A charter school in San Jose appears to be closing permanently.
Perseverance Preparatory School, operating out of Grace Baptist Church, opened four years ago over the objections of the San Jose Unified School District, but now a series of setbacks have put the school on the brink of permanent closure.
The school faces closure because it did not turn in required documentation of student addresses in time, which principal and executive director Lisamarie Reid blamed on a sudden resignation of the person responsible to do it.
Reid said she turned the documentation in late and the district refused to accept them, costing Perseverance $180,000 in funding.
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"We’ve just had so much trauma this school year that it’s just really heartbreaking to have to have this conversation with families and say, 'We’re going to close our schools now,'" Reid said.
The district's decision was the final setback but not the only one. Others include the school having to be rescued by donors last fall when money ran out, losing a new school site location, staffing shortages and the death of a student in May.
For parents and students, if this is the end, parting will be painful.
"They have their friends, they’re familiar with the staff and the projects at the school, so I’m hoping that’s not the case," parent Teri Selix said.
Alejandra Ruiz has a daughter with special needs.
"She is thriving in a school, where in public schools she’d probably just fall through the cracks and she won’t succeed," Ruiz said. "So it’s pretty disheartening that it’s closing."
Teachers said students are being left in limbo.
"A lot of the kids, we don’t know where they’re actually going to go after we close down," teacher Levy Zamora said. "We’re just at a loss after that."
Perseverance said it accepts the district decision is final. The school plans to host an enrollment fair with families and other charter schools to see if it can find places for its students to land.
The San Jose Unified School District released the following statement to NBC Bay Area on Friday.
“All charter schools that serve students who reside in the San José Unified district boundaries follow the same process of providing enrollment information and verification of residence for the students they serve. We give the full funding allocation for every student served based on the information provided according to the process and associated timelines for all charter schools, including Perseverance.”
