TIDE Academy will close

When trustees took their turns rationalizing their votes, audience members passed around tissues and raised their signs asking to keep TIDE open in a last ditch effort to emotionally sway the board.

“The amount of pain I feel is insufferable, but I do believe we make these decisions with students’ best interest in mind,” Trustee Sathvik Nori said.

Nori said the district could have found other budgetary solutions, but ultimately voted in alignment with his fellow trustees, and said he would work to support TIDE families.

TIDE Principal Simone Rick-Kennel said phasing out the program at the Menlo Park campus would not be “in anybody’s self interest” and would be very difficult in terms of feasibility.

Currently enrolled students would graduate from Woodside High School, where the program will be transferred, and the program will be entirely phased-out in three years.

One-hundred-ninety-nine students are currently enrolled at TIDE Academy. This will dwindle to 64 students in the 2028-29 school year, if all students continue, though many students opined this likely won’t be the case.

TIDE has been proposed to move to Woodside, as recommended by Leach, and would likely result in many students leaving the program, or district altogether, public commenters said. Should students disperse, it would directly contradict the efforts of the district to keep a cohort of students together, many noted.

In three sections of his freshman physical education class on Wednesday, TIDE teacher Hector Cornejo said only nine of 49 students raised their hands when he asked if they would stick around and move to Woodside High School.

“Our students feel safe [at TIDE]. I need you to hear that, when they say that,” Cornejo said during public comment. “It is something they have cherished. … I really need you to hear that.”

Avery, a current freshman at TIDE, reflected on the fact that she could be a part of the “last class before the school of our dreams close.” Another described the closures as the “slow death of our community.”

Placing the population at Woodside will not be without its necessary planning, however, the district still has yet to finalize the details. Rick-Kennel recommended this option to provide students and staff with the most clear option as soon as possible.

Phasing out at Woodside High School is estimated to save the district an estimated $14,512,400 in the next three school years.

A significant portion of student and public commenters, in their last ditch effort, pleaded with trustees to keep the program going, although the option was not recommended by the superintendent. Calls were made for Leach and the district staff to reevaluate alternative ways to save money and address the budget deficit, besides closing TIDE.

Those requests did not change the Board of Trustees’ final decision to close a school that opened seven years ago.

Trustee Mary Beth Thompson addressed the mistrust in the room after seconding the motion to close TIDE.

“I do not believe anyone on this board wished for it to get to this point,” Thompson said. “I do not believe that our district wants to hurt children.”

Woodside High School staff were in attendance, ready to answer questions — which they did at length, outlining what the school already offers. No details were given about the feasibility of inheriting approximately 200 students or offering new programs similar to those provided through TIDE Academy.

TIDE was the focus of a possible closure due to enrollment numbers that have left vacancies in the already-small school, and the costly per-pupil expenditures due to unavoidable administrative costs. The matter was first raised at a board meeting, Nov. 13.

Since, families of the school have shown out in numbers to public meetings Dec. 12, Jan. 14 and Jan. 26, advocating on behalf of their children who have grown through the small-school model.

When the COVID-19 pandemic brought the needs of students for support systems to the forefront, the district responded, establishing wellness centers and more to address the effects of increased anxiety and broad societal divisions.

These supplemental support systems were started and sustained by funding that has since expired, and “unmet needs now exist across all campuses in areas previously supported,” the staff report reads.

“Keeping TIDE open and running as it currently exists is not sustainable nor equitable toward the other schools,” the staff report reads.

TIDE Academy opened in August 2019 to a class of approximately 100 ninth graders; the 2022-23 school year was the first with all grades present.

The board’s decision also directed staff to return at a future date with an implementation package that will include a timeline, more refined budget and saving estimates, a transportation plan, community engagement plan and a staff plan.