Almost a whole school year has passed since Innovation Campus opened to students. Construction is currently happening for phase three, for almost a year now, according to the presentation from Aaron Jozlen from QKA from the April 22, 2025 Board meeting.
The Workforce Development Center will be built as part of phase three, Chief Business Executive Officer Dorothy Reconose said. It will also be opened to the community to use for whatever they need, Reconose said. At the same time, the district will also use The Workforce Development Center for their programs and other events, she added.
“The board will use it (Workforce Development Center) for board meetings,” Reconose said. “It’s kind of like a multi-purpose room. And our hope is that we open our doors to the community and that we collaborate more, and we can have some partnership with other private organizations that would come and support our program, and then we will use that space for that program.”
Another child development center will be added to the Innovation Campus as part of phase three, Reconose said. The children who attend the program and qualify for extra financial support from the state will help the school district earn more funds, she added.
“If their income is qualified to be subsidized by the state, then they won’t have to pay anything, because we will claim that to the state,” Reconose said. “The state will give us the funds, but if they make beyond then the parents will pay us, and we don’t report them to the state because they’re not qualified as part of their students. So that’s one way for us to bring funds, to use it to run the program.”
Calaveras Montessori School of Silicon Valley, which is currently at the front of the Innovation Campus, will be moving out to make room for phase three, Reconose said. Montessori will be moving out in late June, and demolition will start in August, she added.
“They’re doing all the initial work that needs to be done, and then they’re gonna demolish that old theater and Montessori down to the ground so they can start the work,” Reconose said. “That’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking at phase three, which will be completed in about a year and a half.”
Currently, 74 ninth and 10th graders are enrolled in the innovation campus, Principal and Chief Innovator of Milpitas High School and New Campus Programs Wohlman said. Next year, the campus is open for incoming ninth, 10th, and 11th graders to apply, he added.
“Originally, we tried to open a nine through 12, and we were expecting a huge influx of students,” Wohlman said. “We only had one senior and a couple juniors interested that time. The rest of the bulk of the students were ninth and 10th graders. So in order to staff it the best way we could, we had it limited to just ninth and 10th graders.”
For the upcoming school year, currently 43 incoming freshmen have shown interest in attending the Innovation Campus, Wohlman said. However, incoming 10th and 11th graders who are current students at the main campus have also expressed interest in joining the campus next year.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll have about 160 (students) total,” Wohlman said. “Ideally, I’d like to have about 175. And the following year, I’d like to add 100 students every year. (That) would be ideal, until we get to a capacity of about 480.”
Dual enrollment will be offered, where the colleges come over to teach at the innovation campus during seventh period, Innovation Campus counselor Lamb said.
“On campus, we have the San Jose City engineering pathway,” Lamb said. “We are hoping to finalize our second pathway, which is advanced manufacturing with Evergreen Valley College.”
One new course being offered to the innovation campus for the first time is the digital media production classes, Greg Wohlman said. Students will be able to study video production in professional-level spaces, he added.
“The class is going to start utilizing our professional green space room and our video lab, which looks more like a small TV studio on our editing board,” Wohlman said. “Our students that want to create short videos, short clips, use digital animation, and create their own video, their own sound groups – they’re going to be able to do that as part of their class.”
Many of the students advocated for a leadership class, Lamb said. It might be a class offered next year, similar to the main campus, she added.
“It’s going to be the elected officials here, along with those who are going to just be active on campus, and they’ll probably be a small group,” Lamb said. “To me, that basically is like letting the students know, ‘We’re listening and hearing you.’”
Currently, the only science class offered is forensics, but next year chemistry is being added, Lamb said. The district is hiring a new chemistry teacher, she said.
“The hope is just to keep building, too, with the courses that the main campus has that we just don’t have,” Lamb said. “We’re hoping that by senior year to add in physics. So keep on building. Keep on adding. Seeing what’s working, seeing what’s not working, pivoting as we need, listening to the students’ voices.”
Next school year, MacBooks will be given to all the students who attend extension at Innovation Campus, Valerie Lamb said. The MacBooks are going to have the Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop programs pre-downloaded on them, she added.
“Especially with our engineering classes, even for the digital media classes, they have to have that software,” Lamb said. “The MacBook is powerful enough to support that. But then, is it also an incentive? Of course, yes.”