• Proclamations, Presentations, Announcements [2 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Oral Communications [4 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• City Council Reports [6 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Staff Reports [3 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Consent Calendar [2 min] | Quicktime | Flash |
• Application for Coastal Development Permit, Rzoning, Lot Merger of 9 lots into 4 at Magnolia St and Second [29 min] | Quicktime | Flash | Docs |
• Set Feb 5, 2008, as the date for a vote in increasing Transient Occupancy Tax from 10% to 12% [62 min] | Quicktime | Flash | Docs |
• Disposal of land donated to the city by Labuda Family Foundation [12 min] | Quicktime | Flash | Docs |
• Staff update on administrative order on 450 Wavecrest Road continued to a date to be set, but not before Jan 10, 2008. | Docs |

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. 

Two weeks ago Rich Gordon (of the Board of Supervisors, the governing body for the unincorporated midcoast) held a workshop in Half Moon Bay to get input on setting goals for San Mateo County. It was a high-tech affair with electronic voter handsets and instant results displayed on the big screen.

Very cool.

We need to do more of this sort of thing. Get people together. Talk about shared vales, shared goals. See what we can come up with.

I look at this workshop as a sort of prototype of the sort of thing that would go a long way toward making the coastside a healthier place, politically speaking.

If you missed the workshop but still want to take the survey it is all online.

We just received a link to this YouTube video from the folks at Mavericks.

Meanwhile, KCBS is floating speculation that Mavericks could start extra early this year:

“There are a lot of different factors that go into that and we’re not prepared just yet to make any formal announcements, but we are taking a hard look at opening the window earlier this year than we ever have,” said Mavericks Surf Ventures CEO Keir Beidling. “In the past we have had the window in mid-December to March and January to March and mid-January to April, so it really has bounced around a bit.”

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. 

If you missed the Witch’s House this past Wednesday (somewhere on the Coast--remember, don’t tell!) then you missed Halloween. Well, O.K., it’s not that bad but still…

If you did miss it, or if you want to visit again before next year, I offer to you “Knock On the Door”, the last installment of my The Witch’s House series.

This episode is special in many ways, not the least because I didn’t shoot it! The intrepid Jennifer Merrilees took my camera in hand for the night and did a fantastic job of capturing not only what happened at the Witches’ House but in capturing all the magical moments that only the Witches themselves get to see.

The video was shot in infra-red, which the camera records in hues of green. Infra-red is kind of cool in that the “colors” are all sort of odd--the black witches dresses, for example, look more like a cream tone. Eerie!

Thanks to Melanie, the Witch, and her crew and many helpers for a wonderful series. And thanks again to Jennifer--this was all her idea!

Video by Jennifer Merrilees, used with permission of Montara Fog.

The Witch doesn’t seem to sleep. Doesn’t seem to eat.

A week before Halloween she and her helpers were busy at the intricate and complex process of carving pumpkins. And not just any pumpkins.

Join the Witch (the other Witch is here, too--now you know why it is really called the “Witches’ House") as she creates the most amazing pumpkin carvings on the coast.

Video by Darin Boville, used with permission of Montara Fog.

The Montara Water and Sanitary District (MWSD) Board met Thursday, Nov 1. The district board is now recording and encoding its own meetings, making them available to the Coastside community. Click below for the meeting agenda.

Video produced and encoded by Scott Boyd and the Montara Water and Sanitary District.