Palo Alto Unified School DistrictThe Scholar Town
PAUSD anchors Stanford's neighborhood; Gunn and Paly rank consistently among the top public high schools in the United States.
№ 01Overview
Why Palo Alto.
Inventory is consistently tight in Palo Alto, and home values vary materially across attendance areas inside the same district. Confirming the feeder pattern at the address level — before writing an offer — is the single most consequential step.
Palo Alto Unified School District serves the city of Palo Alto and the unincorporated Stanford community. Roughly 11,000 students attend twelve elementary, three middle, and two flagship high schools — Gunn and Paly — both routinely ranked among the strongest public high schools in California.
The district sits at the academic and economic center of the Peninsula. Stanford faculty, founders, and senior tech employees concentrate here; the result is a deep extracurricular ecosystem (research mentorships, robotics, music) and an unusually high four-year college matriculation rate.
Address determines feeder. The Gunn vs. Paly split is the single most consequential decision for families buying into the district: same city, two distinct cultures, and material price differences between attendance areas. Verify the assigned schools at the address level before writing an offer.
№ 02Feeder Pattern
Paths to High School.
The elementary → middle → high school chain is determined by home address. Verify the assigned feeder for any specific property before writing an offer.
Gunn High School
- Elementary
- JLS Middle School
- Gunn High School
Feeder elementaries: Nixon, Juana Briones, Ohlone (partial)
Palo Alto High (Paly)
- Elementary
- Greene Middle School
- Palo Alto High (Paly)
Feeder elementaries: Walter Hays, Addison, Duveneck
Not sure which feeder a specific address belongs to? Marie Wang and Kevin Mo can verify the assigned schools for any property in the district.
№ 03High Schools
Two top public high schools.
Each high school is its own version of the same age range. Read past the rating: AP load, STEM and arts depth, college-pipeline pattern, and culture all vary.
Henry M. Gunn High School
- ·20+ AP courses with >90% pass rate
- ·National STEM-competition program (Science Olympiad, Math League)
- ·SAT average ~1410, well above California norm
Palo Alto High School (Paly)
- ·Media Arts Center with award-winning Paly Voice and Verde Magazine
- ·20+ AP courses with strong humanities and STEM balance
- ·Adjacent to Stanford University and University Ave
№ 04Middle Schools
Core middle schools.
Middle school sets the foundation for high school placement. Pace and academic culture differ from one school to the next.
Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School (JLS)
- ·Direct feeder to Gunn High School
- ·Project-based learning (PBL) emphasis
- ·Robotics, debate, and ensemble programs
Frank S. Greene Jr. Middle School
- ·Direct feeder to Palo Alto High School
- ·Social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum
- ·Multicultural programming for international students
№ 05Elementary
6 elementary schools.
Elementary is the start of the feeder chain; the choice of school here implicitly chooses middle and high too. Surrounding home prices and feeder destinations differ school by school.
Walter Hays Elementary
GreatSchools 9/10 — one of district's top elementary schools
Ohlone Elementary
PAUSD open-education flagship
Addison Elementary
Mandarin Immersion program
Richard M. Nixon Elementary
Feeds JLS Middle and Gunn High
Duveneck Elementary
STEM partnership with Stanford University
Juana Briones Elementary
Adjacent to Foothills Park
№ 06Housing & Schools
Different neighborhoods,
different schools, different prices.
Prices vary materially by neighborhood, and each neighborhood maps to a specific school assignment. Below are the working ranges and feeder destinations.
Old Palo Alto / Crescent Park
$5M – $15M+
Walter Hays → Greene → Paly attendance area.
Professorville / Downtown
$3.5M – $8M
Addison → Greene → Paly attendance area.
Midtown / Evergreen Park
$2.5M – $3.8M
Duveneck → Greene → Paly attendance area.
Barron Park / Green Acres
$2.8M – $4.5M
Nixon/Juana Briones → JLS → Gunn attendance area.
Charleston Meadows
$2.5M – $3.5M
Nixon → JLS → Gunn attendance area.
Palo Verde / Gunn 周边
$3.0M – $4.5M
Nixon → JLS → Gunn attendance area.
Compiled by Marie Wang and Kevin Mo, MK Group. Reach out for current listings and the latest comparable sales.
№ 07Private Schools
Private alternatives.
The Palo Alto catchment includes several leading independent schools. Many families combine public K-8 with private high school; some run private throughout.
Castilleja School
- ·All-girls grades 6-12 independent school
- ·Balanced STEM and humanities programs
Keys School
- ·K-8 project-based learning curriculum
- ·Emphasis on creativity and critical thinking
International School of the Peninsula (ISTP)
- ·Mandarin and French dual-immersion programs
- ·PreK-8 full-grade independent school
№ 08Comparisons
Related studies.
Side-by-side comparisons — academics, campus culture, and price-per-outcome — to sharpen the school choice across neighboring districts.
Gunn High School vs Palo Alto High School (Paly)
Both PAUSD high schools, ranked among the top public schools nationally — Gunn skews STEM and competition, Paly skews humanities and arts. Address determines feeder.
Read comparison →Palo Alto (PAUSD) vs. Cupertino (CUSD + FUHSD) School Districts
Silicon Valley's two top public-school choices compared: PAUSD's balanced K-12 unified district vs. Cupertino's CUSD-plus-FUHSD system with the densest STEM outcomes in California.
Read comparison →Palo Alto (PAUSD) vs. Los Altos (LASD + MVLA) School Districts
Two adjacent top-tier districts compared: PAUSD's higher academic peak and Stanford-adjacent ecosystem vs. Los Altos (LASD K-8 plus MVLA) with lower daily pressure and meaningfully lower home prices.
Read comparison →Menlo Park (MPCSD) vs. Palo Alto (PAUSD) School Districts
Menlo Park's K-8-only MPCSD (high school via Sequoia Union and Menlo-Atherton) vs. the K-12 unified PAUSD, compared across academics, community diversity, private-school depth, and home prices.
Read comparison →Public vs Private Schools
Bay Area public vs. private schools compared across tuition, class size, teacher ratios, college outcomes, and total cost — including the school-district home premium that public families pay instead of tuition.
Read comparison →Atherton vs Palo Alto School Districts
Two cities ten minutes apart, opposite trade-offs: Atherton's one-acre estate privacy (K-8 strong, high school 8/10) vs. Palo Alto's top-tier K-12 public system and walkable college town.
Read comparison →№ 09Questions
Frequently asked.
The most common questions families bring us about Palo Alto, answered with data and examples.
What is the difference between Gunn High School and Paly?
Both belong to PAUSD and both rank among the strongest public high schools in the country. Gunn skews STEM-heavy with a denser AP load and a more competitive academic register; Paly skews humanities and arts, with a deeper extracurricular bench and a noticeably more relaxed daily culture. The home address determines which school a student attends.
How are home prices distributed across the district?
Roughly $3.5M is the district-wide single-family-home median, but feeder pattern matters more than city-line averages. Old Palo Alto and Crescent Park (Paly-zoned) clear $5M routinely; Barron Park and Greenmeadow (Gunn-zoned) sit closer to $3.0–3.5M. Same district, very different price ladders.
How competitive is admission to PAUSD's elementary schools?
PAUSD operates as a neighborhood-attendance district — there is no application or lottery for the standard track. Children attend the elementary school assigned to their home address. Inter-district transfers are rare and not a reliable path; buying or renting in the desired attendance area is the practical route.
Are there strong private alternatives?
Yes. Castilleja (girls, 6-12) and Sacred Heart Schools Atherton are the most prominent regional options, with Menlo School in nearby Atherton drawing many Palo Alto families. Tuition runs roughly $58–70K per year. Many families combine PAUSD K-8 with a private high school decision made in 6th or 7th grade.
Lock the school,
then the home.
MK Group works Palo Alto Unified School District day to day — every school, every neighborhood, every recent sale. Marie and Kevin handle the address-level feeder verification, offer strategy, and escrow personally.
