BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto Superintendent Don Austin said comprehensive high schools are going to die out and be replaced by schools that are tailored to meet the needs of individual students.
Austin said he anticipates a schedule that isn’t driven by a bell, with kids starting at different times and moving around less as a herd.
“People here want a bigger menu,” Austin said in an interview Wednesday.
Middle College program
Austin’s vision is informed by the success of Middle College Hill School, the district’s new alternative program at Foothill College where students take both high school and college courses throughout the day.
“We’re on to something … It works because it’s small and pretty eclectic,” Austin said.
Students choose to go to Middle College, creating a “very pure feel” on campus where everyone wants to be there, Austin said.
There’s less peer pressure, fewer cliques and no anxiety about being on a large campus, Austin said.
Middle College is expanding in the fall from just sophomores and juniors to all four levels of high school.
High school changes
Austin doesn’t see Gunn and Palo Alto high schools changing overnight.
But when opportunities arise to allow more freedom, Austin said he will support them.
For example, Austin said expanding dual enrollment, where students take classes for both high school and college credit, is a big opportunity for the district.
The state also has to shift its attention away from classroom minutes and how much time students are spending in their seats, Austin said.
“There’s so much more of a desire to meet the individual needs, when schools weren’t created that way,” Austin said.
Austin said he hasn’t always pushed for choice, instead favoring the classic depiction of high school life in movies from the 1980s.
Austin said he lived across the street from his high school growing up, had a lot of school spirit and enjoyed the social aspects. Later, he worked as a high school principal for 10 years and was an assistant superintendent at a district with only high schools before coming to Palo Alto in 2018.
“So in my mind, I had a pretty good sense of what I thought a high school was. It took me a while to really think about the fact that my experience in high school isn’t everybody’s,” Austin said.
Acceleration school
Austin said the district one day could have an “acceleration school” for students who want to get ahead in academics, particularly in math.
“If we create schools for different purposes and needs, could that happen someday? Maybe,” Austin said.
But he said people in Palo Alto talk about acceleration too much when it’s already a rigorous and high-performing place.
Cubberley proposal
Austin in October 2021 proposed setting aside space at the Cubberley Community Center for an “innovative alternative” high school, and the board agreed.
Cubberley was built in the 1950s as the district’s third high school and closed in 1979 after enrollment fell.
Austin said in October 2021 that he’d be surprised if the district grows enough to warrant a third high school in the next 20 years, but the district may want to offer alternative education before then.
Austin said he doesn’t believe that students in middle school and elementary school should be offered the same choices as high school students.
For example, if younger students can opt out of music class, then they might not choose to participate and will be robbed of the chance to see if they enjoy playing an instrument, Austin said.
Actually Cubberley was the second high school, Gunn was the third. Dr. Gunn was superintendent when Cubberley was built. Cubberley was named after the head of the School of Education at Stanford.