SCCOE Opens New Facility
For Special Education Students

SAN JOSE, CA – A ribbon-cutting ceremony on September 16 officially opened a new facility for special education students of the Santa Clara County Office of Education. The facility, located on the campus of Anne Darling School in the San Jose Unified School District, serves medically fragile and ambulatory students of all ages in San Jose.

“We are delighted to have this state-of-the-art facility, custom-designed and dedicated to meet the needs of our special students,” said Principal Barbara Lewis. “We have 40 students currently enrolled, and plan to add two more Head Start and preschool classes.”

The school features eight spacious classrooms especially designed to serve students with special needs, housed in a “green” 17,000-square-foot building.

Construction costs were funded by Proposition 55, a measure for the sale of bonds for school facilities construction and renovation, which California voters approved in 2004. Recently work was completed on another COE special education facility, Brownell in Gilroy.

Proposition 55 “allowed the COE to launch a long-range facilities plan to construct new buildings, like this one and Brownell Middle School, for students with special needs,” said Dr. Charles Weis, county superintendent of schools. “It also enabled modernization of other buildings, like the former Foundry alternative school.”

Among the 50 people attending the opening event were several local school superintendents, including San Jose Unified Superintendent Don Iglesias, and members of the County Board of Education and San Jose Unified board. Also in attendance were representatives from SCCOE General Services; BFGC-IBI Group, the architectural firm that designed the building; and Blach Construction, the company that built the new school.

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Date last updated: September 18, 2009