Perfect place for the Casti expansion.

Move the PAUSD offices to Cubberley at a minimum so they at least pay attention to their negligence.

What's happening to Cubberly is Glenn McGee, or Kevin Skelly 2.0. Do not extend his contract. Phase his contract out and turn the page to another CEO of PAUSD.

Your "What's changed?" section is a good start to planning a path forward. I was afraid for a moment that you would advocate for one particular use of the facilities over the others but to your credit you didn't. Personally, I'm reasonably happy with how the facilities are being used. I like the youth sports uses. I like that community groups can rent space at rates they can afford. Sure it'd be nice to have all the same uses but with nicer buildings or more "efficiency" making everyone happy with with extra space used for something else but my fear is that as soon as you open that can of worms, the mission changes. "Let's use the land for housing" say the developers that would like to develop it. "Let's sell it" say people who want to plug short term budget gaps by selling assets. The development at Mitchell Park seems to have been pretty successful, so you speak with some authority. You've got my attention. But I'm wary of moving too quickly or serving one interest while neglecting others.

We are continually being beat on the head to build additional housing. If we do that then we also need additional facilities for schools and playing fields. We are lucky to have this facility available for use by all community organizations to use - one of my functions recently used it while Lucy Stern was being updated and it was very okay for that function. I know that there are a lot of young music groups that use it. The auditorium has been used for Commonwealth Club functions which turned out great since there is a good parking lot. If any one thinks this will be converted to housing then they will have a fight on their hands. Mitchell Park is very popular and booked up so it cannot be considered as the answer to the community use requirement - it is so popular that all is used. The residential population is heavier in the south side so invest some money to update the signage and any other obvious faults that need correction.

If the school board continues to ignore the fact that more and more residential housing is being built in town they are getting themselves into a situation with more students being squeezed into our schools. On the thread about the Jordan principal leaving, a former teacher is putting part of the blame on the fact that the school site is much bigger than it used to be. Squeezing more and more students into a school is not just putting up more portable classrooms, but changing the identity. A student needs to walk into the school office and be met by someone who knows them by name, etc.

I think Cubberley will sooner or later be needed as school facilities again. I just hope that it will be sooner.

The school district is a majority owner here, the city is less than a 1/4 owner. The school districts responsibility is to educate the kids that live in Palo Alto. Current PAUSD school facilities, every one that I'm aware of, is over crowded. From my perspective, the school district is lucky that they have Cubberley too expand into, if and when enrollment demands. Yes, the facilities need to be updated, and the number of ways to improve the facility are as many as there are people offering suggestions. Personally, I would like to keep it as a PAUSD resource, not housing, and keep it as a the valuable community resource it has always been. It could be better managed, and attracting a higher education satellite campus to Cubberley, as an anchor Tennant, could revitalize the campus for many years to come. Moving PAUSD district offices to Cubberley would offer Paly additional space that I suspect they might benefit from.

Maddy, It was my understanding that Cubberly isn't earthquake safe and it would cost millions to retrofit the facility.
The figure $35M comes to mind, but I don't recall where I saw that number. I wandered around the campus and saw much of the steel structures rusted through. One document on-line quotes the central heating and lighting upgrade for just the auditorium to be $1.6M.

Various groups are eyeing this facility rubbing their hands just waiting their claws on it. If PAUSD offices move there, they'll at least get a first hand view of what would work for student use and what wouldn't. In it's current condition, it's fine for community classes but I wonder if the state would allow students to use it without significant safely upgrades. Which costs lots of money. Who pays for that?

Refurbishing the Mitchell Park facilities was a great idea -- you invest in your infrastructure or it rots. So much nicer/more useful now. I agree that the same should be done for Cubberley. South Palo Alto still lacks in facilities compared to North.

At Cubberley:
I'd like to see more studio space, move the Midpen Media center there, make a large indoor auditorium for plays and meetings, more sports facilities, dance floor space etc. A Maker/Machine/Tech shop? Adult education. Establishing a 3rd high school is not really practical in terms of admin costs, size of the site etc. It would be better to move the Pausd offices to Cubberley and just make more room to expand Paly. There could be some smaller high school alternative program there.

Totally against housing there. Forget it. Housing loses the space forever, South Palo Alto already has too many apartment units and the majority of subsidized housing. I do fear some shortsighted admin in Pausd would want a quick, one time goose to the budget and just sell if off ... after they overcome decades of legal battle.

All that land needs to be preserved and allowed for the use of the public. Housing would definitely piss off Palo Altans.

"Establishing a 3rd high school is not really practical"

Everything was much more practical 45 years ago when I graduated at Cubberley.
Maybe because we had a lot less money back then.

Things were EASIER 45 years ago. We had a lot more land to work with then.

That open land is gone. We need to plan for a future that is very different. Let's roll up our sleeves and hop to it.

"Everything was much more practical 45 years ago when I graduated at Cubberley.
Maybe because we had a lot less money back then."

Lead paint and asbestos were also only an (unknown) personal problem back in the good 'ol daze.

It is smaller than the other high schools, ~1.2M sqr feet (not counting the existing Greendell school there) vs. about ~2M sqr feet at Gunn and Paly according to google maps. Outdated buildings, no pool, and the district would have to pay the city back for a chunk of the land, but in fact, a smaller campus could be located there, so let me clarify:

I'd rather have a full featured center for the community than just a school

... unless it was a trade school with full facilities that could be used as a kind of tech shop by the wider community.

Said it before...outstanding, central location. Just a wonderful spot that should be fully and happily utilized. Deserves a full re-build (after sensible and appropriate plan, of course). Please don't wait longer as the space is fully under-utilized now.
Do not hand it over to special interests or commercial schools via lease (my biggest fear). It should be used for the benefit of the public school population of Palo Alto. I strongly prefer a brand new public school to be built on the full property.

Hi. I'm interested in learning more about the thinking/work that's been done on Cubberley to date, and in helping to move things forward. What is the best way to do that?

To find the report, Google Cubberley Community Advisory Committee Report.

We should convert Cubberly to a School for the Arts. We open it as a small magnet school to start. Students from Gunn and Paly can attend. It'll centralize the music performances for the community. As the School for the Arts grows slowly, it'll allow the School District and the City to re-invest into the physical infrastructure; and then, possibly, allow community groups to still use a portion of the facilities.