{"id":236591,"date":"2026-03-25T23:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T23:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/236591\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T23:24:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T23:24:25","slug":"claiming-discrimination-san-jose-families-attempt-to-stop-school-closures-with-legal-filing-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/236591\/","title":{"rendered":"Claiming discrimination, San Jose families attempt to stop school closures with legal filing \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Families in the San Jose Unified School District filed a legal complaint against the district over its\u00a0proposed closure of five elementary schools<\/a>, arguing the closures would disproportionately impact minority and low-income students<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a special committee recommended the district close Canoas, Empire Gardens, Gardner, Lowell and Terrell elementary schools, as well as relocate the Hammer Montessori magnet program at Galarza to Gardner Elementary. The committee had previously considered closing as many as nine campuses<\/a> before the next school year.<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s board of education is expected to vote on the closures Thursday night.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, at least 18 community members filed a formal Uniform Complaint Procedures (UCP) complaint, which is a written statement alleging discrimination, harassment or violation of a federal or state law or regulation, over the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis process has been discriminatory in its impact, misleading in how it\u2019s been presented to families and procedurally deficient,\u201d David Friedlander, a parent at the Hammer Montessori magnet school and the primary complainant, said Wednesday at a press conference held outside Canoas Elementary School.<\/p>\n

San Jose Unified School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

In California, the accused district is tasked with investigating the complaint and has 60 days to report its findings. But complainants can file an appeal with the California Department of Education, depending on the district\u2019s determination.<\/p>\n

The families\u2019 complaint alleges that the district\u2019s closure process violates state and federal anti-discrimination protections, as the closure would disproportionately displace English language learners, minority, low-income and special education students.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges that the five schools listed for closure serve student populations that are 75-93% minority students, while low-income, homeless and foster youth would be displaced under the proposed closures 1.5 times more than their peers.<\/p>\n

The families\u2019 complaint also alleged the process did not adequately include community input or an equity impact analysis on the displacement of students.<\/p>\n

The district has said it needs to close campuses and consolidate schools<\/a> in response to a 20% decline in enrollment since 2017 \u2014 a loss of roughly 6,000 students.<\/p>\n

San Jose Unified isn\u2019t alone \u2014 dozens of Bay Area school districts have announced layoffs, budget cuts or school closures<\/a> this year to repair gaping budget deficits and address years of student enrollment declines.<\/p>\n

Currently, some San Jose Unified elementary schools have combined grades into a single class to address shrinking student bodies. The district has said the \u201cideal\u201d elementary school should be able to offer three classes per grade.<\/p>\n

Beginning in September, the \u201cSchools of Tomorrow\u201d initiative focused on evaluating the San Jose district\u2019s elementary schools \u2014 including their total enrollment, staffing, school climate, programs and instruction \u2014 to determine which schools to close or consolidate before the next school year.<\/p>\n

But families have fought against the closures<\/a> since the plan was announced last month, arguing it would hurt students\u2019 academic and social well-being, disproportionately affect Black and Latino students and risk students\u2019 safety by requiring dangerous transportation routes.<\/p>\n

Parents have repeatedly threatened legal action if the district did not delay a decision to close the schools, including threats to pursue a taxpayer injunction to freeze more than $1.2 billion in facilities bond measure funds approved by voters in Nov. 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearch shows that school closures disproportionately harm low-income students and English learners: the very population Gardner serves,\u201d said Crystal Kirk, a parent at Gardner Elementary.<\/p>\n

Kirk said neighborhood schools function as \u201ccommunity anchors,\u201d increasing community stability, supporting local small businesses, strengthening property values and serving as gathering hubs.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you don\u2019t have a child at one of our San Jose Unified elementary schools, this decision affects you,\u201d Kirk said. \u201cThis is about the future of our neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaint requests that the district rescind any action taken by the board Thursday, conduct a new community engagement and equity analysis process, review any future closure proposal with a racial and ethnic impact finding, conduct meaningful community engagement and explore alternatives to school closures.<\/p>\n

Parents said Wednesday they intend to pursue additional legal options if the board approves school closures this week.<\/p>\n

The district\u2019s Board of Education will meet at the district office at 6:00 p.m. Thursday\u00a0 located at 855 Lenzen Avenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Families in the San Jose Unified School District filed a legal complaint against the district over its\u00a0proposed closure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[184,7,8,2333,15,4730,1533,181,23,100,182,88,90,89,198,30515,200],"class_list":["post-236591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-editors-picks","tag-education","tag-k-12-education","tag-keywee","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pm-report","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-school-boards-measures","tag-south-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236591","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=236591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}