When TIDE Academy was closed due to a unanimous vote by the District Board of Trustees on Feb. 4, it was suggested that current students relocate to Woodside High School beginning in the 2026-27 school year. However, district enrollment data reveals that most TIDE students plan to attend M-A next year.
Of the 187 TIDE students—current students and rising ninth graders who enrolled in TIDE before the closure was announced alike—84 students indicated they would be attending M-A next year, 46 of the students plan to attend Woodside, 41 Sequoia High School, 12 East Palo Alto Academy, and four Carlmont High School.
Here is a deep dive into some students’ thought processes.
Menlo-Atherton
Like the majority of TIDE students, freshman Alex Borbolla plans on attending M-A for the following school year. Borbolla originally chose to attend TIDE because of the close teacher to student ratio and appreciated its smaller community. “Everyone knows everyone and people are chill with each other,” he said.
Furthermore, because Borbolla runs cross country and track and field at M-A, he is already familiar with the campus and some of its students. “All my friends went to M-A,” Borbolla said. “I am looking forward to being with [them] again.”
The TIDE cohort idea suggested TIDE students transfer to Woodside and continue learning with their existing peers. However, most students seem to have other plans. “Most of the students that attend TIDE live kinda far from Woodside,” freshman Maria Akhanova said. Although she herself is attending Design Tech, many of her peers intend to attend M-A next year. “This TIDE cohort thing is definitely not happening because most people at TIDE are transferring to M-A.”
Woodside
Avory Camisa is currently a freshman at TIDE, and initially chose to attend because she found the small population, student-to-teacher ratio, and campus appealing. Camisa decided to transfer to Woodside for the upcoming school year due to artistic opportunities, rather than her given relocation plan.
“[Woodside has] many opportunities for music, digital art, physical art, and more, and I, as an artist, was drawn to that,” Camisa said. “The drama department was also appealing, as that is something I’m interested in as well.”
Additionally, she also found Woodside’s campus appealing after attending the Walk-on-the-Wildside Event. “I like it. It’s intimidating to have to move from such a small campus at TIDE to a full-sized high school like Woodside, but I think I’ll manage. Nothing about the campus itself was unappealing,” Camisa said.
“I’m still angry at the SUHSD school board for their votes and especially reasoning, but I’m willing to move on and start anew at Woodside. There’s no use continuing to be sad about the loss of TIDE, and I know that at a larger high school I’ll get new experiences that TIDE couldn’t give me,” she said.
Alternative Paths
Other students, however, have turned to other options not indicated in the original form. Akhanova chose to attend Design Tech because, similarly to TIDE, it has a smaller school environment.
“I really liked the small school environment [at TIDE]. Everyone at least knows everyone and because most people know each other there’s never really that awkward situation where you have no friends in a class and just sit alone,” Akhanova said. “D-Tech’s environment just seems novel and different from what I would expect at most public schools, which is also one of the reasons I chose TIDE.”
Sophomore Konstantin Edunov’s choice also reflects such sentiments. Edunov intends to join Cañada’s Middle College program, a joint, alternative high school program between the Sequoia Union High School District and Cañada College. It allows high school juniors and seniors to take high school and college classes concurrently on the Cañada campus.
“[TIDE’s] partnership with Foothill [makes] it really easy to take college-level classes while still in high school, so Middle College, which is also small and offers taking almost all classes at Cañada, is hopefully closest to something that would work well for me,” Edunov said. “I had been trying to avoid a large school.”
“TIDE was important because it helped me make the transition into high school and really learn to better communicate with people, so a lot of the reasons its closure upsets me so much is because I worry for the future kids that would’ve needed TIDE that don’t have this option anymore,” Edunov said.
Although students are headed in different directions after TIDE’s closure, many said they are still searching for the close-knit environment that first drew them to the school.
