In 1956, he formed a 27-member Citizens Committee to study potential sites for a new campus for CSM, which by then occupied the training facility originally constructed for the United States Merchant Marine during World War II at Coyote Point.

[4]: 56–58, 71 County voters overwhelmingly approved a $5.9 million bond issue in 1957 based on Committee recommendations, which provided funds to purchase the present-day College Heights campus for CSM as well as a 111-acre (45 ha) site near Skyline and Sharp Park in San Bruno, which would become Skyline College.

[8] A 2015 investigation into Chancellor Ron Galatolo's expense reports showed that he had purchased alcohol with several meals, in violation of the District's strict no-alcohol policy;[9] SMCCCD updated its administrative procedures three months later to allow senior administrators to purchase alcohol during business events.

"[13] Galatolo was subsequently placed on administrative leave in September 2019,[14] and Michael Claire, the president of the College of San Mateo, was named acting SMCCCD Chancellor.

[19][20] State Senator Jerry Hill and Assemblymember Kevin Mullin sent a letter in April 2019 to the California Senate Budget Committee requesting $1 million to study the feasibility of expanding CSU to the Cañada College campus, tentatively named CSU Silicon Valley.

Various maps were drawn, and Scenario 4, the one selected, offered "areas ... substantially equal in population and ... cohesive, contiguous territory to the extent possible in compliance with legal requirements".

The change to area-based elections was approved by the board on October 11, 2017, on a 3–2 vote, with Richard Holober and Dave Mandelkern opposed.