The five candidates for the three vacancies on the Cabrillo Unified School District—Pamela Fisher, Ken Johnson, Kirk Riemer, Jolanda Schreurs and Dwight Wilson—will meet to discuss the issues at the General Meeting of the Half Moon Bay Branch of the American Association of University Women on Monday, October 30, at 7pm at the Community United Methodist Church, 777 Miramontes Street, Half Moon Bay. The public is invited to attend.

The Midcoast Community Council held a forum for candidates for the Cabrillo Unified School District board Wednesday night.

For scheduling reasons, only Ken Johnson and Pam Fisher appeared at the event. Former board member Marina Stariha read statements on behalf of the missing candidates. According to MCC board member Kathryn Slater-Carter, who chaired the event, all the candidates will appear at a forum sponsored by the American Association of University Women at the Methodist Church in Half Moon Bay on October 30.

Click the image to see the video.

HEAL (Healthy Eating Active Living) wants to improve the health of children through a program that integrates gardening and nutrition into the school curriculum at Farallone View, and increased organized physical activities during lunch recess.

Farallone View parents can hear all about HEAL from Hatch Elementary parents, who have a working school garden, as well as the rest of the program. They want to help Farallone View parents do the same.

Sweet Peas Produce will be on hand to provide living examples of the variety of produce children might cultivate in their garden, along with some sweet and healthy natural treats.

The meeting will be Tuesday, October 3 at 7pm at the PTA general meeting in the Farallone View Library.

Beginning Monday, Sept 18, Half Moon Bay High School will resume its hours from before the Devil’s Slide traffic emergency:

Zero Period: 6:50am - 7:40pm

First Period: 7:45am - 2:44pm

Early Release: 7:45am - 1:30pm

As reported earlier, starting Monday, Cunha’s day will be begin at 8:30am and end at 3:05pm. Zero period will run from 7:42 to 8:25am.  Cunha’s bus service will be cancelled beginning Monday as well.

The Farallone View’s Education Fund is holding its 10th annual Pancake Breakfast this Saturday from 7 to 11am in the school’s multi-purpose room.

This fundraising breakfast will have pancakes, sausage, fresh fruit and juice, milk, coffee or tea. The cost is $5 for adult, $3 for children, $15 for a family.  The money raised by the Ed Fund supports classroom aides, a computer teacher, a librarian and class supplies.

As a former and future Farallone View parent, I strongly recommend this event. The school is one of the few true community resources in Montara and Moss Beach.

This beginning of this school year is an unusual one. Two of our three public elementary schools have new principals.

At Farallone View Elementary in Montara, Suzanne Michelony is the new principal, replacing Mike Bachicha. She is the former principal of Hatch Elementary, in Half Moon Bay. 

Taking her spot at Hatch is Mark Loos, from Jefferson High School in Daly City.

I thought it would be interesting to meet with each of these new principals and let them introduce themselves via video to the parents and students at their respective schools and to the wider community.

For each of the videos I suggested the following topics: 

• Talk about your background and your connection to the community.


• Give a sense of your management style.


• Offer examples of things you plan to change at your school, or things that you specifically plan NOT to change.

In the final days of the Back to Basics $100K Challenge, the campaign raised over $152,000 in contributions in just over 10 weeks. The challenge donors matched every dollar donated, giving the group a grant total of more than $304,000.

Back to Basics has collected pledges totalling $123,480 as of this afternoon, and any pledges received by tomorrow, August 31, will be matched by funds from challenge grants.

You can pledge online, or send your check to

Back To Basics
Box 354
Half Moon Bay, Ca, 94019