Woodside High School opened its campus to current TIDE students on Saturday, providing information and resources about the campus and student life. This event followed the Board’s recent decision to close TIDE Academy and transfer current students to Woodside for the 2026-27 school year by default. On March 3, over 70 TIDE students will tour M-A.
Woodside’s Leadership students and teachers welcomed families near the football field with refreshments and snacks next to a sign-in table. Students, accompanied by their families, toured the campus and engaged with Woodside’s students and teachers to learn about the school.
“Woodside has a lot to offer that I think people don’t know about. We will go inside a bunch of different classrooms and meet with teachers so that they can ask questions,” junior Leadership student and tour guide Elle Mueller said.
The 45-minute tour, led by Leadership students, started at Bradley Field before heading to the Performing Arts Center (PAC). In the PAC, they showed the current sets for the upcoming Spring musical and mentioned other performing arts opportunities.
TIDE parent Sherman Tsai, who attended the tour, was disappointed about the closure of TIDE but optimistic about future choices. “We are where we are, and we have to move forward and figure out what we’re going to do next,” he said. “The tour is pretty impressive, and I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve seen so far.”
Guides then led attendees through multiple classrooms in the I-Wing, which house programs including band, music recording and production, and film. Teachers in these rooms gave brief tours and introductions to the electives, while providing parents and students opportunities to ask questions and see student-created media.
“I think it’s great that we’re opening our doors this weekend just to welcome in families and students who want to see the school for themselves. I think it is important to see it for yourself and not just listen to all the outside noise,” film and broadcasting teacher Joshua DeBets said.
“The transition is obviously going to be tough for the students and the teachers,” he said. “For us at Woodside, we’re just going to try and embrace everyone with open arms.”
Next, the tour stopped by the K-Wing, where attendees visited Woodside’s engineering and robotics classrooms as well as a chemistry lab. The tour then made its way to the gym, pool, and fitness center. Tour guides mentioned Woodside’s 47 sports teams, many of which have had recent achievements in Central Coast Section competition.
Next, the guides led families through different resource rooms like the library and the mental health and wellness center. They also introduced Woodside’s language department, which offers Mandarin, French, Latin, and Spanish.
The tour ended outside of the multi-use room, which is mostly used as a cafeteria during lunch and brunch. Principal Karen Van Putten came to welcome the group in and answer lingering questions.
Once inside, there were many tables set up by different campus departments, such as English, math, and theater. Students and parents mingled and spoke with teachers about various programs and resources. There were also snacks, like wraps and cookies, made by Woodside’s culinary art students.
One of the biggest differences between TIDE and Woodside that Tsai noticed was the size and resources of the schools. “Because of the size of Woodside, you have the ability to offer more choices for the students. But, along with that, you also have a lot more students to deal with,” he said.
TIDE sophomore Audrey Primuth is interested in Woodside because his IEP case manager and graphic design teachers are planning to transfer there. They also like how it is one of the smaller high schools in the district.
“The cutoff date for enrollment in private and charter schools was about to pass or already had when the board made the decision, so the District kind of forced the TIDE kids to either go here or to whatever their default school is,” Primuth said. “The tour definitely helped me get to know Woodside better, because I actually get to see the campus and compare it to M-A a lot better.”
As a TIDE parent, I really appreciated the time and energy put in by the Woodside staff and students. They are doing their very best to make something work.
And. There was no mention of how or where the TIDE students would be cohorted or how the transition of a tight knit, VERY inclusive community would happen in ways that truly recognize the deep challenges of navigating almost 10 times the student body and a vastly larger campus.
Were the elective options impressive? Yes. Was everyone kind and welcoming? Yes. But when my child with a 504 plan for anxiety can literally just chat with the wellness center director in the hallway in passing at TIDE rather than needing to get a pass and walk across campus to find a wellness center that serves exponentially more students, it makes an immediate, sustaining difference in her ability to learn.
TIDE was shut down without a thought given to alternatives and the district is throwing their mistake at Woodside to fix. We appreciate that staff on the ground always try to do what’s right for the kids, and also know that none of this needed to happen if not for the negligence and desire for expediency from the district.