Petition Aims to Prevent Peninsula High Relocation to San Mateo

A petition has been posted online opposing a proposal to move Peninsula High School in San Bruno to the Hillsdale High campus in San Mateo.

The San Mateo Union High School District is trying to find a new home for Peninsula High School — a continuation school for students at risk of not graduating — and two of the sites under consideration are land located at Hillsdale High School or San Mateo High School.

The continuation school is currently located at the site of the former Crestmoor High School in San Bruno.

The online petition claims moving the continuation school to the Hillsdale High campus is less than ideal for location and transportation.

Traffic in the area, already problematic, would be made worse by the the addition of up to 250 students plus associated teachers and staff, according to the petition.

At the San Mateo City Council May 21 meeting, San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer outlined the Police Department's concerns with moving the continuation school to San Mateo.

She said as many as 39 percent of Peninsula students have documented criminal behavior and another 20 percent have known street-gang affiliations, according to an article in the San Mateo Daily Journal.

The San Mateo City Council also opposed moving the continuation school to either campus in San Mateo. Deputy Mayor David Lim even blogged about his opposition in a on San Mateo Patch.

The decision of whether to move Peninsula High School will be made by the San Mateo Union High School Board of Trustees later this year, Lim said.

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