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More than 100 supporters of TIDE Academy donned their “Keep it 100 for TIDE” shirts and held signs demanding the school board save their school during a Sequoia Union High School District study session on Monday, Jan. 26.
Next Wednesday, Feb. 4, the school board is set to make its final decision on the closure of the six-year-old choice school, a move that will impact dozens of faculty and staff members and nearly 200 high school students.
TIDE students who spoke to this news organization said they are feeling stressed, anxious and scared for the fate of their school, but that doesn’t outweigh their optimism and school spirit. Minutes before the board’s study session, students said that they are still hopeful that the board could be swayed and will keep their small school open.
Superintendent Crystal Leach presented five potential options for the future to board members, including “do nothing,” rightsizing staffing ratios, phasing out TIDE over three years, closing the school on June 30 or moving TIDE’s programs to another campus.
During the five-hour meeting, district staff presented data on enrollment trends, finances, special education programs, recruitment and potential next steps after the Feb. 4 vote.
The STEM-based choice school, which is newly built on a $50 million campus is the Sequoia district’s only non-charter public high school located east of Highway 101. Sixty percent of its students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, 83% are students of color, 22% have Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and 14% have 504 plans, according to district data.
IEPs and 504 plans are legally binding documents that map out specific services that a child with a disability needs in order to succeed in a classroom setting.
TIDE was built in 2019 to provide Sequoia Union students with an alternative site to its larger high school campuses, offering a specialized focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). TIDE was meant to relieve an excess of students that the district had anticipated at Menlo-Atherton High School. However, recent demographic data shows a declining enrollment rate in the district, due to low birth rates in the area.
TIDE and Woodside merger?
Leach proposed a new idea during the study session that explored the potential benefits of moving TIDE’s unique programs to Woodside High, located about 6 miles west of TIDE’s campus.
Students at Woodside could benefit from TIDE’s Career Technical Pathway program and its dual enrollment courses, Leach said. Woodside’s student population of more than 1,000 students is the smallest of the Sequoia district’s non-charter school campuses, but is five times larger than TIDE’s.
Leach said that Woodside’s culture of belonging and connection pair well with what TIDE currently offers. Many of TIDE’s staff members could even transfer to Woodside, she added.
“What makes TIDE special is the students and the staff and the relationships that they have together. It’s not the building, it’s not the location. Students could be cohorted together to maintain peer connections and a sense of community,” Leach explained.
TIDE parents at the meeting were not appeased by this idea, emphasizing that this would negate the benefits that small school environments have on their children, some of whom experienced bullying and lack of support on the district’s larger campuses.
“If TIDE moves to Woodside, what do you have to say to the students who transferred to TIDE from Woodside?” said Marijane Leonard, a TIDE parent.
The community is also concerned about whether TIDE students with specialized education plans will be supported in the same way if they are placed in larger classrooms. District staff asserted that the size of the school does not impact the level of support a student receives.
There is nothing unique to TIDE’s 504 plans that cannot be applied to other larger school sites, said Shana Karashima, SUHSD’s multi-tiered system of support coordinator.
“When I’m told the 504 and IEPs are the same across all schools, it is offensive and wrong, because that absolutely is not my experience,” said TIDE parent Jason Primuth, who has another child that struggled at the larger schools. “The only way that I was able to get accommodations, every single time, was if I threatened litigation, and it worked every single time.”
Open enrollment at Sequoia Union’s high school campuses closes on Feb. 1, three days before the board decides on TIDE’s closure. Trustee Amy Koo pointed out that during this process, students are only allowed to list their first choice and if they don’t get in they will automatically be enrolled in their default high school based on district boundaries.
As TIDE’s enrollment is being impacted by the threat of closure, Koo pushed for a new procedure that would allow students to list their first and second choice for the next school year.
Parents’ anguish and taxpayers’ bill
TIDE’s campus was funded by Measure A, a $265 million bond measure that voters who live in the Sequoia district passed in 2014 with an expectation that the district would create a new small alternative school for the local community.
As a Menlo Park resident, Primuth said he was thrilled to hear about the district’s plans to build TIDE and has been impressed with how successful the school has been in achieving near 100% graduation rates. TIDE has been a “godsend” for his son, he said.
Primuth describes the district’s idea of closing TIDE “unprofessional.”
“It really leads to a deficit of trust and credibility because in a year or two they’re going to come back and ask for more money,” Primuth said in an interview. “It’s really hard to imagine them getting a good reception from the public.”
Neurodivergent students and students of color who typically face social and academic challenges on comprehensive campuses said once they enrolled in TIDE, they finally felt safe and excited to show up to school every day.
“At TIDE, I can actually be happy,” said TIDE student Konstantin Edunov. “It’s a small school, kids are actually kind here, the teachers are nice and I don’t want to kill myself every day.”
TIDE student Emelly Cardona Rodas explained at Monday’s meeting that some students of color, including herself, come from “rough backgrounds.” But, she said, teachers at TIDE are always quick to identify these students, talk to them and help them reach their full potential.
“When you come into TIDE, the school seems to break you, but then you’re remade,” said Cardona Rodas. “It’s like you shed your old skin and become new. You just become a better person at TIDE.”
Other students shared their experiences with gang violence and drugs at larger middle schools and high schools.
Hours before the district’s evening study session, a handful of TIDE parents took time out of their workday to rally in front of the district office in Redwood City .
“Current and alumni students have been very vulnerable in sharing in public comments how TIDE has saved their lives after they were bullied and ignored in past schools, leading to suicidal thoughts,” said Andromeda Garcelon, president of the TIDE Education Foundation during the rally. “(Is the district) willing to send these students back into the places that failed them the first time?”
Leach assured the community that schools within the district are already catering to neurodivergent students and are proactively addressing issues around bullying, yet students continued to share personal experiences of bullying and hate at bigger schools, leading them to enroll in TIDE.
Last week, the district staff held three consecutive meetings — two data presentations and one school board meeting. Parents alleged that the district presented enrollment and financial data that was “cherry-picked.” Despite all the numbers that have been presented, parents claim that the data is unclear, and they are still unsure how much money TIDE’s closure would actually save the district.
This news organization reviewed letters that some community members received from Lozano Smith, the district’s legal team, in response to public records requests made to the district over the last month. Many have been told that they would not get their requests for emails between district staff about the closure and financial data until Feb. 9, days after the final vote
Board members said they will take into account the information presented at the Jan. 26 study session when making their final decision on Wednesday, Feb. 4, after the superintendent’s final recommendation.
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