On Friday, August 25, DCP celebrated the grand opening of our new campus in front of an enormous crowd made up of students, families, alumni, donors, and community supporters. Formerly the site of the historic Southern Lumber building, the space has been transformed to include classrooms and learning areas that will be used by our school’s 1,100 students.
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Grand opening attendees gathered at the front of our new permanent campus, the exterior of which was formerly a dark brown color and has now been painted in DCP orange and purple.
To kick off the event, speakers including DCP co-founder and Executive Director Jennifer Andaluz, U.S Rep. Zoe Lofgren, and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, addressed the crowd, emphasizing how special the community is and thanking particular individuals and organizations for helping to bring our vision to life. After an exciting 10-second count down, the ribbon was officially cut and the audience broke into applause.
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John A. Sobrato of the Sobrato Family Foundation, San Jose Vice Mayor Magdalena Carrasco, and U.S. Rep Zoe Lofgren were just a few of the individuals who took part in the official ribbon cutting ceremony.
The opening of this new campus is an even more remarkable achievement for our organization because of our humble beginnings. DCP became the first charter high school in Santa Clara County in 2000, with 100 students in makeshift classrooms across two churches and the YWCA in downtown San Jose. Over the course of our 17-year history, DCP has had to move between five campuses, but in 2015 our students, parents, alumni, staff and the community began to advocate for a permanent home. After a year-long battle with the San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD), the district acquired the former Southern Lumber property and entered into a 50-year lease with DCP.
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DCP’s students, alumni, staff, advocates and supporters at the grand opening of our permanent campus.
In the week leading up to the grand opening, we were thrilled to invite our alumni to a reunion and special preview of the new campus. The reunion was an excellent opportunity for us to reconnect with DCP alumni old and new, and to reveal the Alumni College Mural made up of their college graduation pictures spanning the wall of our new campus’s front entrance.
We had a blast showing our alumni what their legacy has helped create!
We want to thank and honor the students, families and community members who have served as catalysts for change throughout our city and helped us make this incredible transformation possible. This campus will serve our community for generations, and together, we will continue this movement that is transforming lives, families and neighborhoods.