SAN JOSE — The Alum Rock Union School Board on Saturday held a heated, emergency meeting after a beloved community center burned down on Friday.

Board members in a packed chamber room clashed with community organizers who largely blamed officials for what they called a lack of action to save the Mexican American Social Services Agency building adjacent to the district’s Renaissance Academy at Mathson site.

Organizers with SOMOS Mayfair and the Si Se Puede Collective say for months they had been pleading with the board to remodel and reopen the vacant and deteriorating building that was once a cherished and popular youth center. The site had been at the center of major financial scandals, which included the Internal Revenue Service revoking the facility’s nonprofit status in 2012 over mis

See Full Page