College of San Mateo opens a campus in Half Moon Bay

“This space is brought forward with a commitment that every person deserves access to education as a means to building futures that honor and celebrate our human dignity and our deep potential,” Pérez said. 

The site — located at 650 Mill St. — was preserved by Joseph Cotchett and granted to the community college district in an effort to promote education in the “city he fell in love with.”

The coastside campus will host two classrooms, administrative offices, and serve as a hub for community partnerships. Key services at the coastside campus include language and literacy programs, career training for living wage jobs, and college and transfer readiness courses, Pérez said.

“Each program is designed with care, with intent and a vision of uplifting the coastside community, especially our Latinx and Asian American communities, our migrant and seasonal farmworker families, and our long-standing community members here on the coast,” Pérez said. 

Establishing the coastside facility has been a priority of the San Mateo County Community College District, Chancellor Melissa Moreno said. 

“We built three beautiful campuses atop three beautiful hills that not everyone can get to,” Moreno said. “This is why it is so important to bring the classroom into the communities we serve where transportation fails us.” 

Half Moon Bay Mayor Joaquin Jimenez welcomed the college back to the coast and said the facility shows how the city is thriving.

The coastside allows for more adults on the coast to take courses “right here in our backyard” as well, Jimenez said. 

That lifelong learning is necessary, said Mike O’Neill, outreach community liaison for San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller. O’Neill said the average person will change their career five to seven times during their life, and 30% of the current workforce changes jobs every 12 months.

“This center is a part of the education puzzle,” O’Neill said. “This is the San Mateo County Community College District supporting and meeting, head on, the challenges of today’s families.”

More than 10 years ago, the college used to rent space at Shoreline Station as a similar “minicampus” that wasn’t permanently established. 

“What’s different now is that we are embedded here, we are here to stay,” board Trustee Lisa Petrides said. “Here is where learning happens.” 

The effort to bring college back to the coast was a part of Half Moon Bay’s effort toward finding its way out of the pandemic and positioning itself for the next economy, Karen Decker, the city’s Economic and Community Vitality manager, said. 

The coordination with the College of San Mateo helps promote local residents toward pursuing higher education and increase access to more job opportunities, Decker said. 

“It is easy to say words like equity and access, but [the district] demonstrated your commitment by investing in this incredible facility and all that it represents to the people who live here, especially first generation college students,” she said. 

As Half Moon Bay celebrates its Art and Pumpkin Festival this weekend, Cotchett said the coastside facility is a far more significant feat. 

“This is pumpkin week,” Cotchett said, “and this is much bigger than the big pumpkin.”