New high school in downtown San Jose should have a positive impact

Hillbrook School — an independent private school where annual tuition runs in the tens of thousands of dollars — cut the ribbon Monday on its new high school building in the old armory in downtown San Jose. It’s the first of two historic buildings the school plans to transform into state-of-the-art learning spaces that are within walking distance of a controversial, dilapidated former church and long-neglected St. James Park.

That location may surprise you, but Mark Silver, who has been Hillbrook’s head of school since 2009, says it’s the perfect place for his students to be and to learn.

“San Jose is an amazingly dynamic and diverse city,” he said. “We understand the value of taking students out into the real world and having them ask questions of real people.”

It’s a pairing that, in a strange way, owes its existence to pizza. You see, Chuck Hammers — the owner of the Pizza My Heart chain — served on Hillbrook’s board of trustees for 16 years and was a driving force behind the school’s expansion to downtown San Jose. Having served on the boards of both the San Jose Downtown Association and its Property Based Improvement District, he knew how bad downtown could be — and how much better it had gotten, thanks in part to the Groundwerx cleaning and safety teams he helped create.

“This school wouldn’t be here without Groundwerx,” said Hammers, who was honored Thursday night at the Visionary Circle dinner held at Hillbrook’s new downtown campus. “This park was a disaster before then, and now I think this school is going to go the other way and make it even better.”

Hillbrook, an 89-year-old institution that started as a boarding school, has classes for junior kindergarten through eighth grade at its Los Gatos campus. But the desire to open a high school, or “upper school” in Hillbrook’s parlance, began bubbling several years ago and really took off when Hillbrook was able to secure the use of two buildings, the armory and the Moir Building, an 1894 building on North First Street, from Urban Community — the development group led by Gary Dillabough and Jeff Arrillaga.

Last year, Hillbrook’s first class of ninth graders took classes at Adobe’s downtown headquarters while Anderson Brulé Architects was working on turning the 90-year-old Spanish Revival Armory into the school’s Art and Athletic Center, with a gym and five classrooms. Renovations are under way on the Moir Building — just a short walk along Devine Street away from the armory — and it is expected to open in a year in time to welcome Hillbrook’s third high school class.

While Hillbrook’s class sizes are very small, hundreds of people turned out for Monday’s ribbon-cutting event, including business leaders and elected officials. Hillbrook Head of School Mark Silver made a point to acknowledge the presence of Shannon Hunt-Scott, chair of the school’s board of trustees, and her husband, Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott. “They are not just lead donors but have been tireless advocates for this project,” Silver said.

One of the benefits of being downtown is the proximity to companies like Adobe, institutions like San Jose State and nonprofit social service and arts organizations, many of whom the school has made connections with already. Over the summer, students built wooden Adirondack chairs at the School of Visual Philosophy on The Alameda, one that was gifted to Chuck Hammers on Thursday night.

“They are so excited to have a high school in downtown San Jose, and they believe in what we believe in, the idea of the city as a classroom,” Silver said, echoing the philosophy of Notre Dame High School, which also calls downtown home.

The northern end of downtown where Hillbrook has set up shop could certainly use the activity, too. Plans to reimagine St. James Park have stalled because of funding issues and litigation, and the former First Church of Christ, Scientist remains an eyesore that’s been trapped in development hell for more than 30 years.

San Jose Downtown Association CEO Alex Stettinski says he hopes having Hillbrook students, teachers and parents around that area will be a boost to businesses around the school including Teske’s Germania, Devine Wine & Cheese and the soon-to-open Hobee’s cafe. “To have a school open here is a symbol of the revitalization of downtown,” he said.

PARK CHAMPIONS: The San Jose Parks Foundation Honors took place Thursday at Roosevelt Park, where awards were presented to the San Jose Parks Foundation, represented by Kevin Brown and Heather Hooper; the city’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services volunteer team, led by Leticia Espino; and longtime parks advocate and San Jose Parks Commission member Helen Chapman.

The Roosevelt Park Roller Hockey Rink was the perfect venue, as it was rebuilt in 2019, the last year the Sharks hosted the NHL All-Star Game, with support from the Sharks Foundation, SAP and the NHL.

TEQUILA TIME: The next time you order tequila in San Jose, you might get more of an education about the traditional Mexican spirit than you bargained for. That’s because many of the drinks-fixers from the city’s bars and restaurants attended a tasting event led by Ana Maria Romero, the Maestra Tequilera for Mijenta Tequila at San Pedro Square Market on Monday afternoon.

Speaking from the patio of Alma Tequilera, Romero spoke of the spirit with terms more commonly reserved for wine or high-end whiskies like terroir, highlands, lowlands, color aroma and age. And Romero knows her stuff: She literally wrote a book on the subject, “The Art of Tasting Tequila” in 2007, and has identified 600 distinct scents in tequilas and mapped them onto an aroma wheel.

TALKING SOLUTIONS: CalMatters columnist Dan Walters — who built a big reputation with a long career at the Sacramento Bee — was at Amber India in Los Altos on Monday night, but it wasn’t just the amazing food that drew him there. He was also talking with former State Controller Steve Westly about some of the state’s biggest problems, like the housing crisis and poor student outcomes, before a group of more than 60 business and community leaders.

The event benefitted the 21st Century Alliance, an initiative that Westly is part of that is aiming to tackle those problems with common-sense solutions.

TAKING A SPIN: It looks like Limes and Birds are out in San Jose, but Spin is in. And if you don’t know what that means, you may not be a regular rider of the motorized scooters around town.

Lime and Bird will stop their operations in San Jose as of Sept. 1, the same day Spin will begin deploying its scooters. Spin has been around in San Francisco and other California cities, and you’ll be able to recognize them by their orange color.