Elected leaders looking to end years of discord By MATT KAPKO Half Moon Bay Review March 16, 2005 For the better part of the year, a small group of men has been holding private talks about alternative sites for a new middle school in Half Moon Bay. The meetings aren't exactly clandestine, but you won't be seeing them broadcast on Mid-Coast Television anytime soon either. If the four-person committee of school board trustees and city councilmembers isn't news in and of itself, the focus of discussions - both behind closed doors and on open plots of land - will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows. The group held its first meeting in early January, after the Cabrillo Unified School District and Half Moon Bay City Council each designated two liaisons to discuss city-school issues. "What we're trying to do is improve the dialogue between the two bodies," said Roy Salume, a school board trustee and liaison in the bilateral talks. Salume and Trustee John Moseley are representing the district in the talks and Mayor Jim Grady and City Councilman Mike Ferreira represent the city. "I haven't detected any of the friction between the school district and the city that everyone talks about," Salume said. "What I'm getting is a spirit of cooperation." At first, patching up their differences seemed an effort in futility. With the long contentious issue of building a new middle school now resting in the hands of regulatory agencies, the group found little reason to bridge a gap that is practically a foregone conclusion on the Coastside. The group has no scheduled meetings nor does it adhere to a specific agenda. It's met as many as five times since the liaisons were named and even visited the Podesta property just west of Half Moon Bay High School to look at the potential for a new middle school there. The group has discussed everything from traffic problems at the site to what kind of process and timeframe would be required for development to occur. Everyone involved in the talks emphasizes the preliminary nature of the discussions and cautions against reading too much into the ideas being tossed about. "There's certainly some openness now, but it's so preliminary I just don't want to comment," Moseley said. "As things become more concrete I think you'll see a willingness to be more open." Home