Closure of Chan Zuckerberg-backed school to result in 147 layoffs

SAN LEANDRO – Nearly 150 workers will be laid off when a tuition-free private school founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan shuts down in the East Bay later this year, according to a state filing.

The Primary School in San Leandro will eliminate a total of 147 jobs beginning on June 12, Chief Executive Officer Jaime Kidd wrote in a notice of layoff and closure filed with the California Employment Development Department on April 15.

The filing follows an announcement last year that the school — located just a couple miles from Meta headquarters — would close its campuses in East Palo Alto and San Leandro by the end of the 2025-26 school year.

The tuition-free private school has served students from predominantly low-income communities and blended academics with health care and social services since it was founded in 2016 by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a philanthropic organization created in 2015 by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, physician Priscilla Chan.

A total of 443 children are enrolled at the East Palo Alto campus, which offers preschool through sixth grade, and 108 families are enrolled at the San Leandro campus, which offers programs for children ages 1 to 4, according to the school’s website.

The closure announcement of the two campuses last year sparked outrage from community leaders, including former East Palo Alto Mayor Antonio López, who said the decision represented a betrayal and another broken promise to the city’s highly diverse, historically underserved area.

According to the school’s website, 61% of students at the East Palo Alto campus are Latin American, 7% are Black, and 7% are Pacific Islander. At the San Leandro campus, 42% of students are Latin American, 7% are Black and 26% are Asian, according to the school’s data.

The initiative has declined to comment on the reasons behind the closure.

The announcement came just a few months after Meta announced a significant rollback of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in early 2025. A January 2025 internal memo from Meta acknowledged that “the legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing”, while pointing to recent Supreme Court decisions and the “charged” view some have of DEI as a concept. The company said in the memo that it would be ending several programs and hiring goals that targeted minority groups, effective immediately.

The Primary School has been a vocal champion for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, proclaiming itself “an anti-racist and anti-discriminatory organization” and organizing its mission and priorities around combating student achievement gaps and promoting equity.

“Our aim is that children and families most impacted by systemic poverty and racism receive the support they deserve to be well, learn and thrive,” the school says in its mission statement.

The closure also comes as dozens of schools across the Bay Area have announced layoffs, budget cuts or school closures this year in an effort to repair gaping budget deficits ranging from $6 million to over $100 million. School leaders across the state have pointed to rising costs, declining enrollment and a flawed state funding system as some factors exacerbating their financial strain.

As a private school, The Primary School is funded differently than public schools throughout the state, primarily relying on donations and philanthropy. But the school has also said its goal was to ultimately be sustained on public funding and has utilized state and federal funding to support some of its programs.

The school’s website acknowledges some financial struggles, admitting The Primary School spends more on average than most other public schools in the Bay Area and points to similar struggles with state funding — specifically that available state-distributed public funding isn’t fully meeting expenditures for the average Bay Area school.

Since 2019, The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has poured nearly $100 million in grants into The Primary School, including about $48 million into the East Palo Alto campus.

In The Primary School’s closure announcement last year, the school said the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will invest $50 million over the next few years in the East Palo Alto, Belle Haven and East Bay communities. Funds, for example, will be earmarked for student savings plans, as well as transition specialists and support for families as they move to new schools.

Last week, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced more than $10 million in grants and investments to support families, students and nonprofit organizations in the East Palo Alto and Belle Haven communities.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative said that investment includes $7 million in four-year grants to the Children’s Health Council, Ravenswood Family Health Network and Ravenswood Early Learning, as well as an additional $3.6 million to educational savings accounts for nearly 550 Primary School students to support their future education costs.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative said Children’s Health Council will continue The Primary School’s Parent Wellness Coaching program, ensuring families retain access to mental health and wellness support, while Ravenswood Family Health Network will bring physical and behavioral health care directly into schools across East Palo Alto and Belle Haven. Ravenswood Early Learning will launch a community-wide early intervention initiative to strengthen developmental screening, referrals and follow-up services for children ages 0-5, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative added.

A spokesperson for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative said the grant package was developed over the last year in an attempt to sustain and expand The Primary School’s health and wellness support for the community, families and students.

The Ravenswood City School District, meanwhile, expects enrollment to surge as a result of the closure. It is asking voters in June to approve a $70 million bond measure to fund construction of new classrooms. It needs a simple majority to pass.

The spokesperson for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative said the initiative also provided $26.5 million in bridge funding to help transition The Primary School students into the Ravenswood City School District and to ensure continuity of the school’s services, including covering the cost of the school’s building lease through 2030 and investing in affordable housing for Ravenswood City School District teachers and staff.

The spokesperson added that the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has also provided significant financial support for The Primary School staff, including severance and extended medical coverage.