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The Santa Clara County Board of Education this week filled an almost two-month vacancy on the dais after appointing Tara Sreekrishnan, deputy chief of staff for state Sen. Dave Cortese. Approximately 40 county residents and colleagues of the one-time Cupertino City Council candidate called into Wednesday’s meeting to support her appointment to Trustee Area 2, which...
Santa Clara County Board of Education looks to fill vacant seat
The Santa Clara County Board of Education will appoint a new trustee next month to fill a seat recently left vacant. “There are families even in District 2 which need services just as much as any families in the county,” said Anjali Kausar, CEO of the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce and a candidate for the...
Masks mandatory for Santa Clara County students
The excitement of returning to school may be dimmed for Santa Clara County students, as they’ll have to wear masks when they go back to the classroom this fall. On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended indoor masking for all teachers, school employees, students and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status....
How San Jose schools fared during COVID-19
New report cards on Santa Clara County’s public schools during COVID -19 show most high school seniors graduated, suspensions disproportionately hurt students of color and some teachers are being priced out of the region. These are the findings of San José Spotlight’s analysis of the latest school accountability report cards, despite those reports omitting data about student test scores and absenteeism...
Lack of hybrid learning leaves some San Jose students behind
Before the COVID-19 pandemic forced school districts to move to remote learning, Polly Ferguson said her fifth grade grandson could not read or grasp basic math concepts. That changed after 15 months of one-on-one tutoring and online school. But as school districts phase out online learning in favor of returning to in-person instruction, Ferguson worries all...
Teachers can’t afford to live in San Jose
Affordable housing remains elusive for young teachers in San Jose, leaving them with long commutes or forcing them to look for jobs elsewhere. The high cost of living in the Bay Area is challenging for new teachers and other employees, including cafeteria workers and groundskeepers, said San Jose Unified School District spokesperson Jennifer Maddox. “It’s...
One man’s fight against recidivism in Santa Clara County
For Johnny Lee Clarke, preventing former inmates from returning to jail is personal. Clarke, 59, spent six years in federal prison for hacking into bank accounts and writing $22,000 in bad checks when he was 24. He turned his life around and endeavors to do the same for others. Through his company CityLab Professional, Clarke teaches technical training...
San Jose, school districts push for digital equity
Students are resuming in-person instruction this school year, but some will be returning with significantly different experiences from their months of virtual learning. Erendia Diaz, who has sons in the Alum Rock Union School District and East Side Union School District, experienced this gap firsthand. When her sons switched to virtual learning last year due...
San Jose’s low-income schools see large share of police calls
In the last five years, police logged at least 9,200 calls for service to schools in San Jose. A disproportionate amount came from high schools with high populations of minority students or students living in poverty, a data analysis by San José Spotlight found. Seven of the 10 schools with the most police service calls to...
Library vital to San Jose State University students remains closed
The San Jose Public Library welcomed back eager patrons at 23 branches earlier this week. But Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, a critical resource to the local community, will remain closed a little longer. The library is scheduled to open Aug. 2. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library is a significant resource to...