Parents, students voice anger over San Jose elementary school closures

By Da Lin

The San Jose Unified School District board voted Thursday night to shut down five elementary schools and relocate another at the end of the current school year, a decision that has left many parents and students frustrated and scrambling to adjust.

The campuses slated for closure are Empire Gardens, Lowell, Gardner, Canoas, and Terrell elementary schools. Hammer Montessori will be relocated.

District officials said the move comes in response to a 20% decline in enrollment since 2017 — a loss of about 6,000 students. Some of the district’s smallest elementary schools now serve only a couple of hundred students, limiting available resources. 

By consolidating campuses, officials said they hope to provide more teachers and counselors at fewer sites. But for families, the decision has been difficult to accept — especially given the short timeline. The closures will take effect at the end of May, just two months away.

At Gardner Elementary, one of the schools set to close, students and parents described a day filled with uncertainty and emotion.

“Just sort of depressing in a way,” said fifth grader Ethan Dutra.

Dutra said it was hard to focus in class following the board’s vote, knowing he would be part of the school’s final graduating class. He also worries about younger students, including his first-grade sister.

“It’s harder for them to process since they may not understand, they may think they did something wrong, they really didn’t,” he said.

Their mother, Frances Tamayo, picked her children up early from school to help them cope.

“I’m here to pull them out so that we can just go and have some time for our mental health today, a little bit of ice cream to help us,” she said.

Parents and school leaders tried to comfort students throughout the day. The vice president of the Gardner PTA, Oralia Rodriguez, even brought ice cream to campus in an effort to lift spirits.

Still, many families feel blindsided by the process.

“I felt angry. I felt like this board did us wrong, did a disservice,” said Rodriguez, whose second-grade daughter cried after hearing the news.

Rodriguez said the reassignment to a farther school may push her to leave the district altogether — a concern echoed by other parents who fear the disruption could harm their children’s education.

“I’m very, very upset. I don’t know the right words, kind of betrayed in a way,” said Crystal Kirk, president of the Gardner Elementary PTA and mother of two students.

Rodriguez expressed mixed feelings about the district’s long-term plan.

“Half of me wants to buy it because it benefits our kids,” Rodriguez said. “But the other half of me doesn’t trust the board and doesn’t trust the district that they’re going to follow through with it.”

District leaders maintain that the changes, while painful in the short term, will ultimately benefit students by concentrating resources. The superintendent said officials will work to ensure the transition is as smooth and thoughtful as possible.

But for students like 11-year-old Dutra, the loss feels personal.

“The teachers are amazing, and they don’t just do a lecture and be, like, ‘Oh, we’re done with that.’ They actually care,” he said.

Some parents have already filed a complaint against the district and are threatening legal action to stop the closures.