool.

A group of Sierra Canyon Middle School legal eagles was honored Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for their first-place win in the 21st annual Los Angeles County Mock Trial Competition, junior division, held late last year. The 16 seventh- and eighth-graders had put in more than 100 weekend and lunch hours at the Chatsworth campus, practicing their roles as attorneys and witnesses.

It's hard to tell who benefited most from the painting party at John Novak's Newhall home this week. True, the 76-year-old Novak moved one step closer to having a home after his was destroyed in the Northridge earthquake. But it was the students from Sierra Canyon Middle School in Chatsworth who seemed to be getting the better end of the deal. Faces speckled with paint, tresses wrapped in kerchiefs, the eighth-graders attacked their part of the home construction project with vehemence.