Priscilla Chan, left, and Mark Zuckerberg at an event in 2019.

A Peninsula school district is bracing for an “urgent, unexpected challenge” tied to the impending closure of a private, tuition-free school founded by Priscilla Chan, the wife of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The Primary School, located in East Palo Alto, is slated to close in June 2026. Students are expected to transfer to the Ravenswood City School District, creating a potential enrollment overload, according to the district. 

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The Palo Alto school, which enrolls students in preschool through sixth grade, has more than 400 students who will be displaced after the closure. 

Now, the school board is proposing a bond measure on San Mateo County’s June ballot to help deal with the 20% jump in enrollment after the Primary School closes. 

According to the ballot argument, the district’s current buildings won’t be able to hold all the new students.

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“Hundreds of students will be forced into aging, deteriorating ‘temporary’ portables that are decades past their useful life. These deficient spaces lack effective ventilation, are structurally weak, and are not built for students with disabilities,” the ballot argument states.

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If approved, Measure A would help mitigate the influx of students by allowing more schools to be upgraded or built. The $70 million in bonds would be paid for by increasing property taxes to $27.50 per $100,000 for 27 years. 

The Primary School did not give a clear reason for closing the Palo Alto campus, but it is also closing its other campus in San Leandro. 

The closure was a board decision from the Primary School, according to a spokesperson for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the couple’s nonprofit organization. (The school is separate from the CZI and has its own leadership, the spokesperson said.) 

Earlier this year, officials cited the closure as a “difficult decision” and said the CZI will provide $50 million to the nearby communities, such as East Palo Alto, Belle Haven and the East Bay, to help with the transition. 

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Of the $50 million, $26.5 million will be allocated toward the Ravenswood City School District, according to a spokesperson from the CZI.

Jenny Bloom, a member of the district’s board of trustees, told SFGATE that the bond measure is aimed at helping the long-term needs of the schools. 

“We appreciate CZI’s investment, which allows us to meet the short-term need, ensuring service for all students stays steady even with the increase in enrollment,” Bloom said in an email. “Long-term, we have to think about the generational needs of our community and our facilities and that is why Measure A is on the ballot.”

Will Eger, a spokesperson for the district, said district staff doesn’t comment on electoral issues but confirmed to SFGATE that the closure of the Primary School will increase the district’s enrollment and that the school board voted to approve a bond measure for the upcoming election. The last bond measure for the district was in 2022, when voters approved Measure I, which provided $110 million to renovate three elementary schools.

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Opponents of the bond measure include the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, which said the district shouldn’t have new classrooms because of declining student performance, the Almanac reported.

“This literally is the worst school district I have ever come across,” Mark Hinkle, president of the association, told the news outlet.

According to data from the California Department of Education, approximately 1,449 students are enrolled in the district, and 91.8% of those students come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. 

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Though students in 2025 performed below average for English language arts and math, students improved from the previous year. According to the data, 75% of students improved in English language arts, and 62.4% of students improved in math.

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The Primary School, founded in 2016 by Chan, was created to help underserved communities, specifically families grappling with poverty and inequitable health care, SFGATE previously reported. 

The school did not respond to SFGATE’s request for comment.

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