August 27, 2026 Newsletter
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SJ VOICE is a grassroots coalition of parents and community members throughout the district representing all schools and grades TK-12.
Our mission is to drive awareness, action, and accountability within SJUSD.
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We have evolved since we first started this group back in January 2026 when we were called Parents United focused solely on the the Schools of Tomorrow initiative impacting elementary schools. As we delved into what was really happening at SJUSD, we knew that there was so much more work to be done. So, we are extremely excited to introduce you to...San Jose VOICE!
San Jose VOICE stands for San Jose Voices Of Inclusion, Community & Education.
Welcome to our, not so new, community!
If you know of anyone who would like to get this newsletter, please send them this link to sign up.
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We want to do a huge shoutout to the teachers and staff at ALL the elementary schools - not just closing and receiving. We know that everyone has been impacted by the school closures and we want you to know that we stand with you, we support you, and we are grateful for your love and dedication to our students.
One of the Union heads, Sammy, spoke during the recent Board meeting about the long 16+ hours and sometimes 7 days a week that his team did to prepare for the new school year. Thank you Sammy and all the union workers who put in extra hours. We appreciate you!
| Board of Education Meeting 8/20/26 Recap | | |
Below are the key items discussed during the August 20 Board of Education meeting. Not all items discussed are listed below and these are listed in impact order vs. how they appeared on the agenda.
All votes are marked as ayes-nayes-abstain with the name of the Trustee(s) that was/were in the minority listed.
You can view the agenda for the meeting here. As of the publishing of this newsletter, the recording of the meeting and the meeting minutes are not yet available on the district website.
We have recently launched San Jose VOICE Media on YouTube. You can watch the livestream (we provide video while SJUSD does not) and replays. Follow the page to stay up to date and watch the August 20 replay here.
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Asset Management Committee
The Asset Management Committee is the latest committee created by SJUSD. This is the committee who will recommend what to do with the four empty elementary school sites due to the Schools of Tomorrow initiative. Sites include Canoas, Empire Gardens, Lowell, and Terrell.
Seth Reddy, Chief Business Officer for SJUSD, originally stated that SJUSD would not sell the land that the schools are on. He then said they may sell the land in an extreme circumstance. (Given that SJUSD is not in a financial emergency, selling the land should not be an option.) The new application says that they may sell the land. It is important that we stay on top of this Committee.
Trustee Teresa Castellanos and Trustee Carla Collins also asked for the "sale" part of the Asset Management Committee bylaws to be removed after a community member made a comment about it during her speech.
Trustee Teresa Castellanos asked what SJUSD is doing to recruit parents and community members of the closed schools and Seth Reddy said they are not reaching out to the communities. It is up to the SJUSD community to let the larger community know.
Trustee Brian Wheatley asked if Board members can be on the committee and Seth Reddy said Board members are not allowed on 7-11 Committees.
The first public mention of the Asset Management Committee went out in the August 20 newsletter sent by SJUSD.
You can find more information and the application here. Applications are due by September 4, 2026 at 5:00pm.
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Resolution: Reaffirming Support for Immigrant Students and Families
Trustee Teresa Castellanos took the lead on this new Resolution. We thank her for bringing to the forefront the issues SJUSD immigrant students, families, staff, and neighbors are facing. (It does bring up the question why she voted Yes to close 5 Title 1 schools that have large immigrant communities.)
She offered suggested changes to the current wording to include "immigrant diversity" vs "immigration diversity" because it is not about status eligibility. She also suggested adding in wording that would oppose using SJUSD property for staging areas for immigration enforcement and opposing detention centers in the Bay Area.
The Resolution was approved 4-1-0 (Trustee Nicole Gribstad) with the suggested wording changes to be made. You can find the original Resolution here.
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Resolution: Supporting the Rights, Freedoms, and Equality of Those Who Are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+)
Trustee Carla Collins was the lead on this Resolution when it was initially passed in 2023. Trustee Wheatley also spoke strongly in support. We applaud the Trustees for the work being done and the recognition to help, protect, and celebrate our LGBTQ+ community (students, faculty, and staff).
The Resolution was approved 4-1-0 (Trustee Nicole Gribstad). You can find the Resolution here.
We are hopeful that true change is in the works and that SJUSD history does not repeat itself. Vindicated: Arbitrator Sides With Educator.
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SoT Update
CBO Seth Reddy's 2 hour Schools of Tomorrow update had very little information in it. Most of the noteworthy content came from questions the Trustees asked after the presentation. That is where most of the below information came from.
We have mentioned it before and we'll keep mentioning it, his slides are pretty useless because they contain no information. For example, his slide on "Instructional Program" simply says "School Staffing". The slide with the most information is the title slide. You can find Reddy's slides here.
Missing Items:
We have reports of teachers missing boxes after the SoT moved and can validate one Canoas teacher lost 6 boxes in the move. When Trustee José Magaña asked how SJUSD lost teacher boxes, Seth Reddy said it was one of three things 1) it went to a different teacher's room, 2) it wasn't labelled correctly, or 3) it ended up at a different school or the warehouse. When Trustee José Magaña asked again, Seth Reddy said it was because boxes weren't labeled properly.
Buses:
Trustee Teresa Castellanos asked how SJUSD is reminding the parents about the bus option and wants to continuously offer the bus past this first year. Seth Reddy stated that families are still applying. He said "reach out to the appropriate channels" but didn't offer any contact details.
Seth Reddy stated that the grounds teams will continue to keep closed schools looking good as well as the areas around the bus stops.
If you are interested in your child(ren) taking the bus, please reach out to Transportation@SJUSD.org and feel free to add Seth Reddy to the email...SReddy@SJUSD.org.
Working with the City:
SJUSD is working closely with the City of San Jose to help with parking issues at some of the schools as well as getting crossing guards. Trustee Teresa Castellano has asked for crossing guards at San Jose High School because that is one of the bus pickup spots as well as crossing guards at Grant. Trustee Carla Collins also suggested getting crossing guards for the safety of the students. (Although we fully support this, we have been talking about the safety of our students walking to and from school since February and wish it were taken more seriously prior to the start of school.)
SoT Commitments to Receiving Schools:
Trustee Brian Wheatley brought up that Carson doesn't have an arts teacher and it was part of the SoT promises. One of the parents mentioned that they know of one elementary school where students weren't going to get art or music for at least 6 weeks after school started. Reddy said that teachers and special programming is determined by the student sizes. This is not what was mentioned during SoT.
Non SoT Impact:
Superintendent Nancy Albarran mentioned that reduced combos, smaller class sizes, counselors, support staff, and other guarantees only relate to receiving schools and not the other schools. A speaker mentioned that class sizes at many schools, including Willow Glen Elementary, have gone up due to students transferring because of SoT.
Albarran mentioned that SJUSD does not go beyond collective bargaining agreement class sizes. (We can confirm that if a teacher wants to take on more students up to a certain number, they can and they'll get extra pay.)
Here are the agreed upon class sizes for elementary schools...
TK: 20
Kinder: 24
1st: 26
2nd: 26
3rd: 28
4th: 28
5th: 28
Some schools are reporting increases in combo classes. Bachrodt added three more a couple of days before the start of school. They now have a total of 5 combo classes. Last year no school had more than two combo classes.
TWBI:
There is space at some of the TWBI programs and interested parents should reach out to the schools directly.
Waitlists:
Reddy said his team proactively monitors and calls families when space becomes available but it is not on a daily basis. There is currently no pubic portal or way to easily check the status of your waitlist but it is something that the District would like to get for next school year.
Running on Blacktops:
Trustee Nicole Gribstad asked about students not being allowed to run on blacktops. Reddy said he doesn't know about anything about that.
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Non Agenda Items
Here are some of the key points brought up during the Non Agenda Public Comments.
- Parents asked for acknowledgement of our concerns and follow up from Trustees.
- Request for a procedural change for allowing folks to speak for others if they can't stay when Non Agenda session starts. It is not uncommon for a speaker to put their card in by 6pm and then have to wait 3 hours to speak.
- Request to have online listeners submit comments that they read over Zoom. Not all parents and community members can attend the meetings in person but are able to via Zoom. Their voices should be heard.
- Trustees have to do better. They never say to parents and community members, "Let's work on this together." Our voices, experience, and knowledge are being ignored and squashed.
- Why is José Magaña using the hashtag #DefeatMAGA when neither of his opponents are MAGA?
- The CSEA union leader, Sharon, brought up concerns regarding three vacated positions not being backfilled but other staff is now taking over the jobs of the three that are gone. One of the staff that left did so because of workload issues. Staff are now working extra hours and are not getting paid because Seth Reddy said no overtime or comp time is allowed. The speaker said she is firmly against CSEA members bringing work home. She would like SJUSD to reevaluate why the District Office has so many managers and assistant managers when the workload is falling on others. She warned that the CSEA board will be watching for the infractions.
- Concern with the new volunteer application and requirements. Why are volunteers finding out so late about the new requirements when the law was approved in October 2025 and went into effect on July 1, 2026? Volunteers since Jan 1, 2026 have been mandated reporters but no training was offered the second half of the school year and volunteers didn't know they were mandated reporters. There were also concerns that the mandated videos were only offered in English. (The morning after the BoE meeting and after many community complaints, a Spanish version of the videos is now available.)
- There are maximum capacity changes at schools without any changes to rooms. How is that possible?
- An SDC class at Almaden Elementary was given no supplies for the classroom. No sensory items, adaptive toys, adaptive seating...
- There is still concern about the pools at Lincoln and Leland. Has anything happened with them?
- How many students did the district lose in the SoT process?
- The community would like to see reports on all the campuses - not just SoT.
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Allen at Steinbeck students are losing their field for 4-6 months for repairs and Bachrodt was notified the day before school started that their field would be under construction for 3 months. Why didn't the district work on these over the summer? The Allen at Steinbeck principal has been asking for the field to be repaired since July of 2021. Why has it taken so long to have repairs made and why is this happening when the students are back at school?
- School buses are dropping kids off late to school. We know of one going to Castillero that arrived 25 minutes after the bell rang.
- 188 West St. James Street (employee housing) was built by immigrants who were mistreated but the district is now wanting put a Resolution in place protecting immigrant families. It is very hypocritical.
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Measure R Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC) Meeting | |
San José Unified's Citizens' Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC) held its first meeting of the new term on August 24. The committee is the independent group of community volunteers charged with watching how the district spends Measure R, the $1.15 billion facilities bond voters approved in 2024. Below are notes that were taken by one of our members. Thank you Michael.
- The committee elected its officers as follows: Michael Smith as Chair, Marco Faustino as Vice Chair, and Lindsey Centeio as Secretary. Trustee Brian Wheatley and Trustee Carla Collins serve as the Board's representatives. Members received training on the Brown Act, California's open meetings law, and on the distinct roles of the Board, district staff, and the committee. The committee also approved updated bylaws aligning its rules with Measure R's wording and current member terms. The Board votes on those changes September 10.
- The District's Facilities Master Plan is a 10-15 year roadmap for every campus. The process has six steps and is now in step 5. It was originally due to be completed already but was delayed by the Schools of Tomorrow process. The District's new goal is completion by the end of the calendar year. A new survey of campus staff at all Schools of Tomorrow campuses has just launched.
- The District's planned employee housing on Hillsdale Avenue received feedback from the city in January on its permitting application. The next submission to the city is expected within a few weeks. Income restrictions on certain units are under consideration and could speed the approval process. Separately, the Board has authorized staff to investigate purchasing condominiums downtown, an option that would carry no income restrictions. (These are the condos also known as the Slavery Towers.) There is no scheduled date for the next update on the purchase option. The district intends to pursue both paths only until one clearly advances, at which point work on the other stops.
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As of June 30, 2026, the district has issued $150 million in Measure R bonds, the first of several planned issuances, and earned $5.2 million in interest. About $4.0 million has been spent or committed to date. None of it has gone to construction or improvements on school campuses. All of it is planning and assessment work, spread across three named projects: the 2025 Facilities Master Plan (about $889,000), the 2025 School Safety and Emergency Preparedness Assessment (about $1.6 million, funded from non-bond sources), and 2025 Workforce Housing planning (about $1.5 million). Committee members were told that future reports will combine the two housing efforts into a single line item and will break the large campus modernization category into more detailed subcategories.
Community engagement meetings on the master plan are listed below. Spanish interpretation will be available at every session:
- Tuesday, September 22: Leland High School
- Wednesday, September 23: Willow Glen High School
- Tuesday, October 6: San José High School
- Wednesday, October 7: Abraham Lincoln High School
- Thursday, October 8: Pioneer High School
- Tuesday, October 13: Gunderson High School
The next CBOC meeting will take place on Monday, November 16 at the District office and is open to the public.
Click the link to find out more about the Measure R Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee.
| Other Parent / Student Concerns | | |
Here are some concerns that we have heard from you. Do you have others? We encourage you to raise these in Board meetings or let us know so that we can raise them for you. Additionally, we encourage you to email your Trustee and let them know what's going on.
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Vaping continues to be an issue in the middle and high school bathrooms - in particular Bret Harte, Castillero, and Leland. To the point where some students won't use the restroom during the day.
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Neighborhood schools were meant to be walked and not have hundreds of cars. There are lots of issues with parking for drop off and pick up at Horace Mann, Washington, Gardner, and Carson. Some parents are having to pay to park in order to drop off and pick up kids. Others are getting to school 20+ minutes before the bell so that they can park.
- After school programs are mostly full. We know of a SJUSD employee who can't get their child into the afterschool program and they came from a closing school.
- Families were told the day school started that Chromebooks would not be available to all students.
- Seth Reddy continually refuses to acknowledge that SoT schools who had SDC students placed at them are actually receiving schools. If a school was assigned specific students, they are a receiving school...Grant and Reed are receiving schools!
- There is a middle school science teacher talking about religion and he has a Bible on his desk.
- If enrollment is down, why are charter schools at City of San Jose events like Viva Park and the Rose, White, and Blue parade but not SJUSD?
- A high school student that had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and had an Specialized Academic Instruction (SAI) class was moved to all SAI classes without any parent involvement or official change to the legal IEP. The family was told that the district made the change and now all IEP students with SAI classes have been moved to all SAI classes.
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At the end of last school year, there was vandalism done at Pioneer High School by students and the District did not hold them financially responsible.
- If SJUSD buys the Slavery Towers for teacher housing, we remove possible inventory that could be used for non SJUSD staff. Additionally, we remove existing property tax revenue for the city because school districts don't pay property tax. This then means less money for SJUSD because we get funded, in part, by property taxes
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September 4 at 5pm - Deadline to submit for the Asset Management Advisory Committee. Find out more here and the application is here.
September 8 - Budget Advisory Committee meeting
September 10 - Board of Education meeting
September 17 - Advisory Committee on Use of SJPD Officers
September 20 - SJUSD night at Bay FC game. Get your tickets here.
September 21 - District English Learner Advisory Committee (DELAC)
September 22 - Facilities Master Plan Community meeting
September 23 - Facilities Master Plan Community meeting
September 23 - Area 4 Candidate Forum. Register here.
September 24 - Board of Education meeting
September 28 - October 2 - Fall break
October 12 - Voluntary Integration Plan (VIP) meeting (This is the Committee that hasn't had quorum in 4.5 years and therefore can't vote on anything.)
October 15 - Board of Education meeting
November 3 - Election for Trustee Areas 2 & 4
November 16 - Measure R Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee (CBOC) meeting
*SJUSD Board of Education typically holds its regular meetings on the first and third Thursday of every month, with the closed session starting at 5:00 p.m. and open session starting at 6:00 p.m. Meetings take place in the Board Room at the District Office, 855 Lenzen Avenue.
If you plan to speak on closed session items, you must submit a comment card by 5 p.m. day of. If you plan to speak on open session items, you must submit a comment card by 6 p.m. day of. The agenda for each meeting is published approximately 72 hours prior to the meeting.
Meeting Minutes can be found here but they take a while to get up on the District website.
The 2026-2027 School Year BoE meeting schedule can be found here.
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You can find the full list of Trustees, their areas, and background here. You can also click their names below to find more information.
Trustee Area 1:
Teresa Castellanos
Email: tcastellanos@sjusd.org
Trustee Area 2:
José Magaña
Email: jmagana@sjusd.org
Trustee Area 3:
Carla Collins
Email: ccollins@sjusd.org
Trustee Area 4:
Brian Wheatley
Email: bwheatley@sjusd.org
Trustee Area 5:
Nicole Gribstad
Email: ngribstad@sjusd.org
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Trustees in Areas 2 & 4 are up for re-election in November 2026.
Trustees in Areas 1, 3 & 5 are up for re-election in November 2028.
| | Trustee Candidates for Area 2 and Area 4 | | |
Below is a list of those who have filed for candidacy for Trustee in Area 2 and Area 4.
At this time, SJ VOICE will not endorse any candidate but we are strongly encouraging community members to vote against any incumbent.
Area 2
Schools: Bachrodt Elementary, Trace Elementary, Muwekma Ohlone Middle, Hoover Middle, Lincoln High
Candidates:
Carson Dance
Tomara Hall
José Magaña (incumbent)
Area 4
Schools: Almaden Elementary, Canoas Elementary (closed), Carson Elementary, Hacienda Elementary, Reed Elementary, Terrell Elementary (closed), John Muir Middle, Broadway High, Gunderson High
Candidates:
Mary Grunthaner
Michael Melillo
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We are putting on Candidate Forums so that you have the opportunity to hear directly from candidates. Each forum will be from 7:30pm - 9:00pm and will be hosted over Zoom. We have spots for up to 100 attendees on each Forum so make sure to register early to reserve your spot. These forums are open to all community members so please feel free to share with others.
Replays of the forums will also be provided after each event.
Area 2 Candidate Forum (not yet finalized)
Carson Dance
Tomara Hall
José Magaña (incumbent)
Area 4 Candidate Forum
Mary Grunthaner
Michael Melillo
| | SJ Teachers Association No Endorsement | | |
You can find candidate endorsements on their website but there is an important "No Endorsement" that we need to call out.
The San Jose Teachers Association (SJTA) PAC (an SJTA committee tasked with vetting and recommending candidates for endorsement and fundraising/campaining) has recommended twice that SJTA not endorse any candidate in Area 2.
However, for the first time, the SJTA Executive Board went against that recommendation, to recommend an endorsement of current Trustee José Magaña.
On Wednesday, August 19, SJTA representatives from each school voted, and 70% voted against the Executive Board’s recommendation, meaning SJTA is not endorsing Magaña, or any candidate, in Area 2. This means teachers are now freely able to support the candidate of their choice without feeling like they are going against their union.
Our community wants to recognize that teachers, staff, and students have weathered two difficult terms under Trustee José Magaña - including school closures, a dismissive response to the Grand Jury Report’s concerning findings, the unjust treatment of a teacher who stood up for LGBTQ+ students, unresolved issues around contractual salary increases, and $30 million in health benefits, among other challenges.
We have seen what teachers have faced under the current administration and its Trustees, and we will stand by you now and in the future whenever your working conditions and our students’ learning conditions are at risk.
Thank you to the SJTA teachers who organized to address these concerns and who continue fighting for our students. Your dedication has done so much to strengthen our schools and communities.
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We have started a "Hey, Jose..." Facebook page where we ask José Magaña questions. Feel free to share the images and/or add in your own questions and follow the page.
Here’s a list of transcripts and MP4s of STIC, STAC and BoE meetings going back to last year. Thank you Sarah R. for providing these! Once we get the website running a little smoother we'll host these there.
The 2026-2027 Community Calendar can be found here. This calendar shows all Committee meeting dates as well as Board of Education dates.
Board of Education meetings for the 2026-2027 school year can be found here.
Volunteer applications are being accepted for the 2026-2027 school year. Please allow for at least a month for approval of your application. The process now includes online training.
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We know there’s a lot of information and you’re busy so that’s why we created this newsletter to help you stay informed. Have a little extra time to dig in more?
- Attend a Board meeting and if you’re able to, let your voice be heard by speaking. Speakers are generally given 2 minutes and we'd love to get speakers from ALL schools across the entire district.
- Reach out to your Trustees (emails above) with questions.
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Follow updates on our Facebook page and the Teach Our Kids SJUSD Facebook page (this page is not affiliated with us but many of us use it.) Add your own comments or reply to or share others’ comments.
- Talk to teachers and staff to get a feel for what’s happening and how they’re feeling.
- We have WhatsApp groups for General Interest, Media Outreach, Screen Use in the Classrooms, and SDC families. Let us know if you're interested in any of them.
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Interested in helping us maintain the website, Facebook page, and this newsletter? Let us know! We'd love to get some students involved.
- Share this newsletter with others!
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Thank you for joining us in the fight for all our students!
Have concerns with your school, tips on what's going on, want to help? Know of an update that should be shared or investigated?
Let us know.
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