Districts juggle deficits, closures, and creative funding fixes

Across Silicon Valley, districts like San Jose Unified, Alum Rock, and Redwood City are grappling with steep enrollment drops, multimillion-dollar deficits, and looming school closures. San Jose Unified has lost nearly 6,000 students—about 20% since 2017—fueling controversial closure proposals now delayed amid community pushback and demands for evidence-based decisions, while Alum Rock is cutting up to 38 jobs to close an $8 million budget gap. Redwood City is turning to a June parcel tax that could raise roughly $12 million, and some leaders are eyeing the reuse of empty office buildings as large new schools, showing how fiscal strain is reshaping where and how students learn. Related leadership and safety-tech moves in nearby San Mateo underscore how local governments are experimenting with different tools to stabilize and modernize public education systems.