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The school, called BBS, enrolled 14 children in kindergarten through fourth grade and employed three full-time teachers and other staff members.
Reporting from the Crescent Park neighborhood of Palo Alto
Aug. 10, 2025, 5:01 a.m. ET
Mark Zuckerberg has been denounced after a school he and his wife established for children from low-income families in East Palo Alto announced in April that it will be shutting down, leaving students and their parents confused and angry.
But it turns out that a mile away, behind a high wall of hedges, the billionaire and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were running a private school out of a house at their Palo Alto compound for two of their daughters and a dozen other children. And they were doing it in violation of city code.
Residents in the Crescent Park neighborhood started noticing during the pandemic that one of Mr. Zuckerberg’s homes on Hamilton Avenue had school-style rhythms, with families dropping off their children each morning and picking them up in the afternoon. Sometimes, they saw big vehicles with darkened windows pick up the children to take them on outings.
They suspected the house was being used as a school, and they were right.
A private school called BBS, formerly named Bicken Ben, has been operating at that property, according to state documents and city officials.
Private schools must file affidavits providing basic information with the California Department of Education. Documents filed with the state agency for the past three years describe BBS as a coed day school that enrolls 14 children in kindergarten through fourth grade. It employs three full-time teachers, one part-time teacher, one administrator and one other staff member.
It’s unclear where the name Bicken Ben came from, but in a Facebook post in 2021, Mr. Zuckerberg said he had chickens named Toaster and Bicken Ben.
Aaron McLear, a spokesman for Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Chan, said that the children were part of a pod of home-schoolers formed during the pandemic, and that they have continued to be educated together to provide stability.
The state documents refer to the site as a private school, but Mr. McLear disputed that description, saying the affidavits did not allow for a distinction. He declined to provide information about the other 12 children, saying only that they paid no tuition and that parents taught some subjects. He said the family was unaware that the school violated city code.
Whatever the label, the family is moving the endeavor to a different location out of Crescent Park, he said.
Michael Kieschnick, whose home in Crescent Park is bound on three sides by property owned by Mr. Zuckerberg, said the billionaire’s staff members told him the family was pleased to have pulled together excellent teachers and “a diverse set of classmates” for their daughters to prepare them for elite boarding schools.
Palo Alto bans businesses, including private schools, from operating in homes if the employees do not live there and if it generates more traffic than a normal home would. Such a use would require special city approval, which Mr. Zuckerberg did not obtain.
Emails show that Jonathan Lait, Palo Alto’s director of planning and development, answered neighbors’ emails complaining about the school, agreeing that it was a violation and must be ended.
He wrote in March that the operators assured him they would cease running the school June 30 and instead might apply for a permit for a day care facility at the site. He acknowledged that, for the neighbors, there might not be much difference in terms of the activity in the area. State officials said Tuesday that there was no day care license associated with that address. The family declined to comment on whether a day care facility was planned.
Mr. Lait did not respond to a request for an interview.
Meghan Horrigan-Taylor, a spokeswoman for the city of Palo Alto, confirmed that a city investigation found a private school had been operating in the house without city approval, and that the city believed the school had closed.
The revelation that the family was operating a private school in its compound comes at an especially sensitive time for Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Chan.
In April, the Primary School, in East Palo Alto, announced it will be closing in the summer of 2026. The school, opened in 2016, was one of the first beneficiaries of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which this year said it was discontinuing its social advocacy work, including in education and affordable housing, to focus on science. The shift came after Donald J. Trump was re-elected as president and Mr. Zuckerberg, along with other tech leaders, began courting his favor.
The chairman of the Primary School’s board of directors said at the time that the closure was not part of a D.E.I. retrenchment by Mr. Zuckerberg. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative said the family would still be investing in East Palo Alto.
But to some Crescent Park neighbors, it was dismaying that the family was closing a school for low-income children while operating one for their own children against city rules.
The head of the school that has operated in Mr. Zuckerberg’s compound, who filed the affidavits with the state education agency, has a LinkedIn page referring to herself as working at “a private family office” and specializing in Montessori education.
She posted an ad for a teacher on a Montessori site last year. “Are you up for an adventure?” it reads. “Very competitive salary and benefits, all travel expenses paid.”
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
Heather Knight is a reporter in San Francisco, leading The Times’s coverage of the Bay Area and Northern California.
