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Good Neighbors

Founded in 1893 in Palo Alto, The Harker School is a kindergarten through grade 12, nonprofit independent school. We are committed to providing a nationally recognized program for our students that allows them to flourish, find their passions and make a difference in the world.


We are equally committed to providing a respectful and collaborative environment, both within our campus community and in the San Jose neighborhoods where our campuses are located. We have three campuses, one for each division: lower school, middle school and upper school. It is our hope that this page provides helpful information to our neighbors; it also includes ways to contact us if you have ideas or concerns.

Join the e-mail list for construction & traffic updates

Good Neighbor Announcements

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Traffic Management

Residents who live near a school are often concerned about how neighborhood traffic might be impacted during morning drop-off and afternoon pickup times during the school year. It is also important to us at Harker that our students can be dropped off and picked up safely and that parents are able to come and go quickly during commute times.

Harker has operated four different school campuses for years, and we have considerable experience with reducing traffic congestion during peak times. For example:

  • Many cars arriving at our campuses contain two or more students, and we facilitate car pools among parents.
  • We offer financial incentives and preferred parking to staff who car pool.
  • Harker campuses are served by school-run shuttles that transport students from areas where clusters of students live close together (such as Los Altos and Silver Creek).
  • Harker operates an intercampus shuttle so that siblings who attend different divisions can be dropped off and picked up in just one location, reducing overall traffic around our campuses.
  • We work closely with parents to remind them to avoid cut-through traffic around our campuses and to follow our drop-off and pick-up routing and procedures. Each campus has its own set of driving regulations.

Our Campuses

Lower School

4300 Bucknall Road | San Jose, CA

Our Bucknall Avenue campus is home to our lower school (K-5) students. This campus has two drop-off and pickup zones and crosswalk guards for the neighborhood on school days. We have a shuttle between this and the other Harker campuses to help reduce cars. For larger school events, we open the campus field for parking, and contract with a local church to use their parking lot so we can shuttle visitors to the campus to reduce neighborhood traffic. We send regular reminders and video "how-tos" to parents to educate and remind them of the school's expectations on safe and respectful practices in our neighborhood.

Middle School

4525 Union Avenue I San Jose, CA

Our Union Avenue campus, Harker’s newest campus, which was constructed between May 2020 and August 2021, serves our middle school students in grades 6-8. (Our middle school was moved here from its former location on Blackford Avenue). A long internal drop-off pattern, as well as carpool and shuttle programs, help reduce cars in the neighborhood and there is sufficient on-campus parking for all school events. We send regular reminders and video "how-tos" to parents to educate and remind them of the school's expectations on safe and respectful practices in our neighborhood.

Upper School

500 Saratoga Avenue I San Jose, CA

Our Saratoga Avenue campus serves our upper school students, grades 9-12. Two long internal drop-off options, as well as an intercampus shuttle, help reduce traffic and cars in the neighborhood. As we do for all our campuses, we send regular reminders and video "how-tos" to parents to educate and remind them of the school's expectations on safe and respectful practices in our neighborhood.

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Transitional Kindergarten

888 Boynton Avenue | San Jose, CA

We purchased this property in the summer of 2021 to house our transitional kindergarten program, offices and prepare for other future uses. We will be sharing use of the site with the current owner, First Church of San Jose, for the next few years.

Construction Outreach

When Harker embarks on major construction projects, we provide avenues for community feedback and keep our neighbors informed. Here are the meetings and documents from our last major project, the completion of our new middle school campus at 4525 Union Avenue in San Jose.

Union Avenue Campus

Harker submitted plans to the city of San José in 2018 to modify our Union Avenue campus in preparation for moving our middle school (grades 6-8) to this site in time for the 2021-22 school year. We did not request additional students beyond the maximum of 600 that was approved when we purchased the campus in 2012. All of our modifications meet city of San José zoning and planning criteria and require no variances.

The modifications to the campus include the demolition of three small existing academic buildings to be replaced with a new two-story classroom building, an addition to the existing auditorium/gym, and other site improvements such as extending the driveway used for drop-off and pickup and adding more outdoor play/sports areas.

Harker invited adjacent neighbors to a meeting to discuss the plans in April 2018 and the City of San José hosted a public meeting for the broader community in December 2018. We also presented an overview of our plans at a Cambrian Community Council meeting in August 2018.

The City of San José reviewed the application and conducted an independent traffic analysis. A public hearing was held with the San José Planning Director on Nov. 13, 2019 and our application was approved. An appeal of that decision was filed. Numerous meetings were held between the neighbors, the City and The Harker School to resolve concerns. Amendments were made and the permit was approved by the City Council at their March 10, 2020 meeting. All of the documents related to this project are posted for public record.

In addition to a Transportation Demand Management Plan that details how Harker will limit traffic coming to and going from the campus during peak hours, the school has published a Good Neighbor Plan on this page that describes the policies and practices Harker will use to prevent cut-through traffic and neighborhood parking by our parents, teachers, staff and visitors.

Construction began May 18 and will continue through August 2021. (Details can be found in the May 14 webinar posted on this page). Another construction update for the community will be held in October.

Subscribe to our email list to receive pertinent updates. Questions? Contact communications@harker.org.

Union Avenue Construction Hotline: 408.510.8035 (M-F, 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m.)

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Contact Us

neighbors@harker.org | 408.249.2510