A high-profile, tuition-free school experiment is colliding with the hard realities of classroom space in East Palo Alto. With a major philanthropic campus shutting down and hundreds of children expected to switch districts, Ravenswood City School District has put a $70 million bond before voters, arguing it needs permanent classrooms now or risk packing students into aging portables. The closure has turned what started as a private giving project into a high-stakes local funding fight ahead of the June 2 primary.
Bond On June Ballot Aimed At New Classrooms
The measure, listed as Measure A, is a $70 million general obligation bond that district officials say would pay for new classrooms and campus upgrades, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Chronicle reports that the bond would carry a tax rate of about $27.50 per $100,000 of assessed value and is projected to raise roughly $4.9 million per year if voters sign off. San Mateo County Elections confirms that the measure is on the June 2 ballot.
The Primary School's Shutdown And Support Pledge
Priscilla Chan’s The Primary School announced in April 2025 that its East Palo Alto and East Bay campuses will close at the end of the 2025–26 school year, calling the decision “a very difficult decision” and promising a $50 million investment to support students and families during the transition, according to The Primary School. The school said it will provide transition specialists and education savings accounts to help families enroll in other programs. District officials say they are coordinating with The Primary School to ease transfers, but they warn that the overall scale of the shift will strain Ravenswood’s facilities.
Hundreds Of Students Expected To Transfer
Most of The Primary School’s roughly 400 students are expected to move into Ravenswood, creating what a district ballot argument describes as “an immediate crisis” and driving projections that enrollment could rise by about 20 percent across the district’s five schools. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the private school’s East Palo Alto campus enrolls more than 400 students and that district supporters estimate Ravenswood’s enrollment could jump from roughly 1,400 to 1,700. The rapid increase would arrive less than a decade after The Primary School’s 2016 founding and years of programming that combined education with health services.
Why Now: Philanthropy Pivot Leaves A Funding Gap
Community and policy observers say the abrupt closure reflects a broader pullback at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which has shifted staff and money away from community programs and toward biomedical research. The Washington Post reported that CZI wound down some housing programs and cut back its community-facing teams, changes that critics argue left The Primary School exposed when its sole funder changed priorities.
Local Stakes Ahead Of The Vote
If voters approve Measure A with the required 55 percent threshold, Ravenswood leaders say they can add permanent classrooms to absorb the incoming students. If it fails, they warn the district could be stuck relying longer on decades-old portables and temporary classrooms. San Mateo County Elections publishes the tax-rate statement that accompanies the bond and outlines its financial impact for property owners.
For families and local officials, the choice now is whether to pay for a quick facilities fix or leave district staff patching together space and services as best they can. The measure’s fate will be decided on June 2, and school leaders say that regardless of the vote, they will keep working student by student to map out individual transitions.
