Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Ellwood P. Cubberley High School

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Type
  
Public high school

Closed
  
1979

Newspaper
  
The Cubberly Catamount

Founded
  
1956

Athletics conference
  
Opened
  
1956

Team name
  
Cougars

Headquarters
  
Community served
  
Palo Alto

Grades
  
9–12 (1975 – 1979); 10 – 12, (1956 – 1975)

Ellwood p cubberley high school top 11 facts


Ellwood P. Cubberley High School was one of three public high schools in Palo Alto, California. Opened in 1956, Cubberley High was located at 4000 Middlefield Road. It was finally closed in 1979 as a reaction to declining enrollment and decreased revenues following Proposition 13. The other local high schools Gunn High School and Palo Alto High School had been created on friendly land transfers from Stanford University 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 board, requiring an infusion of cash, determined Cubberley could be sold at more contemporary rates. Later it was discovered that it could only be sold to a non-profit organization. That has resulted in part of the campus being converted into the Cubberley Community Center, on an annual lease from the school district to the City of Palo Alto. The larger remainder of the site has been leased since 2002 to the Foothill-De Anza College District for the Middlefield Campus of Foothill College. The high school was named after Ellwood Patterson Cubberley, the Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education and pioneer of educational administration.

Contents

Cubberley was the scene of the Third Wave experiment by teacher Ron Jones that was later portrayed in a film and TV special. A KQED (TV) special program from 1970 features a three-day teaching conference at Cubberley High School that focused on ecology and population issues.

According to Palo Alto Online, current enrollment projections done by Palo Alto Unified suggest that Cubberley may need to be reopened as a fourth middle school by 2015 and ultimately be reopened as a third high school by 2021.

The Cubberley Cougars competed in the SPAL of the CIF Central Coast Section.The school won its only CCS Championship in track and field in 1979, just days before it would close forever.

Notable alumni

  • Brendan Eich (Class of 1979), creator of JavaScript
  • Bruce Fein (Class of 1965), constitutional law attorney
  • Michael Finney (Class of c. 1974), television and radio consumer reporter
  • Gerrit W. Gong (Class of 1972), general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  • James Gurney (Class of 1975), artist and author
  • Željko Ivanek (Class of 1975), actor
  • Jon Jang (Class of 1972), jazz musician
  • Michio Kaku (Class of c. 1964), theoretical physicist
  • Art Kuehn (Class of 1971) Football Center
  • Wendy Lesser (Class of 1969) critic, novelist, and editor
  • Tom Ritchey (Class of c. 1974), mountain bike pioneer and founder of Ritchey Design
  • Gregg Rolie (Class of c. 1965), musician, founding member of both Santana and Journey
  • Bill Green (Class of 1979), Olympic sprinter
  • Tom Melvin (Class of 1979), NFL coach
  • Dave Benzer (Class of 1972), San Francisco Giants' cameraman
  • Notable faculty

  • George Hurley, NFL offensive lineman, Cubberley football coach, taught wood shop, and driving
  • Ron Jones, creator of The Third Wave social experiment
  • References

    Ellwood P. Cubberley High School Wikipedia