Enrollment deadline approaches for TIDE students to transfer

In an update on actions taken since the Sequoia Union High School District Board of Trustees’ Feb. 4 vote to close the small alternative high school, many details remained unrefined due to what TIDE Principal Simone Rick-Kennel described as a “chicken and egg” situation. 

With the vote to approve TIDE’s closure, trustees also approved moving the students and program to Woodside High School. However, how exactly that may happen is dependent on numerous moving parts. 

Although TIDE students have been encouraged to transfer to Woodside High School where they could be in cohort classes, students have not appeared to select the school in abundance. 

As of Feb. 27, 60 students out of the 198 who were anticipated to go to TIDE next year have filled out their enrollment paperwork. Of those 60, only nine have selected to attend Woodside; three eighth graders, three ninth graders, one 10th grader and two 11th graders. 

The reason students aren’t navigating toward Woodside could be due to many factors, but what the school can offer as the solution to TIDE’s closure is largely dependent on how many commit to enrolling.

The size of TIDE Academy, its unique dual enrollment options, career and technical education pathways and its teachers are what make the school, students have said previously. Even if the educational programs could be replicated at other schools, the significantly larger environments and potential loss of faculty feels significant, they said.  

Woodside High School Principal Karen Van Putten said she doesn’t have a number for how many students need to pick Woodside to make programs viable. She added programs may be opened up to current Woodside students as well to compensate. 

“Just as much as the students and the families would like to know about the academic programs and what that will look like, our staff at Woodside would also like to know what that looks like,” Van Putten said. 

A new class of TIDE students, such as incoming freshmen on Woodside’s campus, would need at least 60 students enrolled to be sustainable and to establish cohorts, Superintendent Crystal Leach said previously. 

In regards to staff, Assistant Superintendent Bonnie Hansen there will be no layoffs for the upcoming school year, meaning every TIDE Academy teacher will get a position elsewhere. Just where they will go is still to be decided, weighing both student need and teacher preference, Hansen said. 

Whether transportation will be provided to TIDE students who transfer to Woodside will also depend on how many make the move. 

While students consider which school to transfer to next year, a parent group has taken legal action to try and stop the closure of TIDE Academy. 

On Thursday afternoon, a temporary restraining order sought by a parent group looking to prevent the district from closing the school was denied by the U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson. A preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for May. 

Thompson shared her sympathies with TIDE families and said they are owed “transparency, honesty and grace” from the school district, but ultimately felt the matter did not require a temporary restraining order. 

The injunction hearing in May is to determine whether the school must remain open for the 2026-27 school year.