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The legendary Capital Club is saying adieu to Silicon Valley.

The exclusive club that drew the who’s who of San Jose to network, party and plan the city’s future will close its doors on New Year’s Eve. The 34-year-old club announced the closure on Tuesday in a letter to its members, explaining the decision “reflects the current circumstances that have affected our operations in the post-COVID-era.”

The letter also said the club’s last day concludes its lease with The Jay Paul Company, which owns the building in downtown San Jose and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The club was founded in 1990 and offers rooftop views of downtown San Jose, paired with platters of tender prime New York steak and martinis. It will be replaced by software company The Trade Desk, which will rent the roughly 17,000 square feet the club occupies on the 17th floor at 50 W. San Fernando St., according to the Mercury News.

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The legendary Capital Club is saying adieu to Silicon Valley. The exclusive club that drew the who’s who of San Jose to network, party and plan the city’s future will close its doors on New Year’s Eve. San José Spotlight spoke to staff and members about why the club was so special. Read the full story at SanJoseSpotlight.com. #sanjose #siliconvalley #capitalclub

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Nicole Lecheler, Capital Club director of membership and member experience, said the club’s management is grateful for the community’s support over the years.

“It has been an honor to be a part of so many memorable experiences, and we are grateful for the relationships we’ve built along the way,” she told San José Spotlight. “We remain proud of what we’ve accomplished together, and we wish everyone the best in their future endeavors.”

Larry Stone, a longtime member and Santa Clara County tax assessor, joined the club about six months after it first opened its doors. He pays about $260 a month in membership fees and said one of his favorite memories was when he dined there with former President Bill Clinton, who was in town for former San Jose Mayor and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta’s celebration of life.

But Stone said the club has gone downhill in recent years, with membership declining and constant changes in management. He said one of the club’s premier spots, The Founder’s Room, has been closed for months. The club has also been accused of unfair wages.

“My wife and I had been there where there was only another couple there,” Stone told San José Spotlight. “You go to those particular clubs, you know, because of the camaraderie.”

Some club members said they feel left in the dark about the decision.

Former San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, who joined the club in 2003 and sits on its board, said management didn’t communicate the impending closure at the recent board meetings he attended. He said he’s shocked by the decision and wishes the club’s parent company — Texas-based Invited Clubs — had reached out to individual members who could have helped out. He said membership was increasing after losing about half the club’s members during the height of the pandemic.

Invited Clubs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gonzales said his favorite dish from the menu has been the lobster roll. He’s most worried about the employees who will lose their jobs, but added there’s a business opportunity for someone to offer a place for club members to gather again after the closure.

“The Capital Club is more than a membership organization. It’s a family there,” he told San José Spotlight. “We watch people mature through their careers and lives and become very close friends.”

The Capital Club has been a space where renowned business leaders rub shoulders. After the closure, there won’t be a similar location in downtown San Jose to strike deals while looking out the city skyline.

Leah Toeniskoetter, CEO of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, said the closure is a shame. She held her first chamber event there three weeks into her tenure and said there’s nothing like it.

“The Capital Club has been a center of networking, of business activity, of just lunch and relationships for so long,” she told San José Spotlight. “We’re really disheartened. It’s a beautiful space.”

The club will host a New Year’s Eve dinner beginning at 6 p.m. followed by a masquerade ball from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Story updated Dec. 4 at 4:44 p.m. Original story published Dec. 4 at 10:11 a.m.

Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X, formerly known as Twitter.

For most students, a high school diploma signifies a step into their future. For Ibrahim Barrie, who is hard of hearing and diagnosed with a special learning disability, his recent diploma from Leigh High School in San Jose stopped his future in its tracks, he and his family say.

Ibrahim’s hearing condition and special learning disability are documented in his individualized education plan, or IEP, with the school. An IEP is a legal document a school follows so a student with certain disabilities can receive personalized education.

Two days before his graduation in June 2024, his mother, Isatu Barrie, says she received a phone call from Santa Clara County Office of Education’s (SCCOE) special education principal.

“She’s like, ‘I have bad news…I’ve been trying to fight it. I spoke with the [county] lawyers,’” Isatu said. “‘Ibrahim is not getting any certificate of completion. He’s getting a diploma.’”

A high school certificate or certificate of completion is something a student receives when he or she finishes high school but does not meet all the requirements to graduate. Ibrahim and his mother were expecting that certificate because they say it would have enabled him to receive services through the county to attend post-secondary adult school. The program would provide additional life skills and vocational training. Ibrahim’s dream is to work with automobiles, he says.

However, according to SCCOE’s letter to the family, the diploma meant Ibrahim was now “no longer eligible for special education services through the District of SCCOE.”

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“I was scared because if I don’t go to the adult school program, what am I going to do for my future,” Ibrahim signed in an interview with the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit.

College isn’t an option he says. Even though school officials wrote that he earned a high school diploma, there’s a problem.

Ibrahim says he struggles with basic reading.

“The system failed him…How can an 18-year-old read at a second-grade level?” he mother said.

And how can a high school student who only reads at a second-grade level have a high school transcript filled with A’s and B’s?

One of Ibrahim’s former Leigh High School teachers agreed to speak with the Investigative Unit. She asked to remain anonymous to avoid retaliation.

“We failed him,” she said. “Having worked with him, I know that. I know that he’s reading at a 2^nd, 3^rd grade level.”

According to the Santa Clara County Office of Education’s letter to Ibrahim and his mother, school officials decided to issue him a diploma based on his IEP documents, assessment reports and other factors.

With his mother’s permission, NBC Bay Area shared several of those same documents with two separate special education advocates who do not know Ibrahim. They say they found red flags.

“[Ibrahim] was indicated to have passed Algebra 1, but when looking at the assessment results, it looks like he was only testing around a fourth-grade level at most for math,” said Taylor Kohn with Aspire Advocacy. “I would be curious to know how a young man who's only testing at a fourth grade level passed Algebra 1.”

Advocates Taylor Kohn and Alicia Tucker say school administrators seem to be looking mainly at Ibrahim’s transcript, and not at Ibrahim.

“When you see a transcript, you see the name of a class and a letter grade. You do not see anything additional like modifications happening which are noted in the IEP,” Kohn said.

With an IEP, Kohn and Tucker say, classes are adjusted. Ibrahim’s performance baseline was different from his peers. For instance, if earning an A grade in English typically means being able to read a novel, for Ibrahim, it doesn’t mean the same thing. A teacher is directed by Ibrahim’s IEP to pass him if he meets his own individualized baseline.

“His goal may be just to write two sentences towards a topic. And if he masters those goals, he makes an A in his class,” said Tucker.

The problem is, those A’s and B’s Ibrahim earned for his modified lesson plans ended up on his transcript. The fact that the classes were modified didn’t always, according to the Investigative Unit’s review of Ibrahim’s documents.

Tucker says most of his teachers probably were not aware the grades they gave him would results in denied services after graduation. She says she’s seeing this problem with special education students nationwide.

“Because of the lack of funding and the teacher shortage,” Tucker said. “They're just forgotten. They're overlooked.”

Ibrahim says he’s sharing his story for those students.

“I will like them to be supported, teach them, help them no matter what so they don't struggle in the real life because if they do, they will be...homeless,” he said.

Being homeless. Tearfully, Ibrahim said that is his biggest fear.

NBC Bay Area reached out to Leigh High School and SCCOE school leaders. They declined interviews. SCCOE provided a statement saying federal law “restricts [its] ability to disclose specific details about any student’s educational experiences or conversations related to their education.”

The county office has offered Ibrahim four years of adult school, transportation and sign language services. He and his mother would have to sign a contract agreeing that he earned the diploma and is no longer entitled to any further special education, including an IEP, while at adult school. Ibrahim and his mother have not signed the contract because they do not agree with the conditions.

For six months now, Ibrahim has been at home regressing, his mother says, receiving no vocational school or training to be a mechanic.

A former South Bay student says he was given a high school diploma that he didn't earn. He says it’s now causing him to be denied the services he needs. Raj Mathai speaks with Candice Nguyen on this.

Candice Nguyen is the investigative reporter on this story. If you have a questions or another investigative tip, email her at candice.nguyen@nbcuni.com.

An exterior rendering of the San Jose California Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been released, providing a first look at one of the newest of the 12 total houses of the Lord in the state of California.

The San Jose temple is planned as a single-story edifice of approximately 30,000 square feet, to sit on a 4.73-acre site at 771 W. Fremont Ave. in Sunnyvale, California, a Bay Area suburb west of San Jose. An adjacent distribution center is also planned for the site, which was first announced on Aug. 28, 2023.

The rendering was released Monday, Nov. 11, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

On April 2, 2023, President Russell M. Nelson announced 15 new temples locations, including two in California — San Jose and Bakersfield, the latter with its site and exterior rendering previously released.

California is home to nearly 730,000 Latter-day Saints in more than 1,110 congregations and a total of 12 temples that are dedicated and operating, announced for dedication, under construction, scheduled to be built or in planning.

Other dedicated houses of the Lord in the state include the Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego, Fresno, Redlands, Newport Beach, Sacramento and Feather River temples; all are operating except the San Diego temple, which is closed for renovations.

The Yorba Linda California and Modesto California temples are under construction, with the San Jose and Bakersfield temples rounding out the 12 houses of the Lord in the West Coast state.

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Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 5.3 percent in the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area (CSA) for the year ended September 2024, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that one year ago, San Jose experienced an annual gain of 3.3 percent in compensation costs. (See chart 1 and table 1.) Nationwide, compensation costs rose 3.6 percent in September 2024.

Locally, wages and salaries, the largest component of compensation costs, advanced at a 5.4-percent pace for the 12-month period ended September 2024. (See chart 2.) Nationwide, wages and salaries rose 3.8 percent over the same period.

San Jose is 1 of 15 metropolitan areas in the United States and 1 of 4 areas in the West region of the country for which locality compensation cost data are available. Among these 15 largest areas, over-the-year percentage changes in compensation costs ranged from 5.3 percent in San Jose to 1.7 percent in Boston-Worcester-Providence in September 2024; for wages and salaries, Atlanta-Athens-Clarke County-Sandy Springs registered the largest increase (5.6 percent), and Boston registered the smallest (1.6 percent). (See chart 3.)

The annual increase in compensation costs in San Jose was 5.3 percent in September 2024, compared to advances that ranged from 4.6 percent to 3.3 percent in the three other metropolitan areas in the West (Los Angeles-Long Beach, Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, and Seattle-Tacoma). San Jose’s 5.4-percent gain in wages and salaries over this 12-month period compared to rates ranging from 4.8 percent to 3.4 percent in the three other western localities. (See table 2.)

The Employment Cost Index for December 2024 is scheduled to be released on Friday, January 31, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. (ET).

Technical Note

Locality compensation costs are part of the national Employment Cost Index (ECI), which measures quarterly changes in compensation costs (wages and salaries and employer costs for employee benefits) free from the influence of employment shifts among occupations and industries. More information can be found in the national Employment Cost Index Technical Note. For information on survey concepts, coverage, methods, nonresponse adjustment, and imputation see the National Compensation Measures Handbook of Methods.

In addition to the data presented here, ECI national data by industry, occupational group, and union status, as well as data for civilian, private, and state and local government employees, are available on the Employment Cost Index website. The national Employment Cost Index Summary is also available online. Additional information for regions, states, and local areas may be accessed via our Western Information Office regional homepage.

The substate area data published in this news release reflect the Office of Management and Budget Bulletin No. 13-01, dated February 28, 2013. See the Classification Systems Used by the National Compensation Survey for more information on available geographies.

San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA CSA includes Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, and Sonoma Counties in California.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.