Many former TIDE Academy (TIDE) students transferred to Woodside High School with the expectation of continued Career Technical Education (CTE) courses, special cohorting of former TIDE students, and extra support on the transition. However, some students and families argue that many of these promises went unfulfilled.
“TIDE families were skeptical that the district would keep its word, but it’s worse than we thought in many ways,” parent Jason Primuth said.
The District Board of Trustees voted to close TIDE on Feb. 4, with students originally intended to transfer to Woodside High School beginning in the 2026-27 school year. While 46 of the 187 students planned to attend the default school, Woodside, only 26 are currently enrolled, according to the District’s Public Information Officer, Naomi Hunter.
“All the promises were simply window dressing and performative to make the community think they were doing the best for students and deflate counterarguments at the time of TIDE closing that students would lose out,” parent Rebecca O’Brien said. “Literally all verifiable lies.”
Cohorts
At a Board meeting on March 25, Woodside Principal Karen Van Putten mentioned using a cohort plan to integrate TIDE students into Woodside. TIDE Principal Simone Kennel explained that Woodside planned to cohort five to six classes just for TIDE freshmen and sophomores.
Later, when TIDE students were sent an Intra-District Transfer Request form with options to select the school they wanted to move to, there was no option to select TIDE at Woodside, as some parents expected. Parents reached out to the District to request that the phrasing be changed.
Despite confirmation that the cohorts would remain, many students were disappointed that they were not what they expected. While TIDE students were under the impression that they would be cohorted with other TIDE students, they were instead integrated into cohorts with other Woodside students.
“We did try to cohort students, but not all together, so there was enough of an opportunity to create belonging with the Woodside community,” Woodside Co-Head Counselor Francisco Negri said. “Counselors are periodically reaching out to check in with our students to offer any support in the transition.”
“Many chose classes other than the TIDE pathways, expressing interest in taking many of the AP classes and other electives not offered at TIDE,” Hunter said. “Continuing the TIDE program at Woodside as it existed previously was simply not feasible with the number of students and the level of demand for the pathways.”
“It’s annoying that no one told us that cohorts and some of our classes were not going to happen,” Woodside sophomore and former TIDE student Ty Leonard said. “We had to find that out while dealing with the first days of school on a new campus. The school knew in the summer. It seems like they could have at least sent an email.”
“[My son] is one of three TIDE seniors at Woodside,” O’Brien said. “There is no cohort. If you miss a class or miss notes, the expectation is [that] you reach out to a friend in class. Being new to a school, how on earth would you know who to reach out to?”
TIDE families have communicated their frustrations about the cohorting with the District during Board meetings.
Continuation of CTEs
O’Brien’s child was scheduled to complete their third year of computer science dual enrollment through Foothill College, which was set to result in a certificate in mobile app design. Upon transferring to Woodside, there was no option to complete this CTE, despite the Board claiming it would be available.
“The two TIDE pathways (Computer Science and Graphic & Interactive Design) will continue at Woodside High School,” an email from the District and principals as TIDE was closing read. The email also stated that students would have access to the current dual enrollment college courses offered at TIDE. This was confirmed by Van Putten during the March 25 Board meeting.
Woodside ended up adding the students interested in Graphic and Interactive Design into the Woodside Graphic Technology Academy, adopting the GID curriculum into the program. “All students that were interested in continuing the pathway were able to do so,” Negri said.
Computer Science was not added. “We only had one student that wanted to continue the pathway from TIDE. The TIDE teacher ended up going to a different site,” Negri said.
Woodside staff advised the student to take either AP Computer Science Principles or AP Computer Science A (Java), both of which were already established at Woodside.
“The only suggestion was to look at other CTEs offered at Woodside. A CTE takes two to three years, and as a senior, that is clearly not possible,” O’Brien said.
Some argued that the communication of this to staff has also been unclear. “At the Woodside Back to School Night, the Woodside teachers were not aware that the TIDE students were not being offered continuation of their CTE,” O’Brien said.
“I do not have access to Spanish 3 dual enrollment. I would have had that at TIDE,” Leonard said. “I am in the Graphics and Technology Academy, but I didn’t know this until my parents found out at Back to School Night when one of the teachers mentioned it was an academy class and they said, ‘What’s an academy class?’” The Graphics and Technology Academy is a specialized learning program at Woodside that cohorts students focusing on career pathways in arts and technology.
Other Difficulties with the Transition
According to Primuth, Woodside students are generally provided a laptop during their freshman year, but many TIDE students did not receive one upon transferring. “Parents tracked down someone in the IT group, and we’re able to get a few laptops for TIDE students. Others just brought their own,” Primuth said.
Leonard experienced this firsthand. “There was a student at the table, and they were confused why I was a sophomore asking for a computer. They told me to just use my home computer,” he said.
“The first few weeks have been rocky,” O’Brien said, and mentioned that there have been multiple errors in her child’s transcript and ability to complete work. For example, he wasn’t notified about a summer reading assignment and therefore didn’t complete it.
Despite many people struggling, not all students have had issues. “It’s honestly been pretty calm due to me being very talkative. I’ve never had an issue with transitions,” Woodside junior and former TIDE student Mariafernanda Lozano said. “It’s a very calm school if you stay out of drama and focus on yourself and continue to have a good mindset during school.”
“I feel Woodside teachers and counselors are working hard, but Woodside is at maximum enrollment in many years, and I feel they’re overwhelmed,” O’Brien said. “They too were blindsided.”
This is a clear example of why the removal of TIDE Academy was a horrible decision.
Well, it’s just not true that only one student from TIDE wanted the computer science. We wanted that too- and didn’t get it. I guess technically as a sophomore we hadn’t started yet so we weren’t continuing. Nor did we get any notification in advance about that. We didn’t get a functioning Chromebook either- the very surprised IT person who we rushed to see when we declined to “bring our own” gave us a broken Chromebook that had to be replaced. The transition was handled poorly. Mr Negri clearly did not understand the TIDE community and why trying to cohort them together would have been a huge benefit for their mental well being, offering support during a difficult transition.
Yes – cohorting the TIDE students was exactly what we wanted and asked for. Why change it without speaking to any of the families involved?
Also, still wondering where all of TIDE’s tech ended up – certainly not with our kids!
I also wanted to add a note- some might wonder what Woodside could have done differently with the CTE pathways. Particularly for an upperclassman, what should have been done was
1) reach out to student and family as soon as it was known the CTE classes were not going to happen, in the summer, to let them know
2) review their options with them, incongruous a description of concurrent enrollment and how that differs from dual enrollment, and how to pursue that if they still want the CTE certificate. They could even have provided support
3) give the student and family time and a new opportunity to select classes (instead of being shoehorned into ap computer science and notified of that when they received their schedule the day before school started)
I also wanted to add that as far as I know, “checking in with students and offering support during the transition” meant tbere was one flex class a couple weeks after school began where tide students were invited to gather, and there was one administrator who stuck their head in the door during that class and asked if everything was going okay and then kept walking. That’s not really up to the standard of what I would have expected for checking in and offering support IMHO.
Thank you for investigating and calling out just a few of the ways the district has misled and neglected our TIDE families and children.
I would add to this that the district chose to reject the already-existing interdistrict transfers of TIDE students coming from other districts. These kids not only had their school shut down in the blink of an eye, but were then evicted from the district. My child expected to see a friend at Woodside this fall, only to find out that the friend was denied the opportunity to stay with their community. Every promise made by the district has been a lie.