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A MAGNETIC, STEAMY thriller about the death of a beloved, small public high school.
Quick Recap of the Timeline
2014: SUHSD has way too much Measure A money. So they come up with a way to spend it quickly: a new STEM-based Magnet School in rich Menlo Park, and close to Meta’s HQ.
2015: The idea is copied from D.Tech Charter School, a STEM-based Charter School in rich Redwood Shores, right on the Oracle campus.
2015-2018: Planning and construction of TIDE Academy
2019: TIDE Academy opens with a ninth-grade class of roughly 103–106 students. The school will be going through several principals in quick succession – not exactly a great sign.
Nov. 2025: Costs and enrollment pressures intensify. Closure discussions go public.
Dec. 2025: Different closure scenarios presented by staff.
2026: TIDE parents organize under “TIDE Rising”. They try to use every tool in the book: a temporary restraining order, a civil rights lawsuit, several threats of recalls, a push to fire the superintendent, probably a CEQA complaint as well.
June 2026: Nothing sticks. TIDE’s closing is final. The last senior class celebrates graduation on June 4, 2026. What should have been a happy occasion has a very sad component as well.
So far, the facts. There is still the question of how we approach this crime.
(A slightly longer version was in the last post: What RCSD can learn from the TIDE Academy Saga )
Traditional Crime Story – “Whodunnit”
A death happens; neither the detective nor the audience knows who the perpetrator was; a web of suspects with solid motives is introduced. The entertaining part for the audience is about following the clues together with the detective.
“Really, I have no gifts—except perhaps a certain knowledge of human nature.”
[Miss Marple]
This is your typical Agatha Christie story; the detective could be Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot. C. Auguste Dupin, introduced by Edgar Allan Poe in 1841, is widely regarded as the first modern fictional detective. A more local example would be San Francisco’s Adrian Monk. The most famous character of this genre will always be Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.
“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.” [Sherlock Holmes]
“Forensic Pathology”
This is all about the science. This version is still a classic “Whodunnit”, but a passionate medical examiner or a forensic pathology team is at the center of the show. This genre follows in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes, who always explored science as a way to solve riddles.
“The cause of death is not yet known. But the paperwork has bruises.”
[Dr. R. Quincy]
A classic example is Quincy, M.E. More current would be Rosewood; more international versions are Harrow (Australia), The Coroner (UK), and Coroner (Canada).
Because of their strong focus on science, the different CSI shows deserve an honorable mention here.
“Who Are You?” [The Who]
Historical Mystery or “Whowasit”
The storytelling focuses on some cold case or historical mystery revisited after new evidence, a new witness, or a new investigative lens emerges.
This is your typical Cold Case or New Tricks. A newer version of this is Ballard.
These days, this genre is occupied by an earful of podcasts as well. Serial, a 2014 spinoff from This American Life, helped popularize the modern true-crime podcast.
Inverted Detective Story – “Howcatchem”
The story usually starts with getting the “whodunnit” out of the way. The audience is being shown exactly how the perpetrators commit the crimes. The audience becomes part of the psychological cat-and-mouse game between the perpetrator(s) and the detective.
No one has done this genre better than Columbo. The enjoyment is how the perpetrators always think they are smarter than this mumbling, stumbling detective.
“Just one more thing …” [Lieutenant Columbo]
This format isn’t too common at all. Even Mrs. Columbo (Kate Mulgrew) didn’t follow her husband’s style. However, there are two more recent examples with Elsbeth and Poker Face.
What Killed TIDE Academy?
We have found a bunch of ways of digging into this story. But which of these four different genres makes the most sense here?
We do not have a traditional “whodunit”. The closure was a very public act: Superintendent Crystal Leach recommended it, and the Sequoia Union High School District Board ultimately voted to close TIDE Academy. The public record clearly identifies the officials who made the final decision as Amy Koo (Area A), Mary Beth Thompson (Area B), Richard Ginn (Area C), Sathvik Nori (Area D), and Maria E. Cruz (Area E).
So this version of the crime genre doesn’t work for us. Knowing the perpetrators – sorry, decision-makers – also takes away the classic “whowasit“; even the “forensic pathology” version makes little sense now. An institutional autopsy could still unearth a few secrets, though. Was TIDE undone by enrollment, costs, leadership turnover, flawed planning, changed district priorities, changing political climate – or some combination of all of them?
“One does see so much evil in a village.” [Miss Marple]
The “Howcatchem“: A group of parents tried several things to reverse the decision and/or punish some of the decision makers. There was something about community meetings, cool catch phrases, petitions, contentious board meetings, CPRA requests, a temporary restraining order, a civil rights lawsuit, and now two recalls. Is this the classic Columbo story, where justice prevails? And what exactly would justice look like? It seems fairly certain that this school isn’t coming back.
TIDE Academy will not be coming back
Now, in this particular case, the murder victim could technically be coming back; we still don’t know what’s going to happen to the building. We can only hope that TIDE STEM Academy isn’t coming back. But to explain that sentence, we will have to find yet another version of the crime genre.
We need the “Nothing is as it seems” genre. No one has done this genre better than Alfred Hitchcock with movies like The Wrong Man, North by Northwest, or Vertigo.
We could probably do with less suspense thriller and more docudrama. All the President’s Men seems like a good example; so would JFK or Zodiac.
“You tell me what you know, and I’ll confirm. I’ll keep you in the right direction if I can, but that’s all. Just… follow the money.” [Deep Throat, All the President’s Men]
Or maybe we do “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”-“a clinical look at real-life historical urban planning“.
To Be Continued …
Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in all blog posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Redwood City Pulse or its staff.
