Tag: San Jose

The Alum Rock Union School District in San Jose has named 13 schools in jeopardy of closing due to declining enrollment.

District officials said the goal is shut down eight of the listed schools and consolidate two other campuses after this school year.

Many families across the state are facing the same dilemma.

Both Oakland and San Francisco school districts are having internal battles over closing schools.

Also in San Jose, the Berryessa Union School District plans to close three campuses and Franklin-McKinley School District said at least five of its schools could be gone at the end of the school year.

“It’s one of the most difficult decision that we’ve had to make,” Franklin-McKinley School District Superintendent Juan Cruz said. “We know that schools are deeply rooted in community.”

Cruz said his district just cannot keep up with declining enrollment and has lost 40% of its student body since 2011.

A declining birth rate and families leaving the Bay Area and state due to high cost of living are fueling the enrollment decline.

Some district may lease their closed schools to generate some revenue.

Parents said in the end no one will be happy with the final outcome.

The controversy surrounding embattled San Jose City Councilman Omar Torres could heat up on Tuesday as the council holds its regular meeting.

There is likely to be a discussion on whether or not Torres can govern if he doesn’t show up for city business.

Torres missed the last meeting because he was sick, and on Tuesday, the council will vote on whether or not to accept that for his absence. Torres’s absence came amid allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

If the council votes not to approve the absence, that could pave the way for Torres’s eventual removal from office. The city charter says that after five consecutive unexcused absences, a council person can be ousted.

Some council members and Mayor Matt Mahan have requested Torres’s resignation.

“All of my colleagues and the mayor has asked for his resignation,” said Bien Doan, District 7 council member. “It would help our community. That’s what we deserve.”

Torres is accused of sexual misconduct with a minor, which came to light when Torres went reported to police he was being extorted by a man with whom he’d had a previous relationship.

That investigation revealed the accused blackmailer was a minor when the relationship started. The investigation also uncovered references to a sexual act with a different minor and a photo of an 11-year-old with text message references to the boy’s privates.

Torres has maintained his innocence, saying the messages in question were role play.

The council is scheduled to meet at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Firefighters responded to a two-alarm residential fire in San Jose on Saturday that injured one person and left multiple dogs missing.

According to the San Jose Fire Department, the blaze impacted a two-story single-family residence on the 4600 block of Thornhaven Way. The fire broke out around 5 p.m. on Saturday.

All occupants were reported to have made it out of the home. One of the residents suffered burn injuries, per SJFD.

Despite the minor injury, the family said their main concern is their missing dogs.

“They blocked the whole street off, and it looks like one or two dogs are missing,” said Carlos Deluca, a neighbor.

Fire officials said the home contained 12 dogs and are currently looking for them.

One dog was found, but Animal Control informed the owners that the dog had reportedly bitten a toddler. Animal Control is now in possession of that dog.

The family declined NBC Bay Area’s requests for comment.

“The main home is not going to be livable at this point, so we’re working to see if they need assistance from the Red Cross or if they’ll handle that on their own,” said Michael Maas, battalion chief of San Jose Fire.

Newly released court documents reveal troubling details linked to accusations of sexual misconduct against San Jose City Councilman Omar Torres.

The documents detail an alleged relationship between Torres and a 21-year-old Chicago man who may have been a minor when the relationship started. Torres claims he is the victim, alleging the man extorted him, and he reported as much to San Jose police on Aug. 29.

Police investigated the extortion claim, which Thursday’s released affidavit confirms, but a search of the Chicago man’s phone revealed that in February 2022, Torres sent the man a photo of his 11-year-old son. The conversation begins innocently but then turns to the subject of the boy’s genitals.

The text exchanges between the two continued through April 8, 2022, with a discussion of Torres’s planned visit to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention and a planned encounter with the man.

Fast-forward to August of this year, when Torres reported the alleged extortion, claiming the Chicago man threatened to leak nude photos and videos of the councilman if he didn’t get paid. According to the affidavit, Torres told police he had paid the man $22,000 up to that point.

In a statement released earlier this month, after he was detained by police, Torres said: “Let me be absolutely clear – these accusations are entirely false. This detention was based on misinformation provided to law enforcement in response to a police report I filed against an individual for extortion and stalking and is a clear act of retaliation from this person.”

On Thursday morning, Torres’s attorney told NBC Bay Area he has yet to review the affidavit and said the councilman maintains his innocence.

NBC Bay Area is also reaching out to the Chicago man named in the affidavit.

A Lebanese American woman from the Bay Area is trying to get out of Lebanon.

San Jose resident Christina Dahro has been visiting her father in Lebanon. She’s been contacting the U.S. Embassy for help to get back to the Bay Area, but she said that they haven’t been much help at all.

Israel has begun it’s ground incursion into Lebanon, all in an effort to push Hezbollah forces away from the Israeli border.

“America has done nothing. I’ve called the Embassy, they said email us. My brother and I emailed the Embassy, then, they sent us a link,” she said.

Christina says that link doesn’t offer assistance to get out. On Monday, the U.S. Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said they are not evacuating American citizens but have been working with them to provide updates about commercial flights available.

Dahro said that she got a ticket on her own out of Beirut.

“I found a ticket. I told a travel agency just get me out because I need to get back to the Bay Area,” she said. “I’m actually going to take a very risky drive at 8:30 p.m. your time to the airport and just pray and cross my fingers that I get out and nothing happens.”

In the last few days, Dahro said that she’s been collecting donations from people in the Bay Area and buying supplies for people who have lost their homes. She received $2,500 dollars in donations.

“Each blanket is $10. Each mattress is $10. They helped so many people and if it wasn’t for me, they would be sleeping on the floor, cold,” she said.

As Dahro tries to leave Lebanon, she knows there are others who may not have that option.

“It’s not fair that my people are getting bombed and killed and nobody is doing anything,” she said. “It’s a rollercoaster. I need to get back home. I need to get back to work. I need to go back to San Jose. But then what am I doing by leaving people here that need help?”

There’s a dispute raging in San Jose’s large Vietnamese American community over a monthly flag raising ceremony.

The United Vietnamese community of Northern California or UVCNC has conducted a popular flag raising ceremony at the Vietnamese Heritage Garden. It has happened on the first Saturday of every month since 2021.

But San Jose councilmember Bien Doan found out the group has been doing it without a city permit for years and has had access to the park with its own key, even though the park is city property. He got the city to take back the key and require new permits.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Doan said it was to open up the park for ceremonies by other Vietnamese groups.

“The UVACNC used a private held key to the city property to manipulate, influence, and strike political favor among the Vietnamese American communities,” he said. “This will help our community heal. It will help bond many other groups that their voices have been muted for many years.”

But the UVCNC said the move was political since Doan and the head of the group have had numerous disputes over the years. The group said it’s spirit of the law versus the letter of the law.

“The councilmember, he’s splitting hairs, you know?” attorney Minh Steven Dovan said. “How often do you go verbatim, word for word, ‘well, this is the way it is,’ and no other way. Whereas, most of the time we go with the flow and we go with, you know, at the moment,, these things proceed properly. Why change it?.”

The San Jose Parks department said it’s sympathetic but the letter of the law must be followed.

“One of the members of this group is also part of the ‘Adopt A Park’ program for this site and through that process, accessed a key,” said San Jose parks director Jon Cicirelli. “I don’t know if this group copied it or not. But this key started showing up in different places in the community. Ultimately, we had to take all the keys back and re-change the locks.”

With 11 different different groups now planning to conduct their own ceremonies on the first Saturday of the month, that means the UVCNC won’t get a chance to do it again for about a year.

A San Jose teenager died and another teen was arrested Sunday following a solo-vehicle crash in which alcohol impairment is suspected to have played a factor, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The wreck happened at about 3:30 a.m. on southbound Highway 101 near East San Antonio Street in San Jose, the CHP said.

Three teens, all 19-year-old San Jose residents, were in a Mercedes-Benz CLS 500 when the driver lost control and crashed, according to the CHP.

The teen sitting in the left rear passenger seat was ejected from the car and died, according to the CHP.

The driver and the other passenger were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, the CHP said. The driver was arrested.

The identity of the teen who was killed wasn’t immediately released.

An investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call the CHP at 408-961-0900.