Amid tensions statewide, an embattled San Jose charter school’s quest ends badly

Increasing school expenses and declining enrollments have heightened tensions between charter schools and school districts in California. From Oakland to Los Angeles and San Diego, districts with the largest numbers of charter schools, the fights over buildings are becoming more fraught, charter renewals more contested, positions of school boards more entrenched.

Perhaps few disputes have matched the intensity of the one centered on Promise Academy. The charter school group, backed by heavy philanthropic support, wanted to open a K-8 engineering- and science-focused school for low-income students in downtown San Jose, where high-tech firms, led by Google and Adobe, plan to add more than 25,000 jobs within the next decade.