Come to a Cinco de Mayo celebration sponsored by HMB High School Parent Advisory Council. All proceeds will benefit the exemplary academic, sports and arts programs at Half Moon Bay High School.

When:  May 9, 2008 from 7 PM to Midnight
Where: Harbor House
What:  Live music, margaritas, wine, beer, tons of appetizers.  Dance to the music of The South City Blues Band!
How Much:  Purchase tickets in advance at Main St. Goldworks or Bay Book for $40 ($50 at the door).

I am the parent of a child on the waitlist for the popular Spanish Immersion program at Hatch Elementary.

Desite the fact that a third Kindergarten classroom was added last year to meet the demand, there are a total of 30 families on the list again this year. 

This is an innovative and successful program that is obviously in demand by parents on the coast. As wait-listed parents, we are banding together to approach the district to request further expansion. We would like to reach out to other parents on the wait list to offer them the opportunity to be a part of our effort.

Our first organizing meeting is on Wed, April 30th at 6:30 pm in Half Moon Bay. If your child is on the list and you’d like to participate or simply be kept up to date on our activities, .

Nine Coastside Preschools will be open to the public on April 26 at Coastside Mothers’ Club 14th annual preschool open house hosting nine Coastside preschools from Half Moon Bay to Montara.  The preschools will be open for tours on Saturday, April 26, 2008 from 10am to 1pm.

This year’s open house will feature a kick-off event “School Selection:  What to Look for?” This short briefing will be held from 9:00am – 10:00am and lead by a local educator who has visited over 200 classrooms.  This session will offer families criteria to consider in evaluating preschools and will provide participants with a five-minute observation tool to use during the open house tours.  RSVP required for this kick-off event, contact: Karen Hoffman, 728-7953.  Location to be determined.

The preschool open house that follows, from 10:00am – 1:00pm, is a great opportunity for interested families to meet directors and teachers, discuss curriculum, daily schedules, and other program information, pick up enrollment forms and inquire about waiting lists.  No RSVP is required for the open house tours.  Attendees may visit any preschool on the list at their leisure during open house hours.

Both events are open to the public, free of charge, as a community service to all Coastside residents.  Children are welcome. 

Click here for the full story.

Invite your friends and family from 7 to 11pm Saturday at the new Harbor Village Mall to cruise through great auction items while eating Coastside foods, drinking your choice of margaritas, wine, beer or champagne and dancing to the sounds of Catie Chase and the Getaways. 

New auction items and some returning favorites include: 

• A week long summer vacation cabin near Bear Valley for family fun!


• A personal ride for 3 kids from home to school in a fire engine - complete with fire chief escort all the way into class!


• Be one of the first to stay at the new luxury hotel and spa, Oceana, in the Harbor Village.


• The ever popular behind the scenes visit to the SF 49ers Training Camp this summer.


• Plus fabulous creations from the kids’ classrooms and much, much more.


• WIN the $2,000 CASH raffle!

All monies raised support the Farallone View Education Fund.  Enjoy a great evening out and help support your local school.  The evening of fun, food, drinks, entertainment, wonderful auction items and dancing costs only $20/ticket available at Luna Memories, Bay Book, FV scrip table or at the door.  Raffle tickets are $10 each, 3 for $25, and 8 for $50.  You do not need to be present to win.

Mark your calendars now.  Dress cruise casual, put on your dancing shoes, bring your check book or credit card, and have a great time inside the new Harbor Village Mall at Princeton Harbor on Capistrano Road!

Thanks to the following supporters for their donations of food and beverages: Picchi Brothers Winery, Half Moon Bay Brewing Co., La Nebbia Winery, Mezza Luna, Café Gibraltar, Half Moon Bay Coffee Co., Trader Joe’s, Safeway and Event Savvy.  For more information and auction booklet, please visit http://www.cabrillo.k12.ca.us/faralloneview/edfund/Auction_2008.htm.

It’s a movie and it’s a movement and it’s an evening not to miss. Please join us at the I.D.E.S. Hall (735 Main Street, Half Moon Bay) on March 31st for a special screening of the film, “Two Angry Moms,” an inspiring movie that’s as much about life as it is about lunch. Two extraordinary moms skillfully channel their frustration into a positive, motivating message that’s downright infectious. Ultimately, the film is about how schools and communities together can combat the health challenges facing children today. It’s hard to imagine better timing or an area with more potential than our own backyard given its rich agricultural heritage and committed citizenry.

Early birds get first dibs on farm fresh produce which will be available at 5pm under the telltale white tents of the Coastside Farmers Market. At 6:30pm, sit back and enjoy the show which will be introduced by former Coastside resident, Chef Ann Cooper, (the Renegade Lunch Lady and current Director of the Berkeley Unified School District Food Service Program.) After the film, stay tuned for a panel discussion and Chef Ann’s signing of her latest book, Lunch Lessons. (Admission is free and childcare is available during the film.)

This event is brought to you by the generous support of the Half Moon Bay branch of the American Association of University Women and the Health and Wellness Convening which includes the following partners: CUSD Food and Nutrition Department, the Coastside Health Committee, Coastside Farmers Markets, the HEAL Project, Cunha Community Schools, Seton Coastside, Movin’ on the Coast, and the Coastside Family Medical Center.

For more information, please visit http://twoangrymoms.bravenewtheaters.com/

Questions: contact Sonja Myhre at

The Cabrillo Unified School District must cut 10 percent of its budget for the coming year as a result of the governor’s proposed budget, reports the County Times.

If the state passes the governor’s budget proposal as-is, the Cabrillo Unified School District stands to lose $2.1 million of its $31 million budget next year. The district already plans to cut $600,000 next year through a variety of measures, including shrinking spending on supplies and conferences and maximizing class sizes, according to Superintendent Rob Gaskill.

The rest of the savings will come from eliminating three full-time English teachers — two at Cunha Middle School, one at Half Moon Bay High. Gaskill hopes at least one of the teachers will be reinstated next year, depending on whether any other teachers resign or retire.

Gaskill said the rest of the cuts would come out of the district’s reserve fund, which would be cut in half under Schwarzenegger’s proposal.

Join us on Thursday, March 27 at 5:45 PM in the HMB High School gym.

Listen to speakers from the University of California, California State University and Community College systems. Ask questions of the HMBHS Student Alumni Panel from UC Santa Cruz, Berkeley and San Diego, Sonoma and Sacramento State Univs. USC, and more! Chat with representatives from Notre Dame de Namur, Menlo College, SF Academy of Art, SF City College Culinary Academy, UC Santa Cruz, SF State Univ. College of San Mateo, Western New England College, ROP, AAUW and more.

There will be free pizza and iPod raffle.  Questions?  Call Jan Clark, PAC President @ 712-9596.

By Natalie Moyce

Natalie Moyce is a Senior at HMBHS and can be seen as “Frenchie” in the Spring musical Grease.

You can always tell when musical season is about to start just by walking through the halls of Half Moon Bay High. Rumors of possible plays run high, whispers of audition dates spur excitement, and a general nervous buzz fills the air. Auditions roll around, and you wonder how you’re going to sing in front of an audience when your legs shake in front of just a few fellow singers. Mr. Ward, our faithful director, will smile at you encouragingly, and you walk away practically positive that you didn’t make the cut. If you’re lucky, you will be off to callbacks, and audition again, this time with other, often older students, wishing you were brave enough to act the way they can. Soon, the day comes, and you see your name on the list! Regardless of what part you get, you still end up with your heart jumping at the prospects of the journey you’re about to embark upon. You learn lines slowly but surely, often letting one slip impromptu in every day conversation. You hum songs to yourself between classes, and practice dance steps while sitting at your desk. Before you know it, opening night is approaching fast. Costumes haven’t been fitted, everyone’s forgetting lines, props are missing, songs haven’t been choreographed, and you’re sure that this play will never come together in time.

But then the last week comes along, and suddenly, everything falls into place. Not only are lines remembered, but they make you laugh when hearing them, though you know them like the back of your hand. Dance numbers gain a rhythm they never had before, and fill you with an energy to make every step count. Costumes, the band, and the lights make everything seem larger than life, and hit you with the realization that this is a real theater now, and the audience is going to love this show.

Such is the experience of participating in the musical at Half Moon Bay High, something that many people choose to do annually. “Every year that I do the musical, I get to work with the same group of people that I’ve always known, with some new faces and talent each time, and it’s great when we all get together to make something worth seeing,” says Erinn McHale, a senior this year who has participated in the musical throughout her high school career. She plays the part of Jan, one of the Pink Ladies in this year’s Grease, a popular movie and musical for all. The title alone will draw an enthusiastic audience, who will discover that, although the well-known plot and quirky characters are the same, some of the songs from the movie are missing. However, they will be even more entertained by this original version of the musical, which includes songs and scenes not present in the movie and avoids the clichés of the same-old Grease that everyone has seen on the small screen.

Tickets are on sale at Bay Book for $8 for students and children $12 for adults. Grease opens this Friday night, at 8 PM in the Student Center at Half Moon Bay High School. Shows will be Friday and Sat at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm this weekend and next.  All those students will be standing behind the curtain, awaiting your eager eyes and ears, so that they might have the opportunity to entertain you. We hope to see you there.

Click here for the full story.

The Farallone View Education Fund says they are one of the top 250 schools out of 15,000 nationally participating in a recent Safeway scrip promotion. This earned them an additional $1000 from Safeway, for a grand total of $4,105.

The Farallone View Education Fund group use their eScrip funds to pay the salaries for each 4th and 5th grade classroom aide, the librarian, and an additional office clerk.  Art, music, and physical education are also programs that the parents at Farallone View fund. The fund made over $35,000 last year from its eScrip program.

Students at HMB High School want to be MADE, and in Allan Bruce’s case, that means riding the waves at Mavericks.  These days, Bruce, a junior at HMBHS, is more teen idol than surfer dude.  Currently appearing in the spring musical “Grease” as Doody, Allan’s more focused on acting, singing and studies than hanging ten. 

Why a surfer?  “I’ve lived in Half Moon Bay all my life, I always thought how cool it would be to surf. I mean Half Moon Bay is a surfing community, and I feel since I can’t surf, I don’t feel I’m a part of this community as I would like too. I love everything about surfing the rush and the adrenaline. I have been watching MADE ever since I was in the sixth grade, and I always thought of how cool it would be to be taught something by a professional! I am not just doing this for TV, I am doing this for the experience. I mean don’t get me wrong being on TV would be so much fun, but mainly the experience is what I am looking at.” And the audition process?  Bruce called it “really easy and comfortable.”

Lissandro Garcia, another tenured actor (Kiss me Kate and Grease) at HMBHS agrees.  “I want to be a hip-hop dancer because it is something totally random from what I am, which is outgoing and nerdy”.  Garcia’s favorite part of the audition, “They told me to do my best interpretation of a hip hop dancer and I did.  I did the robot and shook my booty for him and he started laughing. I would say it was quite an experience. The MTV guy was really cool and nice.”

Entering its eighth season, MTV’s “MADE” is one of the network’s most successful shows because of its ability to connect with ordinary teens who often find their lives mirrored by the contestants.

Click here for the full story.