A committee tasked with recommending campus closures in San Jose’s largest school district is suggesting fewer schools should close than expected.
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 school board will make the final decision March 26.
The committee, comprised of 23 volunteers across the SJUSD community, recommended closing Canoas, Empire Gardens, Gardner, Lowell and Terrell elementary schools and relocating Hammer Montessori at Galarza Elementary to Gardner. 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. SJUSD has approximately 25,000 students, from transitional kindergarten through grade 12, across its 41 schools.
“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,” Patrick Bernhardt, who chaired the committee, told San José Spotlight. “We wound up somewhere in the middle of that, which I think from everybody’s perspective was the right balance to strike.”
Of the district’s 26 elementary schools, 12 have fewer than 350 students, while the largest has more than 800, according to SJUSD. Students impacted by the recommended closures will attend other schools in the district.
Bernhardt sympathized with the students, parents and teachers who will be affected by the school closures.
“I can only imagine how difficult that is,” he said. “It’s definitely not a decision I think anybody who is sitting on the committee takes lightly.”
Other local school districts have closed campuses in recent years due to dropping enrollment. That includes three in the Franklin-McKinley School District in 2025, three in the Berryessa Union School District and six in the Alum Rock Union School District in 2024.
Renata Sanchez, president of the San Jose Teachers Association and committee member, said the recommendation addresses the smallest schools with the most critical need for support. But she said there are still conversations to be had.
“There are still schools that are going to have two or less classes per grade level, and we do need to talk more about our bilingual programs and magnet programs … but I want us to see that as an opportunity,” she told San José Spotlight.
Parent Nigel Jahn-Hansen isn’t entirely satisfied with the results, but said the committee didn’t have much of a say other than providing a recommendation.
“These decisions will last for decades to come,” he told San José Spotlight.
Parent Priya Ghandikota said despite Williams Elementary School, where her child attends school, escaping the chopping block, the community isn’t overjoyed that other schools are closing.
“We think about all the people that still have to face closures,” she told San José Spotlight. “We’re feeling thankful that Williams, which probably shouldn’t have been on the closure list, is safe, but this has been a very grueling process. For six weeks, we’ve been fighting. We’ll always fight for what we believe in.”
Contact Lorraine Gabbert at [email protected].