On February 4, 2026, all five trustees of the Sequoia Union High School District voted unanimously to close TIDE Academy at the end of the 2025 to 2026 school year. This page lays out how the decision was made, why it was made, what Measure A actually funded, and what the public process looked like.
How TIDE Academy began
TIDE Academy was conceived during a period of projected enrollment growth in the Sequoia Union High School District. The board at the time (none of the current trustees or the current superintendent were in place) placed a bond authorization on the ballot, and voters approved it.
TIDE was designed as an innovative small school: 400 students total, with 300 on site and 100 seniors taking dual-enrollment courses at Foothill College. The dual-enrollment partnership with Foothill was central to the design. TIDE opened in Fall 2019.
What Measure A funded
Voters approved Measure A, a bond authorization that gave the district the ability to issue bonds for facilities investments. The board at the time chose to use part of that authorization to fund capacity expansion at every existing district high school, the purchase of two parcels of land, and the construction of the TIDE Academy building on one of those parcels. The other parcel has not been developed.
A note on how school district funding works. Bond funds are for buildings, land, and other one-time capital investments. They cannot be used to pay teacher salaries or other ongoing operating costs. The cost of operating a school, which is mostly salaries and benefits, is funded separately from the district’s operating revenue. A bond authorization does not commit a district to operate any particular school for any particular length of time.
TIDE Academy was a response to a capacity problem the prior board faced and that no longer exists. At the time the bond was approved, the district faced projected enrollment growth and the prior board could not see a path to expanding the existing sites sufficiently. I do not fault the people in those seats at the time for attempting something innovative to address the problem they faced.
The capacity issue did not materialize as projected. District enrollment is now lower than it was at the peak, and is projected to continue declining. TIDE never came close to its 400-student design. The dual-enrollment piece of the original design never operated at scale. After several years of declining enrollment, the current board faced a different question: whether to keep operating an under-enrolled school whose original model had not worked. Doing nothing was not an option, and after considering the alternatives, all five trustees voted to close TIDE at the end of the 2025 to 2026 school year.
The TIDE building remains a district asset.
What went wrong
When the first cohort of TIDE students reached their senior year, two things had happened. Total TIDE enrollment was under 300, so all students fit on site. The off-campus piece of the original design was not needed. And Foothill College, like most of California, was not offering in-person classes due to COVID. The dual-enrollment with Foothill model that defined TIDE never operated at scale.
TIDE’s enrollment never reached its 400-student target. The school peaked at 242 students in 2022 to 2023, about 60 percent of design capacity, and has been declining since. At the time of the board’s vote to close, enrollment was 199.
A school designed for 400 students operating with roughly 200 means low class sizes, under-utilized resources at an under-enrolled school, and resources drawn away from students at the district’s other schools.
Why a high school needs roughly 400 students
High schools are staffed differently from elementary schools. In a K-8 setting, a single credentialed teacher can teach multiple subjects to one class all day. In high school, every academic subject must be taught by a teacher holding a specific subject credential: English, math, biology, chemistry, physics, social science, world languages, fine arts, physical education, career and technical education, special education, English language development.
Every student must complete a coherent program of study: California state graduation requirements, the district’s graduation requirements, and the A-G course sequence that makes a student eligible for UC and CSU admission. The district’s commitment is that every student can complete A-G, which means the courses required for A-G must be offered at every comprehensive site, taught by appropriately credentialed teachers.
The district funds master schedule sections at a ratio of 27.5 students per full-time teacher. Below a certain enrollment, a school cannot fund the breadth of credentialed teachers needed to deliver this without running very small sections. TIDE was operating with 19 teachers for 199 students, far above the funding-formula allotment of about 7. With that many teachers spread across that small an enrollment, some classes had a single-digit number of students, some as low as 5. At its size and trajectory, the school had become structurally unsustainable.
How the closure decision was made
The closure of TIDE Academy followed a months-long, fully public process.
In September 2025, the board agreed that Marybeth Thompson and I would serve on a Superintendent’s committee to examine district property and enrollment trends. We reported back to the full board on November 12, 2025 and recommended that the superintendent develop a plan to evaluate TIDE’s future, including possible closure.
Between December 2025 and February 2026, the district held five public board meetings, two community meetings, and four Q and A sessions (two for staff, two for parents), plus ongoing input channels including emails, an input form, a meeting with TIDE ELAC parents, and the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council. More than 100 students, parents, and teachers gave public testimony across these meetings.
On January 26, 2026, the board held a Study Session structured around the most-asked community questions. The 125-page presentation covered support plans for students with 504 plans and IEPs, dual-enrollment outcomes, academic outcomes by demographic group, the master schedule funding formula, the district’s financial picture, transportation, and the alternatives staff had explored.
The board considered five options: do nothing, rightsize staffing ratios (not feasible given high school credentialing requirements and the range of courses students need), phase out the school over three years, close at the end of 2025 to 2026, or move the program to another site.
On February 4, 2026, the board voted 5 to 0 to close TIDE Academy at the end of the 2025 to 2026 school year. All five trustees voted yes. All board members support this decision.
All deliberations on the closure were held in open session, as legally required for school closures under California Education Code.
What happened for TIDE students
TIDE students made their school selections and were placed for the 2026 to 2027 school year. Carlmont, which is full and accepts only students who live within its boundary area, was not available to most TIDE students. The other district high schools (Woodside, Menlo-Atherton, Sequoia, and East Palo Alto Academy) were available choices. Former TIDE students are now at the schools they chose.