Special education students and their families will have to leave their neighborhood schools as San Jose’s largest school district consolidates classes. San Jose Unified School District is closing Special Day Class (SDC) programs at Graystone, Schallenberger and Empire Gardens elementary schools next school year due to low enrollment. The program helps students with a specific...
State Sen. Dave Cortese wants more funding to go to underserved schools by leveling the playing field between wealthy and under-resourced districts, and is proposing a way to make that happen. For decades school funding has been based on two key factors — property taxes and school districts receiving state dollars based on school enrollment....
Congress is calling for the reinstatement of federal employees that oversee critical early childhood programs serving families in poverty as regional Head Start offices are slashed — including one that serves Santa Clara County. U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla is leading dozens of senators in condemning U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy for...
Former Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools Mary Ann Dewan has dropped her lawsuit against the Board of Education after trustees fired her last year. The lawsuit, dropped Thursday, claimed trustees had no authority to fire her because she was a constitutional officer and therefore could only be removed by the voters, Steven Ellenberg, Dewan’s...
A local university is trying to help its students caught in the ongoing VTA strike find transportation. The union worker strike started March 10 and has left San Jose State University students stranded at the BART Berryessa station and elsewhere. While VTA is offering $5 vouchers for Uber rides for two rides per day between stations, taking...
Janeth Zarate is a freshman at Fremont High School who wakes up at 6 a.m. to get to school on time. On any normal day, she takes VTA’s 255 bus, but for the past two weeks service has stopped due to a historic union worker strike. VTA’s operator union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, has...
Santa Clara County teachers and local leaders are warning of chaos after mass layoffs have decimated a critical preschool program for families living in poverty, known as Head Start. Head Start staff received pink slips around March 15 amid uncertainty as to whether the federal program under the Trump administration will reimburse the Santa Clara...
Hundreds of students in one community college district may not have to worry about housing insecurity as it builds out affordable off-campus apartments — a first of its kind project in Santa Clara County. The Foothill-De Anza Community College District board of trustees voted unanimously Monday to purchase an existing 94-home apartment building and transform...
Special educators serving Silicon Valley’s disabled and most vulnerable children are about to be laid off. Charles Hinman, interim superintendent of the Santa Clara County Office of Education, sent a Feb. 25 letter to staff, obtained by San José Spotlight, which said this is a result of school districts throughout the county closing schools due...
Another San Jose school district is closing schools due to declining enrollment and a multimillion-dollar budget deficit. After intense debate and a two-week postponement, the Franklin-McKinley School District board of trustees voted 3-2 Tuesday to close three elementary schools. Board President George Sanchez, Vice President Steven Sanchez and Trustee Hong Ha Hoang supported the closures,...
