The Coastside Mothers’ Club is expanding upon the success of our annual education roundtable with our first half-day Education Expo.  The inaugural Education Expo will bring together parents, educators, administrators and school representatives to openly discuss Coastside elementary schools.

The Education Expo will be held on:  Sunday, February 8, 2009   Half Moon Bay Community Center   535 Kelly Street   Half Moon Bay   12:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. 

Starting kindergarten is an exciting and hopeful time for families and children. A child’s education plays an important role in shaping his or her future and kindergarten will provide the strong start each child deserves. 

The Education Expo is a unique opportunity to hear Coastside parents openly discuss their thoughts on selecting an elementary school (public, private or home schooled) that was right for their child and school officials will discuss topics such as budgets, testing, and curriculum.

The Expo will include an exhibit area where school representatives will be available the entire event to distribute information and answer questions.  Scheduled panel discussions on specific topics will take place per the times below.

12:45 – 1:45pm   Trends in Education 2:00 – 3:00pm   Public School Parent Panel 3:15 – 4:15pm   Private School Parent Panel

This event is recommended for families who are beginning to plan for kindergarten and is open to the public, free of charge, as a community service to all Coastside residents. Refreshments will be served, childcare will not be provided, and no RSVP is required.

For more information regarding the Education Expo, please contact: [email protected] or visit our website at www.coastsidemothersclub.org

About the Coastside Mothers’ Club The Coastside Mother’s Club was founded in 1992 by a community of families with young children.  Celebrating our 17 year anniversary, we have grown to approximately 300 members who live on the coast between Montara and Pescadero.  Our club offers Coastside mothers, fathers and caregivers support, education and a chance for socialization, friendship and fun.  We also serve as an advocate for mothers, children and families within the Coastside community at large.  For anyone interested in joining the club or for additional information about our organization, please visit our website at www.coastsidemothersclub.org

Since mid-November the El Granada Elementary School has been closed for major renovation. The project involved removing existing turf, leveling the field, repairing the sprinkling system, covering the field with mesh for gopher control and putting new sod on the entire area.  Since the start of work, the playfield has been fenced off. This past Thursday, just past 8am, the fence was opened the children returned to the field.

The renovation project involved strong collaboration between the Cabrillo school district and San Mateo County Parks.  The organizational cooperation and the funding (approximately $100,000) were essential.  The drive to make it happen, came from El Granada resident and parent, Amy Broome.  Amy was the focal point for mobilizing the local contractors, organizing volunteers and monitoring the project from start to finish to insure all details were handled.

Funding came from the "Park Mitigation Fee" established in 2003.  The fee on all new and re-model construction is used for parkland development on the unincorporated Midcoast.  Local residents, working on a committee led by San Mateo Parks director Dave Holland, met in 2007 – 2008 to develop the Midcoast Action Plan to prioritize the use of the fees for local development and improvement projects.  The El Granada field improved was one of the projects in the plan approved by the county supervisors in May, 2008.  Next for the team addressing playfield improvement is the Farallone View Elementary School field.

Farallone View Elementary’s 28th annual Holiday Gift Bazaar will be Saturday, Dec 6, in the Multi-Use room from 9am to 2pm.
There will be lots of holiday favorites –-  photos with Santa, handmade crafts, fresh wreaths, 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 cake walk.
Children’s Shopping Hour is from 9 to 10am. During this time, kids will have the opportunity to shop and gift wrap their purchases without help from their parents. We’ll need older kids (10 and over) to help the younger ones. Students from 4th & 5th grades can sign-up to help.
Parent volunteers are needed to help out on the day of the Bazaar.

Giftwrap: Wrapping supplies are needed for the Kids’ Wrapping Station. This station is where all the students can have their purchases gift wrapped free of charge during the Bazaar. They rely on your donations of paper, ribbon and gift bags. There will be a donation box available in the PTA room for you to drop off your donations. If you are unable to get your donations to the school, call Mara Krasts at 563-9505 to request a pick up.
Gingerbread Houses: They will happily accept boxes of graham crackers, lots of white frosting, hard candy and leftover Halloween candy.
Baked Items and other Goodies: Baked goods are sold during the Bazaar. Homemade or store-bought items are welcome and appreciated. This includes cookies, muffins, brownies, festive breads and cakes for the cake walk. Donations of soda or juice boxes, paper plates, napkins and cups are also needed. Baked goods and cakes will go to the PTO room (next to the MU room) on Friday, December 5th or the morning of the Bazaar.
Questions? Call Pat Davison (650) 563-9073

It’s easy to endorse John Moseley for the board of the Cabrillo Unified School District.  He has shown dedication to the board, puts the education of our children ahead of all other priorities, is easy to work with, and has managed to remain a centrist in a polarized environment.

John proved his level-headedness this summer, when he alone among the school board’s members voted against a resolution of support for AB1991—Half Moon Bay’s bailout bill that enriched a single developer by exchanging decades of environmental protections for cash. John didn’t express an opinion one way or the other on the bill, but he did say that the vote would unnecessarily polarize the community.  This is a commonsense position that demonstrates that John’s sole priority is the district and its students.

The job of the board is to hire and supervise the district’s superintendent. The superintendent runs the district and sets the policies, which should serve one purpose: the education of the community’s children. The board member’s fiduciary duty is to make sure the superintendent spends the taxpayers’ education money wisely. The board should be made up of smart, hardworking, representative people who are not confused about their duty and who—whenever possible—avoid running amok.

I recommend you vote only for John Moseley although there is one other open position on the board and two other candidates.

In the 2006 CUSD board election I said you should only vote for Ken Johnson if you felt the need to vote for every open position on the ballot. I’m more certain of this in 2008 than in 2006.  Ken is a better gadfly than he would be a board member. Ken has always been more ready to offer criticisms than concrete proposals for improving the schools, and that is my principal reason for not endorsing him. This year, he also showed poor judgment this year in squatting on the expired "electmoseley.com" domain with a website that suggested he was running with John Moseley, but that’s merely a sideshow.

Incumbent Charlie Gardner is a self-described "infrastructure advocate" who is on the board of a pro-development advocacy organization on the Coastside, plumped for the controversial Big Wave development while other CUSD board members were fighting for a parcel tax, has been working tirelessly for a wrong-headed highway bypass to solve traffic problems created in part by the school district, vigorously defends the CUSD’s divisive vote to support AB1991, has worked behind the scenes on various other development projects.  I don’t believe Charlie understands the depth of the conflict of interest between his desire for more development on the Coastside and the needs of our school district.

Vote for John Moseley on Nov 4, and feel good about your decision. And then ask yourself why don’t more qualified moderates run for our school board?

The San Mateo County League for Coastside Protection endorses John Moseley and Ken Johnson for the Cabrillo Unified School District (CUSD) Governing Board.

The Mission of the League for Coastside Protection (LCP) is to defend the coast by supporting those who uphold the spirit and substance of the California Coastal Act.  We work to elect responsible public officials who will preserve and enhance the quality of life on the coast for residents and visitors, protecting the coastside environment, agriculture and fisheries.

We endorse two candidates with strong views and clear differences when it comes to running our schools.  Where they clearly agree is that the children of the Coastside are the school district’s responsibility, and neither of these candidates brings any other agenda to the CUSD Board. Both John Moseley and Ken Johnson have demonstrated long term, sincere interest in providing the very best outcomes for our youth.

The League for Coastside Protection urges you to vote for John Moseley and Ken Johnson for the Cabrillo Unified School District.
Dana M. Kimsey                           
Scott Boyd
LCP Co-chairs

We ask for a wish list from the schools every year to have our businesses help in getting them supplies and therefore supplementing their budget.  Since our businesses have been very helpful in the past, all the teachers jumped on the band wagon this year and gave extensive lists

If you are interested in supporting the schools by purchasing any of these supplies we would be most appreciative. If the item you are interested in is a computer or other piece of equipment, please contact Anne Bailey, Director of Technology, at 712-7127.

Charise McHugh
Half Moon Bay Coastside Chamber of Commerce

The Midcoast Community Council recently held a candidate’s debate for this year’s school board election. Charlie Gardner made two defining comments during this debate.

First, he supported his vote backing the AB 1991 bailout attempt that has now cost the city about 20 million dollars. Many of Charlie’s supporters are members of the groups that demanded that the HMB City Council abandon a sound legal appeal and try an end run through the legislature to skirt Coastal Commission laws.  This secretly negotiated attempt, which was backed by the developer suing the city, failed, and the city is now stuck with the bill. Just imagine what the city and schools could do with that money. Rather than focus the school board on education, Charlie helped it back another community-divisive issue.

Which brings us to Charlie’s second statement of claiming credit for getting the middle school built at Cunha. Charlie and the groups who support him are the folks that blocked the middle school construction for 9 years while the school board backed the big Wavecrest project. Eventually they were forced to build at the obvious location, Cunha. It takes a lot of guts to take credit for getting a school built after delaying that school for 9 years.

I think it’s time for the folks who stuck HMB for $20 Million dollars and blocked the middle school construction for 9 years to stand up and take responsibility for their actions.