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Our San José Campus

Historic downtown San José provides a stunning and dynamic backdrop - and classroom - for the next phase of a Hillbrook student's education.

From the beginning, we were drawn to the idea of an urban environment for our Upper School, serving as a perfect complement to our JK-8 campus. In the same way that our Los Gatos campus is the perfect place for children to run, play, learn and grow, a downtown setting for our Upper School is the ideal location for our oldest students to stretch their wings, gain independence, and thrive.

The City of San José is an extension of the classroom, with proximity to public transportation, local companies, nonprofits, governmental agencies, art institutes, and universities, allowing us the opportunity to extend our Reach Beyond programming with the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship

San José Campus Map - coming soon!

Our Historic Campus Building

Our first classroom building and gym is rich with local history, filled with beautiful Spanish Revival architectural elements that complement modern classroom features. Built as an Armory in 1934 to house the National Guard, this elegant building once hosted military drills during World War II.

This building is home to our first classrooms, art studios, science rooms, and our beautiful brand-new gym. 

Hillbrook Upper School

City as a Classroom

Downtown San José serves as an extension of our classroom, with proximity to public transportation, nonprofits and local businesses, governmental agencies, art institutes, and universities. Through their connections to downtown San José's dedicated city leaders and vibrant local life, they discover how  community connections play a powerful role in creating a better world.

Click here to see City as Classroom in action!

Our Neighborhood

Take a walk downtown any day of the week and you're likely to see our Upper School students standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the downtown community - working, learning, and having a blast while doing it. Downtown San José and the neighborhoods surrounding our campus are filled with opportunities to connect to our city and get engaged in local life - from civic engagement projects to public art walks, from discovering a new quiet spot to read to grabbing a delicious lunch at San Pedro Market, our Upper School students have the entire community at their fingertips. 

Civic Engagement

Through their connections to downtown San José's dedicated city leaders and vibrant local life, they discover how  community connections play a powerful role in creating a better world. Upper School students connect with local representatives to discover how their city serves its citizens - and how they might play a role in enacting the change they'd like to see, a lesson that both broadens and strengthens their connection to their lessons on civic and social engagement with the Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship.

Visual arts and Engineering

Downtown San José has a thriving art scene, and Upper School students have had countless opportunities to interact and connect with artists and their work - from "Art as Activism" immersive classes to sidewalk chalk drawings of cells, art is truly everywhere in Upper School. In the spring of 2024, 9th graders got to work with the team at Visual Philosophy to design works of metal and wood, including a set of redwood Adirondack chairs! This was a truly "Hillbrookian" combination of art, design, engineering, and the Maker's Movement philosophy: creating beautiful, long-lasting designs for generations of future students to enjoy

Athletics Facilities

Completed in the summer of 2024, our brand-new state-of-the-art gym is filled with natural light and a hand-crafted oak floor, and is home to our robust Upper School athletics program offerings - including volleyball, basketball, and indoor soccer.

Learn more about our PE department here!