TIDE Academy has officially closed its doors, ending its six-year run as the Sequoia Union High School District’s only small alternative public school in Menlo Park. Next school year, former TIDE students and teachers will be parting ways as more teachers will be starting fresh at Woodside High School, while the majority of students will enroll at Menlo-Atherton High School.
“No one lost their job,” said SUHSD Public Information Officer Naomi Hunter. This includes all teachers, counselors and classified staff such as paraprofessionals, administrative assistants, food service workers and campus security, she added.
Sequoia’s Board of Trustees voted to close down TIDE Academy in February after a series of public meetings to discuss data on the district’s declining enrollment projections and budget constraints. Despite an outcry from students, parents and teachers opposing the closure, the board cited the need to avoid future layoffs and worsening budget deficits when it made a unanimous decision to close the school this summer.
TIDE’s STEM-based programs will be absorbed into Woodside High School starting next school year. The fate of its $50 million campus on Jefferson Drive, completed months after the school opened in August 2019, has yet to be decided.
While the Class of 2026 was the last to graduate from TIDE, its students in grades 9 through 11 had to provide their first and second choices for schools to transfer to in the fall: East Palo Alto Academy, Menlo-Atherton, Woodside, Sequoia and Carlmont high schools.
The M-A Chronicle student newspaper reported that out of 187 TIDE students, the majority would be transferring to Menlo-Atherton High School. However, it appears that most of TIDE’s teachers won’t be joining their former students in the new school year.
This news organization found that out of TIDE’s 21 teachers, one third have been transferred to Woodside High School, according to the district’s updated campus staff directories for the 2026-27 school year that starts in August.
A comparison of each campus’s updated staff list shows approximately five teachers transferring to both M-A and Carlmont, three to Sequoia and seven to Woodside. One former TIDE teacher did not appear on any of the district’s staff lists.
TIDE’s principal, Simone Rick-Kennel, will become an administrative vice principal at Carlmont High School.
A former TIDE teacher told this news organization in February that staff members were able to tour the other campuses and connect with their colleagues prior to being transferred.
Teachers were able to request which school they would like to transfer to, Associate Superintendent Bonnie Hansen said at the board’s March 4 meeting. Final decisions by the district prioritized student needs and staffing vacancies, she added.
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