Here are five stories or events that are on my radar for the day.
1. AT&T Outage: The AT&T service outage last week still seems to be causing a lot of frustration among residents after some are complaining that they have yet to have their service fully restored. AT&T said the problem would be fixed by 5 p.m. Wednesday and the city's website says that all service has been restored. However, based on the comments to , that doesn't seem to be the case. There also seems to be some doubt about what caused the outage in the first place. According to AT&T, heavy rain on Oct. 5 flooded several underground cable lines near San Bruno and San Mateo avenues. But residents aren't so convinced. I'll be following up on this and hopefully will get some clear answers from AT&T about what is the hold up. According to spokesman John Britton, the company will be conducting an investigation into what happened.
2. Belle Air Elementary Progress Report: Belle Air Elementary Principal Michael Rothhammer gave the first of his reports to the San Bruno Park School District on Wednesday about the school's progress during its . Rothhammer said the school has set some ambitious goals to exit program improvement by the end of the year, including improving its after-school program, partnering with Notre Dame de Namur University to strengthen its English-language development efforts and making a push to get parents involved in their children's education. A new element to Belle Air's campus this year is the addition of student-teachers from Notre Dame de Namur in every classroom, a step the district required as part of the school's restructuring. Schools trustee Henry Sanchez at Wednesday's meeting asked how successful the student-teachers have been so far. Several teachers in the audience hesitated to provide an answer and said that it is too early to tell if the students' performance, especially for the English-language learners, is improving.
3. Occupy San Bruno? Apparently, the Occupy Wall Street protests that have now spawned throughout the country and world aren't just isolated to metropolitan cities. There are protests rising up everywhere against the so-called 1 percent of Americans whose wealth is being protected by those working for Wall Street companies. Someone is even organizing an Occupy San Bruno protest on Saturday, although it is unclear how serious is this effort. If you're organizing this protest or involved in any way, please let me know. I'd like to get your story.
4. Capuchino Homecoming: There's nothing more exciting in high school than the homecoming football game (or maybe it's just because you get a free license to "express yourself" for a whole week in the name of school spirit). Friday will be no different when Cap's football team faces El Camino High at 4 p.m. on their home turf. The game will be preceded by the school's homecoming parade. Should be an exciting day. By the way, I'm sure you've noticed that our sports coverage has been lacking lately. But please be patient. We're working on it.
5. Halloween Costume Swap: Why go to a Halloween store for your kid's costume this year when you can get one for free on Saturday at the at Allen Elementary? The San Bruno PTA Council, and CQ's Art for Kids have all banded together to organize the event. You can either drop off a slightly used costume in the morning for someone else to use or pick up a free costume in the afternoon. Either way, it sounds like a great idea. I wonder what will be the most popular Halloween costume this year?
