Pacifica School Volunteers (PSV), a nonprofit organization devoted to helping children succeed in school, has received a request for a Portuguese speaking volunteer.  A fourth grade teacher made the request explaining that a girl in her class speaks only Portuguese and is really struggling in school.  The volunteer could give one hour a week or more to help explain schoolwork and assist the girl in class.  The teacher will supply all course work and materials.  If you can help, please contact Pacifica School Volunteers at (650) 355-9432.

Farallone View’s 27th annual Holiday Bazaar and Family Fair will take place Saturday Dec 1, from 9am to 2pm. There will be lots of holiday favorites—photos with Santa, handmade crafts, baked goodies and lunch, games, a children’s craft area featuring gingerbread houses and face painting. There will also be live entertainment and the famous cakewalk.

There will be a children’s shopping hour from 9 to 10am. During this time kids will have the opportunity to shop and gift wrap their purchases without help from their parents. Older kids (10 and over) are needed to help the younger ones. Students from the 4th and 5th grades will have opportunity to sign up to help during this hour.

Donations are needed: small gift boxes, gift wrap, tape, gift tags, boxes of graham crackers, hard candy (left over Halloween candy), white frosting, baked goods.

Cakes are needed for the cake walk and bake sale. Baked goods and cakes will go to the PTA room, (next to the multipurpose room) on Friday the 30th. You can also bring them the morning of the bazaar.

The Holiday Bazaar has always been an enjoyable day for everyone and a successful fundraising event for Farallone View. All funds generated by the Bazaar will go to support the art and music program at FV. This is also a fantastic community event.  Questions call Joy Portelli (650) 387-8935

Following its investigation of incidents at a football game against Sequoia High School, the Cabrillo Unified School District has concluded there was no evidence of “any retribution in any manner by the Half Moon Bay High School football teams towards the Sequoia football teams” for personal fouls by the Sequoia team. This conclusion is based on statements by the game referee and the Half Moon Bay High coaches. You can download the press release from Coastsider [pdf]. This file also includes copies of the district’s and students’ apologies to Sequoia.

According to the release, “Sequoia has identified an incident” during the game that is still under investigation, saying that if there is substantive evidence, any discipline would have to remain confidential

The district says did not investigate reports of rock and egg throwing, which took place off school grounds, but that all evidence will be turned over to the Half Moon Bay Police.

Rob Gaskill is the new Superintendent of the Cabrillo Unified School District. He’s the new boss of our teachers’ bosses.

Coinciding with the long-awaiting commencement of construction on our new middle school is the retirement of CUSD Superintendent John Bayless, making room for an outsider to take the reins as school superintendent. In this video Rob introduces himself to our community and offers insight into his approach and his way of thinking. 

Friday’s football game at Half Moon Bay High versus Sequoia High School was marked by a number of ugly incidents that led to police escorting the beleaguered visitors out of the school as a group, reports the Daily Journal.

Sequoia High School left Half Moon Bay victorious Friday night, beating the Cougars 20-17. But the victory wasn’t so sweet with accusations of Cougar players using racial and homophobic slurs at Sequoia players; four naked youth storming the field; and eggs thrown at Cherokee cheerleaders and fans. Police had to escort Sequoia parents, players and fans from the game.

Sequoia parents and officials were not amused and there is some discussion of asking that the remaining game to be cancelled and for the two schools not to play each other again.
...
Near the end of game, after police officers walked away from the visitors side, eggs were thrown from outside the stadium at Sequoia cheerleaders and fans in the final minutes of the game, said one Sequoia parent who preferred not to be named. Parents and cheerleaders were hit with eggs.
...
Sequoia Teacher Ron Gordon attended his son’s water polo game earlier this year to hear vulgar words and homophobic phrases used by Half Moon Bay students and players. The coach dealt with the situation, [Half Moon Bay High athletic director Matt] Ballard said.

A Sequoia coach claims in the story that rocks were thrown on the Sequoia team’s bus once the team was aboard.

Story and video by Darin Boville, used with permission of Montara Fog

Concerned coastside parents may have read the articles in the Half Moon Bay Review and the San Francisco Chronicle. Surely all of them heard the news: Farallone View is in “program improvement.”

Sounds like good news at first--some sort of award, perhaps?--but instead it is a state of disgrace in the eyes of the Federal Government, imposed by the failure of Farallone View to meet certain Federal standards. Further down that road wait the threats of staff replacement, government takeover....it sounds bad. Very bad.

But, shortly after the bad news was published for all the community to see, something happened that wasn’t reported: Farallone View was removed from the list of schools in program improvement. That little detail didn’t seem worth mentioning by the traditional press, I guess.

Catherine Werdel, the new principal at Farallone View, explains the story to us in this video, shot on October 2nd at out local PTA meeting. She goes over the data, shows the progress of each of the various subgroups, and outlines the testing goals that have been handed down by the higher powers for future years.

(A word to viewers with children in other Bay-area schools: Note Werdel’s clear-headed, professional presentation. Note her comfort with data and the fact that she clearly knows what she is talking about. Note her sincerity. You can’t have her. She’s ours.)

One of the most interesting aspects of the presentation are the scores of the various subgroups--and an explanation of what the statistical category “English Language Learner” really means.

Watch the video. Tell other parents. 

Sea Crest School is holding a kindergarten admission night Thursday, November 8, 6:30pm. Learn more about their academic and co-curricular programs, their community, and the application process for kindergarten for the Fall of 2008. For more information or to RSVP, please call our Admissions Office at 650-712-9892 or visit their website at http://www.seacrestschool.org.

Apparently in the recent past a student of the Cunha Intermediate School had an encounter with a moving vehicle along Kelly Avenue between the school and the Ted Adcock Center.  So today I noticed an armed police man standing at the drive way entrance to the Adcock center.  He was stopping kids from jay walking across Kelly Avenue.  The sentiment is nice, but it is not an effective or economical solution by all means. 

Does the city plan on spending tax dollars for this traffic control for the remainder of the school year; possibly in subsequent years?  I remember when the little girl was killed on Kelly by the school district office; the police were out in force for only one to two days.  Then the signs went up on Kelly and in the Miramontes district at the intersections leading to the school that were mostly traveled.  They were not erected at the lesser travel school intersections.

For the amount of money it takes to pay for the policeman/woman, a center block crossing could be installed.  One with ‘flashing’ ground lights that would require the traffic to stop when they are flashing or in other words when the crossing is occupied.  There is such a crossing in San Mateo on one of the main avenues in its down town area.  The kids are the ones we need to protect, ushering and ticketing children is not the answer!

I really hate to see a government only on a ‘reactive’ track instead of a proactive one.  Kelly Avenue really needs this mid-block crossing so that the children can access the ‘bus’ station across the street at the Ted Adcock Center.  This center is also an area for ‘after school’ activities such as ballet.  The church is also an area where the children collect after school and even though they are located at an intersection I know the children jay walk over there too. 

Another problem with Kelly is the convenience market.  It is located on the corner and with the drive way located near the intersection it does impact traffic.  What is needed is a ‘keep clear’ notation on the west bound traffic side in order to allow for left hand turns by the east bound traffic on Kelly.  This will help keep traffic from congesting inside the intersection. 

Now that I got it out I would appreciate some good government decisions and real solutions to these two problems on Kelly Avenue.

The Cabrillo Unified School District has announced that it has hired Robert (Rob) Gaskill as the new Superintendent of the Cabrillo Unified School District. Mr. Gaskill will officially assume the Superintendent position of CUSD in January 2008.

Mr. Gaskill has 35 years experience in the education field and currently serves as the Superintendent of the Sonora Union High School District in Tuolumne County. Charlie Gardner, President of the Board of Trustees explained “Rob was one of two finalists for the position out of a field of 23 candidates.  We believe that he is a terrific match for our small unified Coastside school district.”

Chosen as the 2005 Superintendent of the Year by the Association of California School Administrators, Region VII, Rob has been described as “a catalyst” who inspires “esprit-de-corps”, builds “critical partnerships in the community” and has a “terrific sense of humor”.  At Sonora, Rob spearheaded improved articulation between the high school and seven independent elementary school districts; completed and implemented a comprehensive Strategic Plan; led efforts to develop a “middle college” program, and represented District interests at Joint Powers Authority meetings and SELPA sessions. Rob was also the co-Chair of the Tuolumne County Community Indicators Study and President of the Sonora Rotary.

A student was struck by a car in front of Cunha Intermediate School as school was letting out, at about 3pm today.  According to witnesses, a boy was crossing Kelly street when he was struck by a car and rolled or fell under a van parked at the curb.  The boy was conscious and alert and taken by ground ambulance to Stanford Hospital, according to the Half Moon Bay Fire Dept.

No names have been released.