The Santa Clara County Office of Education’s embattled elected board has found a new superintendent. Board of Education Trustees appointed David M. Toston on Wednesday after five months of political instability and division following the controversial firing of former superintendent Mary Ann Dewan in October. He will begin his new role May 1. Toston was...
San Jose parents upset over special ed program consolidation
Special education students and their families will have to leave their neighborhood schools as San Jose’s largest school district consolidates classes. San Jose Unified School District is closing Special Day Class (SDC) programs at Graystone, Schallenberger and Empire Gardens elementary schools next school year due to low enrollment. The program helps students with a specific...
Silicon Valley lawmaker wants to reduce school funding inequity
State Sen. Dave Cortese wants more funding to go to underserved schools by leveling the playing field between wealthy and under-resourced districts, and is proposing a way to make that happen. For decades school funding has been based on two key factors — property taxes and school districts receiving state dollars based on school enrollment....
California lawmaker condemns dismantling of Head Start program
Congress is calling for the reinstatement of federal employees that oversee critical early childhood programs serving families in poverty as regional Head Start offices are slashed — including one that serves Santa Clara County. U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla is leading dozens of senators in condemning U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy for...
Ex-Silicon Valley education leader dismisses lawsuit
Former Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools Mary Ann Dewan has dropped her lawsuit against the Board of Education after trustees fired her last year. The lawsuit, dropped Thursday, claimed trustees had no authority to fire her because she was a constitutional officer and therefore could only be removed by the voters, Steven Ellenberg, Dewan’s...
Commuting San Jose State students struggle amid VTA strike
A local university is trying to help its students caught in the ongoing VTA strike find transportation. The union worker strike started March 10 and has left San Jose State University students stranded at the BART Berryessa station and elsewhere. While VTA is offering $5 vouchers for Uber rides for two rides per day between stations, taking...
VTA strike strands Sunnyvale high school students
Janeth Zarate is a freshman at Fremont High School who wakes up at 6 a.m. to get to school on time. On any normal day, she takes VTA’s 255 bus, but for the past two weeks service has stopped due to a historic union worker strike. VTA’s operator union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 265, has...
Santa Clara County cuts early education program
Santa Clara County teachers and local leaders are warning of chaos after mass layoffs have decimated a critical preschool program for families living in poverty, known as Head Start. Head Start staff received pink slips around March 15 amid uncertainty as to whether the federal program under the Trump administration will reimburse the Santa Clara...
Silicon Valley college district to add student housing
Hundreds of students in one community college district may not have to worry about housing insecurity as it builds out affordable off-campus apartments — a first of its kind project in Santa Clara County. The Foothill-De Anza Community College District board of trustees voted unanimously Monday to purchase an existing 94-home apartment building and transform...
Santa Clara County special education workers face layoffs
Special educators serving Silicon Valley’s disabled and most vulnerable children are about to be laid off. Charles Hinman, interim superintendent of the Santa Clara County Office of Education, sent a Feb. 25 letter to staff, obtained by San José Spotlight, which said this is a result of school districts throughout the county closing schools due...