DCP El Primero High School

DCP El Primero High School is a public charter high school in San Jose, California. Its mission is to prepare first-generation students, particularly low-income Latinos, for college success. Originally called Downtown College Prep, it opened in 2000 as the first charter school in Santa Clara County and has since become the flagship school of the Downtown College Prep (DCP) family of schools.

DCP El Primero High School
DCP El Primero's former location on The Alameda
Address
1402 Monterey Hwy

San Jose
,
California
95110

United States
Coordinates37.316348°N 121.872908°W / 37.316348; -121.872908
Information
School typeCharter public high school
Opened2000
School districtSan Jose Unified School District
DirectorJennifer Andaluz
Grades9–12
Enrollment400
Color(s)               Purple, orange, and silver
Team nameLobos
Websitedcp.org/dcp-el-primero-high-school/

History

The school was founded by Greg Lippman and by Jennifer Andaluz, who became Executive Director. When it was granted a charter by San Jose Unified School District late in 1999, it was the first charter school in Santa Clara County;[1][2] an elementary school opened the same year.[3] After a summer program testing teaching concepts and forming the first group of students, the school opened in fall 2000 with 102 9th-grade students,[4][5] split between two sites in downtown San Jose, near the San Jose State University campus: St. Paul's Methodist church (in 2007 the site of the launch of a charter elementary school, Rocketship One)[2] and a YWCA.[6] In each of the following three years, a grade and another approximately 100 freshman students were added.[7] The school received considerable help in its formation from Father Mateo Sheedy, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic church, and its advisory board and eventual board of trustees included then-mayor of San Jose Ron Gonzales, Robert Caret, then-president of San Jose State, Tony Ridder, CEO of Knight Ridder, then headquartered in San Jose, and Greg Jamison, president of the San Jose Sharks hockey team.[8] The mayor and the priest both spoke at the opening celebration on August 30, 2000.[5]

View of the school from across The Alameda, 2012; Spirit Gate on the left

Of the first freshman class, approximately one third transferred out, 11 moved away, 6 were expelled, and approximately half graduated, all of whom were accepted by four-year colleges.[7] In 2007–08, the school had a 0.9% drop-out rate and a 100% graduation rate.[9] As of March 2015 more than 600 students had graduated and gone on to college.[10]

Initial plans of constructing a school building on land donated by San Jose State fell through.[11] Instead, after briefly being split between three sites, the school moved in October 2002 to a converted fitness center,[12][13][14] and in December 2005 to the former building of Hester Elementary School, on The Alameda.[15][16][17][18] The building was gutted to create a "great area" and other new spaces; Downtown College Prep students and their math teacher assisted the architect, Bill Gould, in laying out the partitions for the interior rebuilding.[19]

Gould had been the designer with Glen Rogers of the Spirit Gate, a San Jose Public Art Program project completed in 2000 consisting of an ornamental gateway on The Alameda with concrete posts resembling elephant tusks and inspirational "power words" such as "family" and "dream" stencilled out of the circular gate itself. Hester students chose the words, and the mosaics that wrap around the posts are based on their drawings.[19][20][21]

For the 2016–17 school year, the high school moved to larger quarters in a former lumber and building supply store on Monterey Highway.[22][23]

Affiliated schools

In 2008, Downtown College Prep opened an affiliated middle school (6th–8th grade) in Alviso, in North San Jose.[24] For the 2012–13 school year, this closed and was replaced by an affiliated middle school in Alum Rock, on the eastern edge of the city.[25] As planned,[26] this subsequently became a combined middle and high school.[27][28] A second middle school authorized by San Jose Unified School District opened in fall 2014.[29][30]

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References
  1. Anne Martinez, "San Jose, Calif.-Area Teachers to Create County's First Charter School", Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, September 29, 1999 (Online at Highbeam; subscription required).
  2. Jessie Mangaliman, "San Jose's Rocketship One launches with math, reading agenda", San Jose Mercury News, August 31, 2007 (Online at Highbeam; subscription required).
  3. Jacobs, pp. 27–28, 84.
  4. Kate Folmar, "San Jose, Calif., Charter School Helps Students Pursue Dreams of College", San Jose Mercury News, Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, May 17, 2001, (Online at Highbeam, subscription required).
  5. Jacobs, p. 33.
  6. Jacobs, pp. 30–31.
  7. Daniel Weintraub, "Taking risks to take back the schools", review of Joanne Jacobs, Our School, Press-Telegram, November 21, 2005 (Online at Highbeam, subscription required).
  8. Jacobs, pp. 24, 26, 193.
  9. School Accountability Report Card, p. 18.
  10. "Life on Campus", DCP El Primero High School, retrieved March 18, 2015.
  11. Jacobs, p. 189.
  12. Jacobs, p. 196.
  13. "S.J. School Finds a Home: College Prep's Split Campus Finally Under One Roof: The San Jose School Recruits From Families Who Traditionally Have Regarded College for Their Children as Out of Reach. The Staff Hopes the School's Difficult Mission Will Be a Little Easier Now", San Jose Mercury News, October 28, 2002.
  14. Downtown College Prep Fitness 101, Artik Art and Architecture, retrieved October 9, 2012.
  15. "Charter School Finally Gets Real Campus: Successful Program Moves into State-of-the-Art Digs", San Jose Mercury News, December 5, 2005.
  16. Ty Williams and Bill Gould, San Jose Unified School District, "Rethinking and Reclaiming: Two Years of Consolidations & Closures", C.A.S.H. 29th Annual Conference on School Facilities: New Programs, New Promise, California School Facilities 2008 Workshop #23 Declining Enrollment? Time to Reclaim, Renovate, Renew and Refresh, handout Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (pdf), pp. 21–30, pp. 24–25.
  17. Dana Hull, "Grand Opening of Charter School's First Real Campus: Downtown College Prep's New Digs", San Jose Mercury News, December 6, 2005, Online at Downtown College Prep.org (pdf).
  18. School Accountability Report Card, p. 7.
  19. Mary Gottschalk, "Downtown College Prep students help lay foundation for school's new location" Archived 2013-01-28 at Archive.today, Rose Garden Resident, July 14, 2005.
  20. Chiori Santiago, "San Jose's newest landmark (Spirit Gate art project at elementary school)", Sunset, March 1, 2001 (Online at Highbeam, subscription required)
  21. Spirit Gate - San Jose, CA, Abstract public sculptures, Waymarking.com, retrieved October 9, 2012.
  22. Sharon Noguchi, "San Jose: DCP charter school to move to Southern Lumber site", San Jose Mercury News, October 18, 2015, updated August 12, 2016.
  23. Anne Gelhaus, "San Jose: Downtown College Prep celebrates its new home", San Jose Mercury News, April 12, 2016, updated August 11, 2016.
  24. Mary Beth Hislop, "Anchoring opportunity and humanity: CHAC, DCP-Alviso and RotaCare" Archived 2012-04-11 at the Wayback Machine, Los Altos Town Crier, December 9, 2009.
  25. Downtown College Prep to Close Alviso School; Will Open in Alum Rock, Press Release, Downtown College Prep, May 19, 2011.
  26. Traci Newell, "Alum Rock charter school broadens aspirations", Los Altos Town Crier, November 7, 2012.
  27. "Downtown College Prep - Alum Rock", California School Directory, California Department of Education, retrieved August 21, 2014.
  28. "Downtown College Prep - Alum Rock", Public School Review, retrieved August 21, 2014.
  29. Sharon Noguchi, "San Jose Unified offers campus near high school to new charter middle school", San Jose Mercury News, May 23, 2014.
  30. "DCP Middle School" Archived 2014-08-26 at the Wayback Machine, Our Schools, Downtown College Prep, retrieved August 21, 2014.
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