New high school in downtown San Jose should have a positive impact

Hillbrook School — an independent private school where annual tuition runs in the tens of thousands of dollars — cut the ribbon Monday on its new high school building in the old armory in downtown San Jose. It’s the first of two historic buildings the school plans to transform into state-of-the-art learning spaces that are within walking distance of a controversial, dilapidated former church and long-neglected St. James Park.

That location may surprise you, but Mark Silver, who has been Hillbrook’s head of school since 2009...