19-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
San Jose's first charter school to close after 25 years, laying off 99 employees
San Jose's first charter school, founded in 2000 to serve low-income students of color, will permanently close at the end of the current school year, resulting in 99 employee layoffs.
Downtown College Preparatory will shutter its administrative offices and three sites — Alum Rock Middle School, El Camino Middle School and El Primero High School — on June 30, according to notices filed last week with the California Employment Development Department.
The decision, announced earlier this year by the school's board of directors, stems from ongoing enrollment declines and deepening financial instability.
'Unfortunately, with the current limited financial resources and considering the overall trend of lower enrollment in San Jose, the Board made the extremely difficult decision to close all three schools,' the board wrote in a public letter.
DCP currently serves about 950 students across its three campuses, but enrollment has steadily dropped in recent years — a trend seen throughout the Bay Area following the COVID-19 pandemic.
'Over the course of the last several years, the combined enrollment of the DCP organization has suffered significant declines, which has put the organization in a precarious financial position,' the board said.
The network began downsizing in 2024, closing its Alum Rock High School campus after enrollment fell by 30% since 2019. At the time, CEO Pete Settelmayer said the campus's 205 students would not generate sufficient state funding to cover operating costs.
DCP's closure comes just weeks after a similar announcement from The Primary School in East Palo Alto, a tuition-free private school backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. That school, which also serves low-income Latino students and combines education with health care and family services, will close after the 2025-26 academic year.
According to the organization, 56% of its alumni have graduated or are on track to graduate from college within six years — four times the national average for similar student demographics.
As the academic year winds down, DCP leaders say their focus remains on supporting students through the school's closure.
