Nearly three months after introducing the possibility of closure to the public, the District Board of Trustees reached a consensus to close TIDE Academy in a special meeting on Wednesday. TIDE is set to close on June 30, and the students currently enrolled will be transferred to Woodside High School for the 2026-27 school year.
Before the meeting, the Board hosted a study session on Jan. 26, where staff, students, parents, and community members discussed the future of TIDE. The Board informally agreed to the school’s closure, presented data regarding enrollment and costs, and answered questions from the community. Many TIDE students and staff argued that the data was overly broad and contained flaws that contradicted their own surveys and measures.
During the study session, proponents of the school’s closure cited high costs as a major motivator, while opponents emphasized the value of a small campus, special accommodations, and a tight-knit community. Despite discussion of both perspectives, the majority of the attendees seemed inclined to keep the school open, according to M-A math teacher Rachel Andres.
Going into Wednesday’s meeting, three options remained on the table: close TIDE after this school year and move the students into a cohort program at Woodside starting the 2026-27 school year; close TIDE next year and move the program to Woodside for the 2027-28 school year; or close TIDE in 2029, so that all current students can graduate.
After public comment, clarification from Woodside staff, and discussion among the trustees, the Board made its decision.
The Vote
According to Superintendent Crystal Leach, TIDE was projected to cost $8 million next year. Its smaller student-teacher ratio and $27,591 spent per student compared to the District average of $19,401 could explain these costs. The Board noted that the likely alternative to closing TIDE would be implementing District-wide staff layoffs. The District hopes that closing TIDE will save the money they need to stay within their three-year budget projection.
“Closing TIDE is not something that I want to support or want to do. I think we could have found budgetary solutions,” Trustee Sathvik Nori said. “But when I hear that the tradeoff for not acting would be teacher layoffs, I find it very hard to weigh those two things of how we could consciously support this.”
“I think of the thousands of other students. Of cutting English Learners classes, cutting 30 teachers across the District, really like 40, or even more staff. How is that going to look for all the other students that we also represent?” Trustee Maria Elena Cruz said. “I’m thinking about all the students, because that’s what I represent up here, all students, all Latino students, not just TIDE students.”
Trustee Rich Ginn mentioned low enrollment as a push factor, citing that the school was intended for 400 students but serves only 200. “It’s either half under-enrolled or a third under-enrolled, depending on what you consider fully enrolled,” Ginn said. “I remember walking around M-A during COVID and talking about this, and people were saying, ‘Give it one more year’ […] It was four years, and in none of those years did enrollment meet what was needed one time.”
Trustee Amy Koo remarked that her child’s school was also under consideration for closure, and she empathized with the difficulties TIDE families were experiencing. “It’s a very emotional decision tonight that we’re making […] I really understand the pain that you are all going through, and I’m going to go through that next week,” Koo said.
“But I am also aware that finances are finances, and we have a fiduciary duty to make sure that our three-year projections are in alignment, and we want to make the adjustments over time and not be in a scramble at the last minute, and that is why I support the District’s recommendation,” she added.
Trustee Mary Beth Thompson acknowledged the difficulties that closing the school would result in. However, she explained that her decision ultimately came down to her understanding of TIDE’s enrollment and budgetary requirements. “The data always tells a story, and facts can be viewed through different lenses. Numbers don’t speak for themselves—people interpret them, and my responsibility tonight is not to choose between statistics and stories, but to hold both the data on sustainability and the deeply felt experiences of our students and families,” Thompson said.
Public Comment
At the beginning of the meeting, attendees criticized the District’s handling of the closure, alleging that they hadn’t been transparent and hadn’t put together a solid plan despite having months to prepare. Community members urged the Board to reconsider their options and keep the school open, arguing that TIDE students are more than just numbers and that it goes beyond enrollment and data.
“It’s easy to reduce students to numbers on a slideshow, but students are actually more than numbers. They’re actually people, and so they have personalities and interests and all those sorts of things,” Marcus Burke, a community member, said. “It was mentioned multiple times that changes were supposed to be made as far away from the classroom as possible. And I’m just going to let you know, closing down the school is not very far away from the classroom.”
Some students alleged that other District schools would not follow their 504 plans or provide the support they now receive at TIDE. Many neurodivergent students shared personal anecdotes about feeling comfortable and safe at the school and being able to excel academically in the small setting and through close relationships with teachers.
Jason Primuth is a TIDE parent who worries that his younger son, who has an IEP, could struggle when returning to Woodside. He claims that in the past, Woodside failed to accommodate his older son’s 504 plan.
“My son attended Woodside. He’s in college now, but he was at Woodside with a 504, and it couldn’t accommodate his needs, so we pulled him out. So obviously, there’s real concern with sending my kid now, who has an IEP, back into a Woodside environment,” Primuth said.
Others shared stories about how being bullied at large schools, such as Woodside and M-A, prompted them to transfer to TIDE, where they found a comparatively inclusive and considerate student population.
“I’ve dealt with bullying for a lot of my life, and I’ve lost all my friends,” TIDE junior Lilian Garceland said. “But when I came to TIDE Academy, I made a community for myself. I have a bunch of friends here. The teachers are great.”
Parents and students encouraged alternative methods for reducing the District’s spending deficit. One solution was to create a district-wide foundation dedicated to fundraising in addition to each school’s respective foundations, or for the TIDE community to fundraise themselves.
Many expressed worry over the logistics of how TIDE students would move to Woodside. They claimed the plan would inevitably complicate and lengthen their commutes. People argued that the drive could take up to an hour in traffic and claimed that a bus route was insufficient to solve the issue.
Moving Forward
After voting, the Board began asking Woodside principal Karen Van Putten whether Woodside would implement a program like TIDE at Woodside, and whether the school would permit rising freshmen to join such a program. Van Putten responded that running a continuous program similar to TIDE might create additional barriers within an already-divided group of freshmen.
She also mentioned that allowing rising ninth graders to be part of an individual cohort might harm them by inhibiting them from experiencing Woodside’s comprehensive set of classes and academies.
“Let’s not put barriers before students arrive on campus. Let them explore the ninth grade. Let them explore how different high school is from middle school,” Van Putten said. “Freshman year should not be a gatekeeping year, by cohorting this rising ninth-grade group who are choosing to come to TIDE by precluding them from integrating fully with the Woodside offerings.”
The details of how the cohort will continue at Woodside, how long it will last, which teachers will teach the cohort, if rising ninth graders will be included, and more are not yet established.
“They literally have no plan for how they’re going to manage the kids. I mean, you saw them ask the Woodside staff, ‘Where will the kids go? How will they be housed?’ They literally have no idea as of tonight. They voted to close without a plan in place,” Primuth said.
The Board will reconvene at a monthly meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 11.
