Ellwood P. Cubberley High School (1956–1979), known locally as "Cubberley", was one of three public

high schools A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

. The site of the closed school is now named

Cubberley Community Center The Cubberley Community Center, known locally as "Cubberley", is a community center in Palo Alto, California, that has been in operation since 1990. It is housed on the campus of the former Ellwood P. Cubberley High School. Space is available for ...

and used for many diverse activities.

History

Opened in 1956, Cubberley High was located at 4000 Middlefield Road. The high school was named after Ellwood Patterson Cubberley, the Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education and pioneer of educational administration. The school was finally closed in 1979 as a reaction to declining enrollment and decreased revenues following

Proposition 13 Proposition 13 (officially named the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) is an amendment of the Constitution of California enacted during 1978, by means of the initiative process, to cap property taxes and limit property reassessmen ...

. The other local high schools

Gunn High School Henry M. Gunn Senior High School is one of two public high schools in Palo Alto, California, the other being Palo Alto High School. Established in , Gunn High School was named after Henry Martin Gunn, who served as the Palo Alto superintendent fr ...

and

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School (commonly referred to locally as "Paly") is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two high schools in the district, the ...

had been created on friendly land transfers from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and if educational use was to be terminated, the land would revert to the university for the value at the time of transfer. The

Palo Alto Unified School District The Palo Alto Unified School District is a public school district located near Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. It consists of twelve primary schools, three middle schools, two comprehensive high schools, an alternative high schoo ...

board, requiring an infusion of

cash In economics, cash is money in the physical form of currency, such as banknotes and coins. In book-keeping and financial accounting, cash is current assets comprising currency or currency equivalents that can be accessed immediately or near-i ...

, determined Cubberley could be sold at more contemporary rates. Later it was discovered that it could only be sold to a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

. That has resulted in part of the campus being converted into the

, on an annual lease from the

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public Primary school, primary or Secondary school, secondary schools or both in various countries. It is not to be confused with an attendance zone, which is within a school dis ...

to the City of Palo Alto. The Cubberley Cougars competed in the SPAL of the

CIF Central Coast Section The Central Coast Section (CCS) is the governing body of public and private high school athletics in the portion of California encompassing San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara County, Monterey County, San Benito County, ...

. The school won its only CCS Championship in

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

in 1979, just days before it would close forever. Cubberley was the scene of The Third Wave experiment by teacher Ron Jones in 1967, which was an elaborate social experiment to better understand

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

. The experiment was later portrayed in a film and television. A KQED special program from 1970 features a three-day teaching conference at Cubberley High School that focused on ecology and population issues. Numerous societal tensions played out at Cubberley from 1967 to 1969 that were the subject of Sylvia Berry Williams' 1970 book ''Hassling,'' which gave the school national attention. For many years the use of the Cubberley location has been subject to local community debate. According to local news in 2011, enrollment projections done by

suggested Cubberley may need to be reopened as a fourth middle school by 2015 and ultimately be reopened as a third high school by 2021. However these plans were delayed by the city, and the city and the school district have been in discussions.

Notable alumni

This is listed in order by occupation, and listed in alphabetical order by last name.

Athletics

* Bill Green (class of 1979), Olympic sprinter * Art Kuehn (class of 1971) Football Center *

Tom Melvin Tom Melvin (born October 1, 1961) is an American football coach who is currently the tight ends coach for the Kansas City Chiefs in National Football League (NFL). His cousin, Bob Melvin, is manager of the San Francisco Giants. Playing career ...

(class of 1979), NFL coach *

Tom Ritchey Tom Ritchey (born 1956) is an American bicycle frame builder, Category 1 racer, fabricator, designer, and founder of Ritchey Design. Ritchey is a US pioneer in modern frame building and the first production mountain bike builder/manufacturer i ...

(class of 1974), mountain bike pioneer and founder of Ritchey Design

Arts and entertainment

Donny Baldwin Donald Baldwin (born June 22, 1951) is an American drummer best known as a member of Jefferson Starship (1982–1984; 2008–present) and its continuation Starship (band), Starship (1984–1989). Early life Baldwin was raised in Palo Alto, Ca ...

(class of 1969), drummer with

Elvin Bishop Elvin Richard Bishop (born October 21, 1942) is an American blues and rock music singer, guitarist, bandleader, and songwriter. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015, and in ...

Jefferson Starship Jefferson Starship is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1974 by a group of musicians including former members of Jefferson Airplane. Between 1974 and 1984, they released eight RIAA certification, gold or Music rec ...

, Cold Blood,

Jerry Garcia Band The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side projects until his death in 1995. The band regularly tour ...

* Michael Finney (class of 1973), ABC 7/KGO television and radio consumer reporter *

Željko Ivanek Željko Ivanek (; ; born August 15, 1957) is a Slovenian-American actor of Croat descent. Ivanek's film credits include '' Courage Under Fire'' (1996), '' Donnie Brasco'' (1997), '' Hannibal'', '' Black Hawk Down'' (both 2001), '' Unfaithful'' ( ...

(class of 1975), actor *

Jon Jang Jon Jang (; born March 11, 1954) is an American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader. Of Chinese ancestry, he specializes in music which combines elements of jazz and Asian musics, and is known for musical works exploring international as we ...

(class of 1972), jazz musician *

Gregg Rolie Gregg Alan Rolie (born June 17, 1947) is an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter. Rolie served as lead singer of the bands Santana (band), Santana and Journey (band), Journey – both of which he co-founded. He also helmed rock group The ...

(class of 1965), musician, founding member of both

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer * Sailboat designs by W. D. Schock Corp ** Santana 20 ** Santan ...

and Journey *

Dusty Street Dustine "Dusty" Frances Street (October 19, 1946 – October 21, 2023) was an American disc jockey. As one of the first women to work on-air in FM radio on the West Coast, she was associated with station KROQ in Los Angeles in the 1980s, and was ...

(class of 1964) radio disc jockey

Authors and journalists

James Gurney James Gurney (born June 14, 1958) is an American artist and author known for his illustrated book series '' Dinotopia'', which is presented in the form of a 19th-century explorer's journal from an island utopia cohabited by humans and dinosaurs ...

(class of 1976), illustrator and author *

Neil Howe Neil Howe (born October 21, 1951) is an American author and consultant. He is best known for his work with William Strauss on social generations regarding a theorized generational cycle in American history. Howe is currently the managing directo ...

(class of 1969), author *

Michio Kaku Michio Kaku (; ; born January 24, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist, Science communication, science communicator, futurologist, and writer of popular-science. He is a professor of theoretical physics at the City College of New York and ...

(class of 1964),

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experi ...

and author *

Wendy Lesser Wendy Lesser (born March 20, 1952) is an American critic, writer, and editor based in Berkeley, California."Wendy Lesser." ''Contemporary Authors Online''. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, 2017-06-10. Version ...

(class of 1969) critic, novelist, and editor

Business

Brendan Eich Brendan Eich ( ; born July 4, 1961) is an American computer programmer and technology executive. He created the JavaScript programming language and co-founded the Mozilla project, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Mozilla Corporation. He serve ...

(class of 1979), creator of JavaScript, co-founder of

Mozilla Mozilla is a free software community founded in 1998 by members of Netscape. The Mozilla community uses, develops, publishes and supports Mozilla products, thereby promoting free software and open standards. The community is supported institution ...

Law

Bruce Fein Bruce Fein (born March 12, 1947) is an American lawyer who specializes in constitutional and international law. Fein has written numerous articles on constitutional issues for ''The Washington Times'', ''Slate.com'', ''The New York Times'', ''T ...

(class of 1965), constitutional law attorney.

Religion

* Gerrit W. Gong (class of 1971), member of the

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles A quorum is the minimum number of members of a group necessary to constitute the group at a meeting. In a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature), a quorum is necessary to conduct the business of ...

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

Science

(class of 1964) Theoretical physicist, futurist, science speaker/presenter.

Notable faculty

George Hurley George Hurley (born September 4, 1958) is a drummer noted for his work with Minutemen and fIREHOSE. Music career Early years Originally from the East Coast, Hurley and his family moved to San Pedro, California, when he was six years old. ...

, NFL offensive lineman, Cubberley football coach, taught wood shop, and driving. * Ron Jones, author and creator of The Third Wave social experiment.

References

External links

The Cubberley Closing: A Tough CallThe Cubberley Catamount
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1956 Educational institutions disestablished in 1979 Defunct schools in California Schools in Palo Alto, California High schools in Santa Clara County, California 1956 establishments in California 1979 disestablishments in California