Committee recommends closing fewer San Jose schools - San Jose Spotlight

"The outcome did a good job of balancing the need to deal with very small schools that have significant challenges providing all the services to very small cohorts of students, while at the same time not creating very large schools as a result of eight or nine consolidations. We wound up somewhere in the middle of that, which I think from everybody's perspective was the right balance to strike."

"The San Jose Unified School District Schools of Tomorrow Implementation Committee decided Tuesday to recommend shuttering five schools and moving a magnet program, rather than closing nine schools as initially planned. The district is looking to close schools due to declining enrollment, which has dropped by more than 6,000 students since the 2017-18 school year."

San Jose Unified School District's Schools of Tomorrow Implementation Committee recommended closing five elementary schools—Canoas, Empire Gardens, Gardner, Lowell, and Terrell—and relocating Hammer Montessori program to Gardner Elementary. This represents a reduction from the initially planned nine closures. The district faces declining enrollment, having lost over 6,000 students since 2017-18, with approximately 25,000 students remaining across 41 schools. The committee of 23 volunteers sought to balance addressing small schools with significant service challenges while avoiding creating excessively large schools through consolidation. Of 26 elementary schools, 12 have fewer than 350 students. The school board will make the final decision on March 26.

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