Duveneck Elementary School

Duveneck Elementary is the public elementary school for much of northeast Palo Alto, the area of 1950s tract homes between Newell Road and US 101. The school is so central to the area that the neighborhood is known as Duveneck/St. Francis. In the 2025 to 2026 school year the California Department of Education counted 342 students, about one in nine of them in transitional kindergarten.

Our overview of all PAUSD elementary schools covers the district as a whole. This page focuses on Duveneck: the campus history the district documents, the programs the school describes, the 2026 to 2027 schedule and practical notes on attendance and getting there. We do not rank schools or quote test scores. For official performance data, see the California School Dashboard.

Location and campus

The address is 705 Alester Avenue, Palo Alto 94303. The campus sits among single-story homes near the Green Gables tract, one of two Palo Alto Eichler neighborhoods on the National Register of Historic Places. Crescent Park lies to the west and Edgewood Plaza is a short ride south on St. Francis Drive. San Francisquito Creek forms the area's northern edge.

PAUSD's 2018 facilities profile gives the site as 6.5 acres. It describes eight single-story buildings and one two-story building arranged in a U around a central playground and field. The original classroom wings have large windows and high ceilings. Classrooms near the center of campus open under a wide canopy with picnic tables used for outdoor lessons.

History and name

According to the facilities profile, the two original classroom wings and the administration building were built in 1950. That is the same year Joseph Eichler's company built Green Gables nearby, part of the wave of postwar building described in our Eichler homes history. A multipurpose building followed in 1955 and a library building in 1969.

The campus changed a great deal in the 2000s. The district's Building for Excellence program added a classroom wing and renovated classrooms, the office and the library around 2002 and 2003. In 2013 the Strong Schools bond added a two-story wing with eight classrooms and two single-story wings with three more. That project also moved the child care portables, removed five portable classrooms and turned an older wing into the current library.

Where the name comes from

The school's own website does not explain its name. Our neighborhood guide and other local accounts connect it to Frank and Josephine Duveneck, the couple who created Hidden Villa, the farm and nature preserve in Los Altos Hills known for its outdoor education programs. Wikipedia's list of district schools says Duveneck was formerly called Green Gables, after the neighboring tract. We could not find a district record giving the date of that change, so treat it as reported rather than confirmed.

Programs and school life

Duveneck's welcome page describes a balanced approach with three goals: academic growth in core subjects, intellectual growth in thinking and communication and social and personal growth. Several schoolwide programs support the third goal:

• Life skills. The school's social and emotional learning program is built around three modules: kindness, integrity and citizenship.
• Conflict resolution. All students learn conflict resolution skills.
• Buddies. Every class is paired with an older or younger class so children build friendships and practice mentoring.
• Book club. Teachers and students read and discuss books chosen to reflect specific life skills.

Teachers at each grade level plan together, the school says. Like other PAUSD elementary schools, Duveneck has district music and physical education. PiE donations support art and other enrichment. The school calendar also shows community events through the year, such as a Día de los Muertos celebration and a fall food drive in 2026.

Duveneck is a neighborhood school with no choice program. Families interested in immersion or the Hoover and Ohlone models apply through the district lottery, explained in our choice programs guide.

Bell schedule basics for 2026 to 2027

Duveneck starts earlier than most district elementary schools. Its schedule for the year, which runs from August 13, 2026 to June 3, 2027, looks like this:

Morning recess is 10:00 to 10:20 a.m. and lunch recess 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on regular days. The school calls its early release days super minimum days. The 2026 to 2027 dates are September 4, October 30, November 20 and December 18, 2026, then April 2 and June 1 to 3, 2027. The Duveneck daily schedule page has the current version.

Attendance area and feeder schools

Palo Alto Weekly neighborhood guides have listed Duveneck for Duveneck/St. Francis, Triple El and many Crescent Park and Community Center addresses. Nearby blocks can be assigned to Addison or Walter Hays instead. Check any address in the School Finder linked from PAUSD's school placement and transfers page.

Those guides list Greene Middle School and Palo Alto High School as the next steps. If Duveneck is full in a grade, PAUSD may place a new student at another school in the cluster and add the child to the Duveneck waitlist. Duveneck also hosts TK classes, but TK placement follows the cluster, so a child zoned for Duveneck may attend TK elsewhere. Our enrollment guide lists the documents you need to register.

Getting there

The city's Safe Routes to School program publishes a Walk and Roll map for Duveneck, linked from the school's schedule and after-school pages. The neighborhood's flat, quiet streets suit walking and biking. The 3rd grade bike safety program taught across PAUSD gives children on-bike practice each fall.

A few habits help at busy times:

1. Walk or bike the route with your child before letting them go alone.
2. Have children walk bikes and scooters on school grounds.
3. If you drive, park legally on a side street and walk the last block rather than stopping in red zones.
4. Plan for the 8:05 start, which is 10 minutes earlier than many neighboring schools.

PAUSD does not run buses for most elementary students, so families arrange their own trips.

PTA, PiE and after school

The Duveneck PTA, the School Site Council and staff work together on school life. The welcome page notes that parents give thousands of volunteer hours each year. The volunteer page lists classroom roles such as room parent, Project Cornerstone parent and field trip chaperone, plus schoolwide committees run through the PTA. Palo Alto Partners in Education (PiE) raises money districtwide for elementary staff and programs.

For child care, the school names two on-site providers. The Duveneck Kids Club is run by Palo Alto Community Child Care (PACCC). Space is limited and the center keeps a waitlist. Right at School works out of the school's Flex Room and offers reduced pricing for qualifying families. Third-party vendors also teach after-school classes on campus. Students can walk to them on their own. Parents pick up through the main office entrance. See our after-school programs guide for how care works across the district.

Frequently asked questions