The San Jose Unified School District board voted Thursday night to shut down five elementary schools and relocate another at the end of the current school year, a decision that has left many parents and students frustrated and scrambling to adjust.
The campuses slated for closure are Empire Gardens, Lowell, Gardner, Canoas, and Terrell elementary schools. Hammer Montessori will be relocated.
District officials said the move comes in response to a 20% decline in enrollment since 2017 — a loss of about 6,000 students. Some of the district’s smallest elementary schools now serve only a couple of hundred students, limiting available resources…