The District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to close TIDE Academy on Feb. 4, with current students recommended to transfer to Woodside High School starting in the 2026-27 school year. However, students are given the option to choose where they want to transfer, and many visited different schools to help make their decision. TIDE’s closure raised uncertainty about the future of TIDE teachers, many of whom expressed concern about their positions. The District and principal have since emphasized that no teachers will lose their jobs and all will be offered positions elsewhere in the District.
When hit with the initial news regarding the closure, many teachers were confused. “When I received the news, I was with my journalism class in the JEA conference in Nashville. We had just landed, we were so excited,” TIDE teacher Joanne Yao said. “What should have been a moment of focusing on my students’ potential and growth became a moment where we were trying to understand why they would close our school.”
Teachers also felt sad about the community, courses, and friendships they had built. “This has unfortunately impacted the mental health of many of the people who work here. Personally, I feel that all the hard work I put in to build a strong program over the past six years was trashed. It’s like watching a building you helped build brick by brick get demolished and amount to nothing,” TIDE teacher Daphne Pacia-McCann said. “How can I trust now that anything I pour my effort into in the future will matter moving forward? The answer is that I can’t.”
“I do feel sad for everything we have worked for to make TIDE what it is today,” TIDE teacher Parmveer Masuta said. “I worked hard to have a new art classroom and start new classes at TIDE Academy, such as Yearbook class, Digital Photography, and Art II.”
“The special thing about TIDE is that I’ve never been in a department that has accepted me for all my awkwardness and all my craziness. Usually, students do that, but I have trouble navigating the politics of adult friendships and relationships. I feel fully accepted, and ideas are fully accepted at times. So in that way, I’m mourning the community here,” Yao said.
Yao added how the TIDE staff shared unique and close bonds. “People don’t leave our staff. We don’t have a big turnover. People come here, and they stay,” she said.
Teachers also had concerns about their students’ well-being and future. “[Students] feel safe at TIDE, and some of them have reached out to me about not wanting to go to a different school because they are afraid of being invisible to others, while others are afraid that they may get bullied,” Masuta said.
“TIDE was able to create a sense of safety that’s rare in big schools,” Pacia-McCann said. “Because everyone at TIDE knows each other, that pressure you feel to be cool or maintain an image isn’t really there, so people were allowed to truly be themselves without worry.”
Pacia-McCann emphasized the inclusive environment and special learning experience that TIDE provided. “How many schools do you know where everyone is making flower bouquets, stress bottles, or singing school-wide karaoke? How many schools do you know where someone might be lying down in the grass and staring at the sky, only for one of your administrators to join you?” she said.
To help staff through the difficult transition, the District has provided numerous mental health resources. “The District actually hired someone to help staff work in teams to do a wellness challenge,” TIDE principal Simone Rick-Kennel said.
“The day after the board meeting, when the news was delivered that they’d be closing TIDE, we had a club fair. We brought in an ice cream truck. The District was here to support,” Rick-Kennel added.
“The principal has been really supportive. The TIDE administration wants to keep us in the loop,” Yao said.
The SUHSD Human Resources Department also came to speak with staff about their job and future standings. “They have been here meeting with teachers to work on their next placements beyond TIDE,” Rick-Kennel said.
The District has consistently emphasized a promise to keep current TIDE teachers employed. “No teachers are losing their jobs as a result of TIDE closing,” Superintendent Bonnie Hansen said. “They will be absorbed into openings left by retirements and resignations. If we have to overstaff next year to complete the absorption, we will.”
“All staff have been told they will have a job next year in the District,” Rick-Kennel said.
Despite the reassurance, many teachers feel uncertain about what the future holds for their jobs. “There is still a lot of uncertainty when it comes to my job standings and where I will be next year,” Masuta said.
“I haven’t put my hopes into teaching at any specific school, because I’m not sure that hope will be honored,” Yao said. “I actually have no idea about how much control I’ll have in the process.”
“I have worked at large schools before, but TIDE Academy was and still is my dream school. This is the school I will think about even when I retire someday,” Pacia-McCann said. “The members of the English team at TIDE have mutually decided we will never find something like what we have ever again.”
Through their concern, teachers have carried on and embraced their last few months on campus. “The staff has been pretty resilient, because at the end of the day, they’re still teaching their courses,” Rick-Kennel said.
“I know that this is maybe optimistic, but I know that no matter where I go, I’ll probably be happy teaching there,” Yao said.
