{"id":235917,"date":"2026-03-25T14:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/235917\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T14:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T14:45:08","slug":"opinion-san-jose-unified-school-officials-deceived-public-to-close-schools-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/235917\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: San Jose Unified\u00a0School\u00a0Officials Deceived Public to Close Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\t\t
\n\t\tOpinion<\/a> \t\t
\n \t\tBy Travis Curran \/ 25 mins ago
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\n \t\t\"Protests<\/p>\n

Contributed photo<\/p>\n

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\n \t\t\t <\/p>\n

Dishonest, immoral, discriminatory and dangerous.\u00a0 For thousands impacted by potential San Jose Unified elementary school closures, these adjectives have been throughlines for the entire operation.<\/p>\n

San Jose Unified School District Superintendent Nancy Albarr\u00e1n and Chief Business Officer Seth Reddy have facilitated a faux process heavy on smoke screens and gaslighting to manufacture an issue.\u00a0 Showing up in droves, flooding inboxes, researching and fact checking, San Jose communities have fought back to expose the deception.<\/p>\n

District leadership claims enrollment issues, knowing it could resonate based on historical funding.\u00a0 However, SJUSD has been a basic aid district for 5 years, meaning funded publicly through property taxes, not receiving money per day of attendance.\u00a0 Yet district leadership continues this facade, insisting enrollment numbers require closures.<\/p>\n

It was not until a public Board \u201cstudy session\u201d this past Saturday, when shuttering architect Reddy inadvertently admitted what parents knew, stating \u201cWhen we transitioned to a basic aid district, you really don\u2019t have an incentive to seek students from outside your boundary areas because every additional student does not come with additional funding.\u201d\u00a0 Their premise is schools must close because enrollment is down, yet they actively avoid increasing enrollment.<\/p>\n

For months, community members have spoken in public comment sessions about costs of the projected closures.\u00a0 Some have presented alternate options that would improve outcomes based on the district\u2019s own metrics, while reducing closures.\u00a0 The district has adopted no outside feedback.<\/p>\n

In a particularly appalling moment during Saturday\u2019s session, Assistant Superintendent Jodi Lax said she was unaware of any impact of this process on children.\u00a0 This despite parents repeatedly detailing the harm it has had, including multiple parents speaking about children with autism having speech regression, leaving them non-verbal at present.\u00a0 These comments were given in front of Ms. Lax, a committee member.\u00a0 A sickening moment highlighting district leadership shrugging off these devastating realities to the point of forgetting they even heard them.<\/p>\n

Forty years after a landmark court case against SJUSD forced desegregation, each of the projected closures is a Title 1 school, meaning schools serving students from high poverty areas.\u00a0 These schools are supposed to be better resourced to ensure students receive a high-quality education in a district with historical discriminatory practices.\u00a0 Instead, the district seeks to close them.\u00a0 And by claiming these closures are due to \u201cenrollment\u201d issues, the district dodges equity audits mandated upon them if the projected closures were for financial reasons.<\/p>\n

The proposed school closures would drastically increase distances from home to school.\u00a0 Many would need to walk kindergarteners a mile and a half.\u00a0 Busing would only be provided for one year.\u00a0 And children that walk or bike would be forced to cross Almaden Expressway, navigate poorly maintained sidewalks, or even cross a 101 onramp during rush hour.\u00a0 Parents have brought up these safety concerns repeatedly.\u00a0 Saturday, Albarr\u00e1n and Reddy made clear they had not even explored these routes, revolting indifference to the safety of our children.<\/p>\n

Each of the above was enough to stop this.\u00a0 But Albarr\u00e1n (focal point of a 2023-2024 Grand Jury report highlighting broken leadership) is hellbent on maximizing closures, while taking $90k in raises since the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Most San Jose Unified parents now work a second full-time job, policing this embarrassment.\u00a0 In its final days, it\u2019s down to a vote from a Board with their own unacceptable judgment (President Jose Maga\u00f1a has major ties to charter schools, Vice President Brian Wheatley sang a song glorifying guns at elementary schools).<\/p>\n

Yes votes end the careers of Maga\u00f1a and Wheatley come November, and prompt recall processes for the remaining trustees.\u00a0 The question is whether these elected leaders have the courage to protect our children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Opinion By Travis Curran \/ 25 mins ago Contributed photo …\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[106595,88,90,89,83063,17257,106596],"class_list":["post-235917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-nancy-albarru00e1n","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-schools","tag-school-closures","tag-sjusd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}