Three Schools Envisioned for Cubberley

The design of a future Cubberley campus is beginning to take shape, and City Council will Monday decide on a set of guiding principals for selecting and moving forward with a plan for the city-leased site.

In November of last year, Council agreed on a timeline that would lead to an agreement on the future of Cubberley one year from the site’s lease expiration in 2014. The City owns eight acres of the site, and PAUSD owns 27 acres.

Three groups will be formed to facilitate that deadline: A Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) made up of PAUSD and City executives, a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) to be appointed by City Manager James Keene, and a Policy Advisory Committee made up of three council members and two School Board members.

The TAC has produced for Council the first set of conceptual site plans, available in the sidebar of this story. Those plans call for four alternatives, and are intended to solicit comments from Council in advance of the first CAC meeting in early May.

The site plans are based on projected school growth needs based on PAUSD growth projections, and call for one new elementary school with 500 students, a middle school with 600 students, and a small, 500 student high school.

The plans show the elementary school being housed at 525 San Antonio, which was recently purchased by the school district. One option for Cubberly is to house the middle and high schools and keep them sealed off from any shared community uses. On the other end of the spectrum, Cubberley could become a highly shared space with joint facilities such as a gym, theater, and studio or classroom spaces.

Should the city pursue the latter kind of option, it would reduce overall development and parking needs and lower the total construction cost, according to a report by the City Manager’s office included in Council’s packet.

These early conceptual drafts are only intended to provide high-level detail for the sake of debating the various options, according to the report.

On Monday, City Council will choose whether or not to adopt a set of guiding principals for the various committees tasked with overseeing Cubberley’s transformation. The principals are consistent with existing Council positions, and include transparency measures such as open public meetings, readily available documents, architectural drawings, and other written communication.

One guiding principal would cement the City’s assessment toward the site’s value:

“The City is supportive of Cubberley remaining a major cultural, educational

and non-profit resource very important to the community’s health and

vitality,” according to the draft guiding Principals.

The complete list of guiding principals is as follows:

In order to ensure consistency with existing City Council positions and policies, both the

PAC and the CAC will be guided by the following principles:

1. The Committees shall maintain open and transparent processes at all times. Members of the public shall be invited to all meetings.

2. Documents, architectural drawings and other written communication provided to the Committees shall be made available to the general public as soon as possible.

3. The City is supportive of Cubberley remaining a major cultural, educational and non-profit resource very important to the community’s health and vitality.

4. The City seeks to work cooperatively with PAUSD to explore all practical means to jointly re-use the Cubberley campus for both educational and community services.

5. The City recognizes that both entities have significant financial interests in the Cubberley campus which should be evaluated as equal priorities.

6. Both PAUSD and the City have ownership interests in portions of the campus: PAUSD owns 27 acres and the City owns 8 acres. The parties may consider relocation of its ownership interests within the site to facilitate optimal site layout and efficiency.

7. To the extent possible, facility planning, architectural design, economic analysis or other expert service costs should be shared equally between the City and PAUSD.

8. While the Policy Advisory Committee planning should occur as cooperatively as possible, the City Council representatives and the PAUSD Boardmembers will retain independent recommending authority should consensus not be reached.

9. School capacity is a significant City-wide issue considered essential to the overall health and well-being of our community.

10. The types of programs offered by the City and its contractors and subtenants at Cubberley enrich the community and should be preserved and enhanced wherever possible.

11. The City recognizes the potential to re-use the site as a joint City/PAUSD facility could result in stronger educational and cultural programs provided more efficiently.

12. The City Council representatives on the Policy Advisory Committee shall provide regular reports to the full Council on Cubberley planning activities.

13. Recreation facilities provided at the Cubberley campus produce important services benefitting the community at large.

14. The residential neighborhoods surrounding Cubberley are significant factors in determining the compatibility of possible building changes on the Cubberley campus.

15. Transportation issues and access to Cubberley shall be considered in evaluating possible re-use options including improved bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

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