At a funding rate just short of $12,000 per student per year, San Jose Unified School District officials say they struggle to pay teachers enough to stay in Silicon Valley, one of the nation’s costliest housing markets. Now, district leaders are exploring solutions that include building affordable teacher housing on district property — a concept...
Education
Education
Lawmakers, tech and nonprofit leaders discuss the plight of Silicon Valley teachers
In the heart of tech-fueled wealth in Silicon Valley, teachers are living in their cars, working side jobs or living in crowded apartments with multiple roommates. Cameron Clarno, a choir teacher at Fischer Middle School, has lived in an RV since the start of the school year after moving from his 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom home in Redding....
Bay Area college strikes a controversial policy following student outcry
In a resounding victory for students, the Ohlone College District Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to eliminate a controversial policy that student leaders claim silenced them and led to an abuse of power. The move ends an impasse between top college leaders and a fierce group of student activists who said their voice was being silenced...
San Jose school district unveils plan to hire special education teachers
The number of special education students across the country is rising, but teachers qualified to teach those students aren’t — especially in the South Bay where soaring rents and cost-of-living are squeezing educators out. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that the number of public school students that required special education services rose 14...
Bay Area college students claim suppression by administration
A sign on the Ohlone College campus in Fremont boasts “students first” but the Associated Students at the community college say the message they’re getting from the school’s administration tells a different story. A high-stakes fight between the college’s student leaders and its top administrators has touched off a debate over student independence and free...
Burnett Middle School to be renamed Ohlone Middle School
After a process that brought together students, teachers and the local community, Burnett Middle School will have a new name: Ohlone Middle School. The school’s outgoing namesake is California’s first governor, Peter Burnett, whose racist policies included the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and attempts to keep black Americans out of California. He also believed...
San Jose: Hundreds rally for charter schools amid scrutiny from Sacramento
With charter schools increasingly under scrutiny in Sacramento, hundreds of charter school families, dressed in purple, orange and green, rallied in downtown San Jose Friday to stand up for their rights. The state Legislature is considering two bills, AB 1505 and AB 1507, which would further regulate charter schools. AB 1505 would repeal provisions allowing the state...
Top takeaways from blistering state audit of Alum Rock School District
Another chapter in the long history of mismanagement and financial woes in the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District was written this week in the form of an audit from state officials. The story was a familiar one for those following the troubled East San Jose district: ARUSD officials’ mismanagement of contracts cost the district...
Burnett Middle School’s new name narrowed down to three finalists
After a week of voting, the list of new names for Burnett Middle School is down from seven to the top three: Ohlone Middle School, San José Middle School and Sofia Mendoza Middle School. Input from students, staff and community members was weighed by the Burnett name change committee. Each name was ranked by how...
Santa Clara County superintendent urges Sacramento to fix education funding
In what’s becoming a familiar sight at school board meetings across San Jose and the state, parents and teachers on Thursday crowded a Cambrian School District meeting to decry low teacher pay and an inability to retain quality teachers. The outcry comes on the heels of several South Bay school districts eliminating or reclassifying droves of jobs....








