In 2016, Mark Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan founded a school that was designed to be different; 10 years later and after $125 million funding, Board voted to close it

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s wife Dr. Priscilla Chan, co-founded The Primary School in East Palo Alto, California in 2016. The school was designed to serve the low-income families. The tuition-free private school aimed to support the “whole child” through wraparound services such as dental checkups, wellness coaching, and early-intervention screenings. For more than ten years the school received more than $125 million from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI). However, despite the strong support services and community engagement, academic performance often fell short of state norms, complicating efforts to replicate the model in public and charter schools. A report by Wall Street Journal revealed that despite all these efforts the school shut its doors this past June after a decade of operation.

Why the board voted to close school founded by Priscilla Chan

The Primary School’s board voted unanimously in April 2025 to close the school after learning that CZI would not continue funding it beyond the 2025-26 academic year, according to people familiar with the situation. Board president Jean-Claude Brizard said he had presented CZI with several options for the school’s future before the vote, including winding the school down gradually, and said the board would not have voted to close without alignment from its primary funder. A CZI spokesperson said the decision to close ultimately rested with the school’s board, and that the organization’s focus had been on the school’s academic results rather than cost.The closure reflects a broader shift within CZI, which has moved its philanthropic focus away from social issues and toward scientific research in recent years.

A mixed academic record

By some measures, the Primary School’s academic performance fell short of both state benchmarks and its own leadership’s expectations, complicating efforts to eventually replicate its model in public and charter schools elsewhere. A Stanford University report found that in spring 2025, 14% of local third-grade-and-above students exceeded state literacy standards, compared to 26% at the Primary School itself and 47% statewide. Still, the school said its eighth-grade students, many of whom had attended for a decade, demonstrated above 50% grade-level proficiency in their final year, and a founding staff member said students showed steady academic progress after the pandemic, alongside improvements in wellbeing and socio-emotional skills. Around 85% of Primary School students completed their annual well-child visit, compared to 55% of children on Medicaid in the county.

Impact on families

Around 540 children were enrolled across the two campuses of the Primary School. As per the WSJ report, Mele Fakapelea, whose daughter Telesia won a lottery spot in the school’s founding class before Fakapelea enrolled four younger children as well, described it as “a godsend school,” and said losing its support system felt devastating. On the other hand, Angelica Cardenas, whose 3-year-old daughter and five nieces and nephews were enrolled, said she learned about the closure through the news rather than directly from the school, arguing that families should have been told sooner if funding was going to end. After the shut down of the Primary School founded by Priscilla Chan, the students will be absorbed in the Ravenswood City Elementary School District. The school is also preparing for an enrollment surge and renovating a campus to avoid placing students in portable trailers.

What CZI is providing as the school winds down

CZI pledged $50 million when the closure was announced, covering the remaining balance of the school’s lease with the district and supporting local organizations to continue offering some services. The organization also contributed $3.6 million toward education savings accounts for affected families: $10,000 per elementary student, $2,500 per preschooler, and $1,000 for children in early-childhood education programs.

Priscilla Chan’s hands-on role

Chan served as the Primary School’s co-founder and board chair for about eight years, until 2023, with CZI functioning as its main funder throughout. According to CZI, having a single major backer indefinitely was never the intended long-term model; the goal had been a school that could eventually be sustained primarily through public investment, and the school reportedly tried to keep its per-pupil spending in line with typical public school levels. Brizard said Chan actively lobbied her network to bring in additional funding sources, though attracting outside donors proved difficult given the perception of a school already backed by one of the world’s wealthiest individuals.

Chan was known to be candid about her frustration with the school’s academic outcomes, telling the Journal last year that results weren’t where anyone would have wanted them to be. Brizard said the timing of CZI’s broader strategic shift, which staff were told about in early 2025 shortly after Zuckerberg and Chan attended President Trump’s inauguration, and the board’s subsequent vote to close was coincidental; CZI said there was no evidence the inauguration had influenced the board’s decision.