On Monday, Jan. 26, the Sequoia Union High School District (SUHSD) Board of Trustees held a special board meeting, or study session, at 6 p.m. in Sequoia High School’s Carrington Hall. The meeting marked the final scheduled session to discuss the district’s proposal in Nov. of last year to close TIDE Academy, a public high school in eastern Menlo Park. TIDE is the district’s newest school, opening in 2019, and was built using $50 million in Measure A bond funds as a STEM-focused campus.
Building on the data presented at previous community meetings on Jan. 13 and 15, the session focused on several key themes, including impacts on students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and 504 plans, SUHSD finances, master scheduling and staffing ratios, districtwide enrollment trends and TIDE’s academic programs, enrollment, and demographics.
During the meeting, the district cited a lack of diversity at TIDE, pointing to its 58% male student population compared to the districtwide average of 53%. However, TIDE Academy also has the district’s third-largest percentage of Hispanic/LatinX students, after Redwood and East Palo Alto high schools, at approximately 80%. Additionally, 84% of TIDE’s student population identifies as people of color. TIDE also serves the largest proportion of special education students in the district, with 22% of students having an IEP and 16.92% having a 504 plan.
“The student population TIDE serves underscores exactly why this school matters…These are the students the district is choosing to displace,” TIDE Academy Parents and Families said in a statement.
xSUHSD also cited a projected $6 million budget cut as a reason for closure, noting that the district spends thousands more per student at TIDE than at other campuses. In response, TIDE parents and families argue in their Jan 26. statement that, due to the district’s funding structure, TIDE’s program costs remain largely the same whether the school enrolls 100 students or 300 students.
“Closing TIDE does not meaningfully reduce costs under the district’s community-funded model,” TIDE Academy Parents and Families said.
According to parents and families, the district’s model instead allows for the reassignment of TIDE’s teachers to other district positions, reducing future hiring needs, as well as the potential leasing of TIDE’s newly constructed $50 million campus.
“Although the district claims to have no plan for the building, to date, the district has not demonstrates—with numbers—how closing TIDE alone closes the deficit without leasing the campus,” TIDE Academy Parents and Families said.
The district also pointed to declining enrollment at TIDE as justification for closure. However, TIDE principal Simone Rick-Kennel said at the meeting that enrollment declines are largely driven by uncertainty surrounding the school’s future, which has caused families to withdraw or avoid enrolling. Furthermore, a demographic study conducted by King Consulting shows districtwide enrollment has steadily declined since the 2021-22 school year, not just at TIDE.
Additionally, the district stated that services provided through IEPs and 504 plans are comparable across larger schools in the district, including Sequoia High School. District officials said the support TIDE Academy students receive are not dependent on school size; they are embedded in districtwide systems that are often more robustly accessible at comprehensive, larger sites.
Rick-Kennel countered this claim, drawing on her experience working at both Menlo-Atherton High School (MA) and TIDE. While MA offers programs such as the Peace & Wellness Space to support student mental health, she said TIDE’s smaller size allows for greater flexibility in implementing accommodations and individualized support.
In response, members of the Board of Trustees emphasized that under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), schools are legally required to provide equal access to special education services regardless of size.
“This assertion directly contradicts the lived experiences of TIDE students and families and dismisses the very reasons they sought out a school like TIDE in the first place,” TIDE Academy Parents and Families said. “For families whose children were harmed, overwhelmed, or left behind in traditional settings, this narrative feels like gaslighting.”
Throughout the meeting, students and families held posters and wore t-shirts reading “Keep it 100 for TIDE”, urging the district to pursue more eq
uitable, district-wide solutions. They also called on SUHSD to honor their commitments made to voters who supported the creation of TIDE as a smaller, alternative learning environment for those who did not thrive in large schools.
Closing it now, they argued, not only breaks that promise but risks recreating the same harms TIDE was designed to address.
“This is a message many TIDE students, especially its many neurodivergent students, have heard their entire lives—that they simply do not fit,” TIDE Academy Parents and Families said.
The district’s final recommendation regarding the proposed closure will be presented to the Board of Trustees for a vote Feb. 4 by superintendent Crystal Leach.