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When the Sequoia Union High School District’s board decided to close TIDE Academy in Menlo Park, members proposed the idea of creating “TIDE at Woodside” as a way to carry on the small STEM-based school’s culture and curriculum. Although it was unclear what that would look like, parents say that now that the new school year is in session, they see little evidence of that plan taking shape.
District officials promised displaced TIDE students and their parents that the transition would be smooth. But parents said that it’s been a bumpy road. Over the past three weeks, students and their families say that late buses, lack of support and communication from the district, and the absence of promised courses have made the transition anything but smooth.
TIDE Academy, a small alternative high school formerly located on Jefferson Drive in Menlo Park, closed in June after graduating its final senior class. Among its remaining 122 students, 26 chose to transfer to Woodside High School. Many others chose to attend Menlo-Atherton or Sequoia high schools.
A week after the board decided to close the alternative STEM-based school in February, TIDE parents were sent an email that outlined ways the school’s unique programs would continue to be offered at Woodside High.
The district promised that TIDE students would stay with their cohorts, that students would be supported emotionally and socially during the transition and that dual enrollment courses offered at TIDE would be accessible at Woodside.
Now that school has officially started, parents said they are seeing what they consider “empty promises.”
Adjusting to a new school
TIDE’s small classroom environment and student population attracted many neurodivergent students. The STEM-based school was able to support students with unique educational needs, according to community members who spoke at public meetings in favor of keeping TIDE open.
District data showed that 22% of TIDE students had Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) and 14% had 504 plans, documents that provide specialized support for students with disabilities. At TIDE, students with learning accommodations had a 100% graduation rate while the Sequoia district’s average rate is 80%.
Transitioning from a school of 200 students to a new campus of nearly 1,700 was an overwhelming move for some students.
In preparation for the first day of school, Toni Ouradnik said she took her daughter to Woodside’s freshman welcome day on Aug. 8, even though she’s a junior. Ouradnik also went with her daughter the day before school started to walk through her schedule, find her classrooms and introduce her to her teachers.
With a child who has a 504 plan and is diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder, Ouradnik said she wanted to make sure her daughter saw some familiar faces on her first day and felt well prepared for a new campus. She added that prior to school starting, TIDE students had no idea which of their former teachers would be at their new schools.
“Asking families to choose their district transfer before they’d even started talking about what a program could be, was intentional,” said Ouradnik. “How do you get people to choose ‘TIDE at Woodside’ when all you have is the phrase ‘TIDE at Woodside?’”
At Woodside, only three rising seniors from TIDE enrolled. Parent Rebecca O’Brien said that despite there only being three seniors, the district did not uphold its promise to keep student cohorts together. Her son does not have any classes with his TIDE peers, she said.
“In senior year, there is no part of ‘TIDE at Woodside’ that exists,” O’Brien added.
During the first days of school, all former TIDE students were invited to participate in a tutorial session with two former TIDE teachers, and about half of them participated in, said public information officer Naomi Hunter. Additional sessions will be offered in the coming weeks, she added.
Tardy on the first day
Prior to the closure, the TIDE community shared concerns about the transportation that would be made available if students were forced to transfer to the district’s other comprehensive high schools in Atherton, Woodside and Redwood City.
“A lot of us (have) considered that we are not going to Woodside for various reasons,” said former TIDE student Max Tsao, during a February district board meeting. “Many of us are worried about the transportation, since going from Menlo Park to Woodside, during rush hour, would take us at least half an hour to 40 minutes.”
According to several parents, some students have to be on the bus to Woodside as early as 6:40 a.m. to catch a ride from the Willows neighborhood in Menlo Park — almost two hours before school starts at 8:30 a.m.
TIDE parents said they received minimal information over the summer and inquired about the bus routes in late July. They did not hear back about the available bus stops until the week before school started, according to Marijane Leonard.
On the first day of school, Leonard’s child took the school bus from the Menlo Park Caltrain station. The bus was 10 minutes late, she said. And on the second day, it was late again, causing her child to be marked tardy.
The bus was taking what Leonard described as “the slowest way” to get from Menlo Park to Woodside via El Camino Real onto Woodside Road.
After two days of tardiness, Leonard suggested that bus drivers take a route along Alameda de las Pulgas instead. Although Leonard’s emails were never acknowledged, the route she suggested was adopted and students have been arriving on time, she said.
“These things add up over time and especially being new to a school, every little detail that gets overlooked causes anxiety and frustration,” said Leonard.
Ouradnik, who also contacted the district in July about transportation options, said she never received a response. She drove her child on the first day of school to help her get settled and after hearing about delays on the bus, she said she was glad she did. Being late is a primary trigger for her child’s anxiety, Ouradnik added.
While issues with the bus appear to be resolved, parents said they are still frustrated by the district’s lack of communication.
Lack of classes, preparation
Emails to parents show multiple occasions where individual board members and district-wide messaging indicated that TIDE’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways and dual enrollment programs would be maintained at Woodside. These programs were crucial offerings that TIDE students said they benefitted from, allowing them to earn college course credits and gain experience in professional skills.
A Feb. 13 email explicitly stated that the computer science, and graphic and interactive design pathways would continue at Woodside High.
But for O’Brien’s son, who was on his way to complete the computer science track in his senior year, the courses he needed were not available at Woodside.
O’Brien started asking in March whether a specific course, Javascript CS22A, would be available through Woodside’s computer science CTE pathway. In May, after multiple emails, O’Brien finally got a response that the course would not be offered, by which point her son had already committed to attending Woodside.
In the spring, TIDE students who enrolled at Woodside met with a Woodside counselor and chose their classes for 2026-27, according to Hunter. She added that many students chose classes other than the TIDE pathways and expressed interest in taking AP classes and other electives not offered at TIDE.
“Continuing the TIDE program at Woodside as it existed previously was simply not feasible with the number of students and the level of demand for the pathways,” said Hunter.
O’Brien said her son will be unable to complete his CTE pathway, for which he would have received a certificate.
“I think him not having a CTE has a real impact on college applications. (Colleges are) really competitive,” O’Brien added.
Parents are disappointed by the difficulties they’ve had with receiving support from the district in what they feel is an unorganized process. For O’Brien’s son, lack of guidance from the district is causing disruptions to his education.
A week before school started, the family was also made aware of a mandatory summer Advanced Placement Calculus packet that had to be completed by the first day of school. He was unable to finish it and is already starting out the year with a failing grade, O’Brien said.
She said she is also concerned about how this rough transition will impact her son’s college application process. Despite completing his physical education requirements through an online course at TIDE, Woodside’s counselors appear to lack her son’s records. As of Aug. 20, the issue has not been resolved, she said.
District officials said the work to incorporate and welcome TIDE students into Woodside is ongoing.
“Staff considers them part of the Woodside community,” said Hunter. “Woodside staff is committed to making each and every student, and their families, feel welcome at Woodside.”
