SAN JOSE — The Alum Rock Union College Board on Saturday held a heated, emergency assembly after a beloved group heart burned down on Friday.
Board members in a packed chamber room clashed with group organizers who largely blamed officers for what they referred to as an absence of motion to save lots of the Mexican American Social Providers Company constructing adjoining to the district’s Renaissance Academy at Mathson website.
Organizers with SOMOS Mayfair and the Si Se Puede Collective say for months they’d been pleading with the board to rework and reopen the vacant and deteriorating constructing that was as soon as a cherished and common youth heart. The location had been on the heart of main monetary scandals, which included the Inner Income Service revoking the power’s nonprofit standing in 2012 over misuse of instructor pension funds.
“This is your failure,” district alumna Liz Gonzalez advised the board Saturday. “You are not equipped to work with the community.”
Group members of the Alum Rock Union College District pack the district’s workplaces in San Jose on Sat., Aug. 30, 2025 throughout an emergency assembly referred to as after a hearth on Friday burned down the blighted and vacant Mexican American Social Providers Company. The MACSA constructing burned down earlier this week. Organizers with SOMOS Mayfair for months had requested the board reopen the power after it had been closed resulting from price range constraints and scandals for a number of years. (Kyle Martin/Bay Space Information Group)
The MACSA facility remained closed for over a decade and was fenced off Saturday after firefighters at 1 a.m. Friday morning fought a three-alarm blaze that finally destroyed the constructing. The constructing appeared on the San Jose Preservation Motion Council’s “Endangered 8” listing in 2025, which gathers collectively architectural landmarks believed to be endangered.
In her feedback to the board, Gonzalez claimed board members don’t “give a damn about us” and have proven residents “disrespect” by not repurposing the constructing earlier than it burned down.
“This moment could have been avoided and it is your failure to act. Don’t come here today talking about urgency when the people have been waiting for years for this building that no one got to step into, that people now will never get to know,” Gonzalez mentioned. “We are tired of the disrespect.”
Board Vice President Andres Quintero, skirting round board coverage to restrict back-and-forth feedback with the general public, replied that, “Alum Rock is not the enemy. We’ve been partners, and we’ve attempted to work with you.”
In March, organizers proposed to the board to take management of the location to be reused once more as a group heart, although the board determined to attend to take motion and as a substitute voted unanimously to proceed finding out a future use for the location.
Victor Vasquez, co-executive director at SOMOS Mayfair, referred to as the constructing “sacred,” and mentioned the struggle to rework and reopen MACSA “cannot be over yet.”
“The kids still need a gym, they still need a library, they still need a place to feel safe,” Vasquez mentioned.
Group members of the Alum Rock Union College District pack the district’s workplaces in San Jose on Sat., Aug. 30, 2025 throughout an emergency assembly referred to as after a hearth on Friday burned down the blighted and vacant Mexican American Social Providers Company. The MACSA constructing burned down earlier this week. Organizers with SOMOS Mayfair for months had requested the board reopen the power after it had been closed resulting from price range constraints and scandals for a number of years. (Kyle Martin/Bay Space Information Group)
Officers advised the group that the constructing was full of suspected asbestos, lead and different probably harmful chemical compounds, and poses a risk to the group.
The board voted unanimously Saturday to override the standard coverage of setting a constructing undertaking up for building contract bids, deeming the fireplace’s aftermath an emergency that requires rapid consideration. The district expects to obtain up to date info on the way forward for the MACSA facility at every of its subsequent conferences till the board decides to take extra formal motion.
The constructing, opened within the mid-Eighties, beforehand held group workshops, had a clinic for ladies and youngsters and a health club. Residents say the power was a beneficial useful resource to the district’s massive Spanish-speaking and immigrant communities. It’s nonetheless unclear when the location can be cleaned, demolished and if any rebuilding will happen.
The district stays strapped for money because it suffers plummeting enrollment and lack of funding, amongst different points, such because the board’s repeated hiring and firing of superintendents during the last two years.
“This doesn’t mean we’re going to stop here. We can rebuild it,” Ortiz mentioned. “If they really care about the kids and the community, we can rebuild it.”
The stays of the vacant and blighted former Mexican American Social Providers Company constructing on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025 in San Jose after a hearth on Friday burned the power down. Organizers with SOMOS Mayfair for months had requested the board reopen the power after it had been closed resulting from price range constraints and scandals for a number of years. (Kyle Martin/Bay Space Information Group)
Initially Revealed: August 30, 2025 at 3:24 PM PDT
