School district in San Jose to see nearly half its campuses close, consolidate
Declining enrollment is having a financial impact on almost all schools. But in east San Jose, the Alum Rock Union School District is facing the possibility that nearly half its campuses will be subject to closure or consolidation.
Lyndale Elementary is one of the schools recommended for closure. If the district board approves the plan, students enrolled there would be moved to Russo McEntee Academy, 1.5 miles away, or about a 30 minute walk for parents and students from the working-class neighborhood, many of whom don't have a car.
"We always walk to school, dropping kids," said Lyndale parent Maria Ruiz. "It's any school close to us, now. So, if they close, our choice is another school out of the district."
That may be the problem with Lyndale. The next closest campus is a charter school that is not part of the Alum Rock Union School District. That would hurt since the district is already struggling to fill their classrooms as it is.
"Some of the middle schools were actually built with the capacity — they call it operational capacity — of about 1,000 students," said Superintendent Germán Cerda. "And some of them are now under 400."
Cerda has only been superintendent for two months after the last one was let go in March. He said there are simply fewer students than there used to be in the area, by about half, and that causes big money problems. For each child, Alum Rock gets about $15,000 from the State. But they've been steadily losing about 350 students per year.
"We're deficit spending $20 million," said Cerda. "We have about $50 million in the bank right now, or $20 million down this year. We're going to be down next year, $20 million. And then the third year, we have nothing."
If they don't have a plan to cut the deficit by Dec. 16, the county will take over control of the district. So, the plan is to close seven campuses and consolidate two more of the district's 22 schools.
"Closing a school saves you approximately $1 million," explained Cerda. "And so, that's what we're looking at. But also staff reductions at the district office, reductions at the school site level, because you have less students. We're just spread way too thin. Twenty-two schools, with schools under-enrolled. Elementaries at under 300 students, middle schools at under 400 students. And so, you cannot operate that way."
But the uncomfortable question at district headquarters is if the schools have fallen all the way to half capacity, why has it taken so long to take action. Would it have helped if tough decisions had been made sooner.
"You could have cut, yeah, you could have actually closed schools 10 years ago, five years ago," Cerda said.
Did he think they should have?
"Possibly, possibly," he said. "I think now, moving forward, I applied for this position. I'm here. I'm focusing on what can we do now."
All they can do is close schools, and there's a good chance that's not going to make the new superintendent a very popular guy with people like Lyndale parent Adrian Romero.
"We understand what they're trying to do, but we're not agreeing with that," said Romero. "Each school is fighting. Here in Lyndale, we're active, fighting against this closing."
The list of schools to be closed will be officially presented to the board at its meeting on Thursday, Nov. 14. They will make their final decision on Dec. 2, to take effect in the 2025-26 school year, when the can will finally stop being kicked down the road.