BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
The Palo Alto Unified School District doesn’t have a plan for spending $65.5 million from selling seven acres at the Cubberley Community Center to the city of Palo Alto.
The school district was supposed to have a plan by March 30, according to an agreement with the city, but the work stalled during a leadership transition, Superintendent Jason Glass said in an email on Friday.
“I wasn’t here when the date passed, but I’m here now, and moving this forward is my responsibility,” Glass said in an email. Glass is the district’s fourth superintendent in the last six months. The board paid longtime Superintendent Don Austin $596,802 to resign on Feb. 20, and then paid acting Superintendent Trent Bahadursingh $346,673 to resign on March 17. HR Director Herb Espiritu filled in until Glass was hired on July 1.
Glass said he’s directed the district’s business office, led by Chief Business Officer Charen Yu, to complete the plan for spending the Cubberley proceeds.
He said the plan will be related to building upgrades and presented to the board in the fall.
“My recommendation to the board will be that these one-time proceeds be directed to facilities construction and maintenance, using one-time funds for one-time costs,” Glass said.
Ballot measure for higher sales tax
Voters on Nov. 3 will consider approving a half-cent sales tax to fund the Cubberley deal.
The ballot question doesn’t mention the land purchase, instead focusing on making the buildings safer.
Only 34% of Palo Alto voters surveyed in January said buying the Cubberley land was very or extremely important, so the city focused the question on areas that had more voter support.
“Electrical, plumbing — those kinds of basics really resounded with the voters,” Assistant Director of Administrative Services Christine Paras told council on June 8.
The half-cent sales tax is expected to bring in $15.6 million per year.
Former school board member Todd Collins has suggested that the city could ask for a lower price or better terms, like a payment plan rather than paying cash upfront.
Collins said some people feel like they’d be paying for property that they already own.
“There are lots of ways that the district and the city could work together,” Collins said in a June interview.
Appraisal kept confidential
City Manager Ed Shikada has declined to release the city’s appraisal of the property. He said it’s not his decision alone to release the appraisal at this point. Council and the school board would need to be involved, and both are on summer break.
“That said, please remember that our agencies agreed to this price to benefit the schools as well as improve Cubberley,” Shikada said in an email.
The city owns eight acres of the 35-acre property at 4000 Middlefield Road.
The old high school hosts nonprofits, artists, sports and youth programs, but the buildings are falling apart. The city wants to add a gym and upgrade the buildings.
Council and the school board reached a long-awaited land deal in October 2024, contingent on the city raising the money to buy seven acres.
Councilwoman Julie Lythcott-Haims and former school board member Jennifer DiBrienza led the committees that confidentially negotiated the price. DiBrienza is leading a campaign to support the sales tax.
The district doesn’t actually need the money, except, of course, to pay already overpaid administrators they mistakenly hired to go away and to give employees double-digit raises to add to their salary-schedule bumps. I’ve been saying that the district should donate the Cubberley property to the city so it can use the money saved to fix up Cubberley without passing another tax. The same taxpayers are supporting both the district and the city so the whole scheme is incestuous. What else is new?