On March 10, the PAUSD school board sent a letter to the Palo Alto City Council proposing the redistribution of land at Cubberley Community Center. In the letter, Board Member Shaunak Dharap outlined a plan in which PAUSD would keep 20 of the 35 total acres at Cubberley for a future high school site, transferring seven acres to the city for potential use as a community center. Although the timeline for redistribution has yet to be confirmed — a new high school would not be built in the near future, due to declining enrollment rates — the land swap has the potential to strongly affect students and businesses at Cubberley.
From 1956 to 1979, Ellwood P. Cubberley was one of PAUSD’s three high schools, and was eventually closed due to declining enrollment rates. Eleven years later, in 1990, PAUSD and the city made an agreement that allowed the city to reopen the campus as Cubberley Community Center. The city and PAUSD share ownership of the land and rent out much of their respective acreages.
Some schools currently make their homes at Cubberley, including Living Wisdom, a private 23-student high school. The school is based in Cubberley’s Room K5, a room it rents from the city. Founded in 2017, it focuses on a stressless high school experience involving meditation and yoga. Another school is the Children’s Pre-School Center, a nonprofit preschool also on city land that has been running for over 30 years. PAUSD’s land-exchange proposal could lead to changes that impact tenants, as often happens when land ownership changes.
A new PAUSD school at Cubberley could impact students at Living Wisdom and the Children Pre-School Center by increasing their commute times. According to Living Wisdom senior Carter Baginskis, a new school site would only compound traffic issues. “Moving a public school anywhere, you have so many kids coming in and out that it’s going to affect (the community) no matter what,” he said.
Baginskis also helps manage MakeX, a teen-run makerspace at Cubberley that gives students free access to tools and supplies. According to Baginskis, the physical transition to another space would be challenging on its own. “We have a space that’s jam-packed full of tools,” he said. “The sheer fact of moving all those tools and rebuilding a whole space would be really difficult for us.”
MakeX isn’t the only workspace at Cubberley — it shares the halls with the city-run Cubberley Artist Studio Program, which provides workspaces for local artists at affordable prices. The artists contribute to the community with events like ArtUp, which features prints of artists’ work that are given out before and during open-studios events.
Cynthia Branvall, art history teacher at Foothill Community College, is one of the artists who rents her studio from CASP. Cubberley’s location is convenient for her: She can go to her studio after finishing her work at Foothill. Branvall also appreciates the opportunity to work closely with other artists. “It’s really nice to be part of an artists’ community where we can support each other and learn from each other’s professional practices,” she said.
For some, like Dance Connections student Avni Shah, a change in location would make it more challenging to attend classes at Cubberley. “I really like it because it’s close to my home,” she said. “I think (attending at another location) would be more difficult.”
According to PAUSD School Board president Jennifer Dibrienza, the Cubberley building has served as a temporary campus for Palo Verde and Hoover Elementary School students during renovation, hastening construction. “We are so lucky that we have a space that we were able to (relocate students) for one year, so that (students) can get back to their campus,” said DiBrienza.
More recently, on October eighth, the Palo Alto City Council sent a report in response to the school board’s land swap proposal, suggesting a plan whereby PAUSD maintains ownership over all of its land, but leases out nearly all of it to the City of Palo Alto. According to Ed Shikada, Palo Alto City Manager, the City’s goal is to renovate existing infrastructure, perhaps even creating or destroying buildings. “Investments in pipes and roofs and painting and the like, will need to continue to some extent,” Shikada said. “At the same time, we want to take a fresh look at where new buildings would best go.”
PAUSD has not yet responded to the City’s proposal. Even if PAUSD says yes, the future is unclear for tenants on land that the City plans to lease. As of now, there won’t be any change, according to Shikada. “For the next five years, (tenants) will probably not see much change, other than lots of planning that will be ongoing,” Shikada said. “It would be premature to assume that (rent) will be either unaffordable, or that we’ll be looking for turnover in existing users.”
Relocation due to ownership changes would greatly impact all parties involved at Cubberley. According to Baginskis, however, it would be beneficial if the city or district were to assist individuals and organizations in getting new spaces. “If (moving) meant opportunities of having a larger space and improving, we’d love that,” he said. “(A lot of the tenants) are settled in, so moving is a big challenge. But if that presents a new opportunity, I think a lot of us would be for it.”
Nyx White • Nov 30, 2023 at 11:25 am
The map is outdated, in A2-A5 it is now a school program for the PAUSD high school and is currently going through an update including a name change, as well as introducing the school mascot (a dragon) and school colors (black and purple), the program also previously had access to the classrooms of B2 and B3 but the two classrooms were unfortunately set on fire by an outside student and the entire hallway is closed off because of it. A6 and A7 are both also being taken up by a separate program.