San Jose charter school Downtown College Prep closing its 3 remaining campuses

SAN JOSE When the school year wraps up next month Downtown College Prep will close its three remaining campuses a decision made by the school s board of directors that was driven by declining enrollment and financial woes It marks the end of an era for Santa Clara County s first charter school system which was founded more than two decades ago and originally operated out of a local church and a YMCA At its peak the charter school system had four campuses two middle schools and two high schools and catered largely to San Jose s Latino population and low-income families Nina Rodriguez an instructional coach at DCP described the closure as truly a heartbreak It was very much an initiative to serve students who either did not have as much access to guidance or easily fell under the radar systemically Rodriguez declared in an interview All the work we ve done in the past years has been a huge learning experience of what works for families what gaps exist and how our institution has changed over the years to better understand what students need to successfully graduate from high school successfully apply for college and then successfully thrive at four year institutions DCP boasts a six-year college completion rate of for its alumni compared to of low-income students nationally More than of the charter school system s students are considered low income Signs that DCP was in trouble became apparent last year when just months before the end of the school year DCP broadcasted it would be closing the Alum Rock High School campus in June over declining enrollment and a budget deficit The decision affected more than students who would have to transfer elsewhere Soon after unionized teachers issued a vote of no confidence in then-CEO Pete Settelmayer citing a lack of transparency and respect for the families affected by the closure Settelmayer resigned several months later In January DCP s Board of Directors drove the final nail in the coffin sending out a letter that the last three schools which serve roughly students would close for the same reasons Over the class of the last several years the combined enrollment of the DCP organization has suffered important declines which has put the organization in a precarious financial position the board wrote in the letter The organization has taken substantial strategies to mitigate the situation over the last - months including the closure of one High School staff reductions and discussions with debt holders Nearly DCP employees received layoff notices in April a figure made society this week in state filings A fact sheet posted on DCP s website noted the charter school system owes more than million on its Monterey Road campus which houses El Camino Middle School and El Primero High School as well as administrative offices DCP also faced a million budget deficit for the - fiscal year Declining enrollment a trend seen across districts in California that s largely driven by lower birth rates and families escaping the state s high cost of living has also been a obstacle for DCP whose funding is dependent on its enrollment numbers The charter school system announced it would need to enroll more than new students to help its funding gap DCP bureaucrats could not be reached for comment Sal Williams who has been an English trainer at DCP s El Primero High School the last decade revealed when the teachers unionized in an uncommon occurrence in charter schools it was a battle to get fiscal transparency from DCP management When they decisively did he mentioned that financial picture was much worse than what they were being stated I m not a real estate person I m not a math person Williams disclosed in an interview At the end of the day I m just an English facilitator but I don t know if I d be taking out bonds in the figures of millions of dollars if I didn t have a payback plan Both Rodriguez and Williams who are co-presidents of the mentor s union see DCP s closure as a loss for the students and families it serves The smaller campuses they declared provided more individualized help for students who might have otherwise fallen through the cracks Williams declared he felt like he knew all of the students on his campus regardless of whether they were in his class I think having a school where mostly everyone knows everyone s name you can really aid the aspirant and by extension the family and the entire society Williams explained I think that s what DCP did so well both on this side of San Jose but also the Alum Rock group Losing that is really hard for both students families and by extension the communities