SUHSD 12/10 Board Meeting 

TIDE Rising Steering Committee Talking Points


TIDE Academy

Agenda Item 12.1



1. Opening
Delivered by Andromeda Garcelon, 11th Grade Parent & TEF President

Good evening Trustees, Superintendent Leach, and community members,

Tonight is not a vote on whether to close TIDE Academy.

However, even discussing the idea of closure causes immediate consequences: enrollment for the coming school year declines, confidence in the district is shaken, and the final decision becomes a foregone conclusion.

The TIDE community has one clear request: Please do not move forward with this process.

We ask this because: 

Tensions are high, and emotions run strong. But we stand ready to work with you—to examine the numbers, explore creative and collaborative solutions, and strengthen trust through transparency. Tonight, we ask you to stop this process before further harm is done. Together, we can chart a better path forward that keeps TIDE open.

2. Disproportionate Spending  
Delivered by Alan Shen, 10th Grade Parent

Hello, I’m Alan Shen, parent of a 10th grader at TIDE.


The Superintendent recently presented that TIDE “disproportionately” spends $39,000 per student, yet recent SARC data from 2023–24 lists $22,000 per student.
If the higher number is correct, how have costs increased 74% in a year?

The data also shows a difference of about $3,000 per student between TIDE and the district average, or just point two-four percent (0.24%) of total district spending.

We need to know what the per-student spend is when adjusted for students with IEPs, English learners, and low-income students. Then we’ll see how disproportionate spending actually is.
 

TIDE may appear to be more expensive, but it also serves a disproportionate share of students with IEPs. This share is over 20% at TIDE, compared with figures as low as 9% at other sites.


Higher costs of educating IEP students don’t disappear if students move; they simply shift to another school.


As parents, we look forward to working together on solutions that serve all students well. 


Thank you.

3. Budget Transparency

Aaron Rubin, 9th Grade Parent

We are really confused by the budget. 

According to the San Mateo County Office of Education’s September 11 letter, our district had no current structural deficit. The financial outlook showed stability, not crisis. 

The structural deficit only emerged after the Board approved the teacher pay raise in early November, then less than a week later, the Board moved to start closure discussions about TIDE. Furthermore, there continue to be $6.5 million of transfers from the operating budget to Funds 14 and 40 which are for maintenance and capital improvements. With over a half a billion dollars authorized by Measure W, we don’t understand why money is being aggressively saved for expenses that are already covered. 

Both of these budgetary anomalies naturally raise questions about whether the full picture has been shared. Will the underserved students of TIDE have to pay for the choices of board? This makes it all the more important that we work collaboratively to identify solutions that both honor commitments to educators and protect the students and communities most impacted by these choices.

4. Fiscal Responsibility
Delivered by Karen Whang or Dan Chang, 10th Grade Parents 

Another important consideration is our collective responsibility for fiscal stewardship. When voters approved Measure A in 2014, they expected the facilities funded by that bond to serve students for decades—not just a few years. The district thoughtfully invested over $50 million of that bond in building TIDE Academy, and while that investment cannot be recouped, taxpayers continue to support it through their property taxes.

Community members did not approve a short-term pilot school; they approved a permanent asset intended to strengthen our district. Closing TIDE now would risk weakening that trust. It would convert a long-term investment into a short-term loss, and it would do so to address what the San Mateo County Office of Education characterizes as a temporary, approximately two-year deficit. Decisions of this magnitude deserve to reflect both immediate fiscal realities and the long-term commitments we have made to our community.

We believe the district and community share the same goal: to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars and to maintain confidence in future bond measures. Keeping faith with the commitments made under Measure A is an important part of that responsibility.

5. At Risk: Neurodiverse Students
Delivered by Luis Diaz, 9th Grade Parent

TIDE was created to give underserved students a real on-ramp to opportunity. Our Career and Technical Education pathways and dual-enrollment partnership with Foothill College are important, but the clearest measure of TIDE’s impact is its 100% graduation rate for students who often face the steepest barriers.

Over time, TIDE has also become a place where many neurodiverse and vulnerable students finally make progress—students with autism, ADHD, anxiety, or processing challenges. They succeed here because the campus is small, predictable, and staffed by adults who know them well. Their families do not choose TIDE for electives; they choose it because their children have struggled to thrive elsewhere.

Moving these students to campuses of 1,800+ students, where support teams are already stretched, raises serious concerns about our ability to meet our federal obligations under disability law. When required services cannot be provided, families may seek private placements—often far more expensive than maintaining supports at TIDE.

Closing a school in a way that disproportionately affects students with disabilities would create legal, financial, and equity risks for the district—and would be felt most by the families with the fewest alternatives.

6. Enrollment
Delivered by Tamar Spektor, 10th Grade Parent

TIDE Academy opened in 2019 with administrative instability, and soon after, COVID disrupted shadowing, outreach, and the chance to build awareness — tough start for a new school growing one grade at a time.

With only three graduating classes so far, families are just now seeing our outcomes, and trust takes time. It was always understood that launching an innovative school would require substantial startup investment, and TIDE is still in its start-up phase.

But the results speak loudly: enrollment has grown two years in a row because parents want a school with 100% graduation rates and opportunities to earn up to 42 college credits. With the highest college and career readiness score in the district, TIDE is on the right trajectory and must be allowed to continue.

Carelessly using the word “closure”, risks undoing that progress.

TIDE Academy is no one’s homeschool. 

Families choose TIDE. 

A strong collaboration with the district, building on this momentum, will serve our students, and the district, best.

7. Equity Outcomes: Hispanic/Latino Students
Jesus Chavez, Student Body President

For many years, students of color, immigrants, and low-income students in our district have faced historic barriers to quality education. In the Sequoia Union High School District, about 41% of students are Hispanic/Latino, and only 42% of graduates with this background complete the full A–G requirements; Asian, White, and Mixed Race students are twice as likely to do so.

By contrast, TIDE Academy serves the most students of color in the district — 83% — and its students from Latino/Hispanic, immigrant, and low-income backgrounds are thriving. With small classes, strong relationships with adults, and a clear focus on college and career readiness, TIDE has achieved a 100% graduation rate for these students, beating district-wide averages and proving that its model works.

Closing TIDE would disproportionately harm the very students public education already struggles to support effectively. 

We respectfully urge the district to end the consideration of closure and allow TIDE to continue providing the outcomes that our most underserved students deserve.

8. Neighborhood
Delivered by Toni Ouradnik, Current and Alumni Parent

Hi, I’m Toni Ouradnik, TIDE parent, East Palo Alto resident.

For decades, redlining and racially restrictive housing policies excluded Black, Hispanic/Latino, and immigrant families from opportunity across the Peninsula, concentrating them in the neighborhoods of Belle Haven, North Fair Oaks, and East Palo Alto. Because property taxes drive school funding, these communities have endured under-resourced schools, fewer advanced classes, and chronic staff shortages. Our district spans some of the wealthiest and most marginalized neighborhoods in the region, and the educational achievement gap between them persists. TIDE actually addresses many of the challenges and it has become one of the few accessible, proven pathways to strong academic outcomes.

Right now, TIDE is helping rebuild trust with families who have waited generations for equitable access to high-quality education. Closing it would not simply shutter a school; it would remove a vital opportunity for students who have faced the steepest obstacles and would risk deepening long-standing inequities. We believe the district shares the goal of expanding opportunity, not narrowing it. Keeping TIDE open is an important step toward fulfilling that commitment for generations to come.

9. Dual Enrollment Policy
Delivered by Camala Umbenhaur

Dual enrollment is no longer a “nice-to-have.” California is moving toward requiring all school districts to offer it. Assembly Bill 1122, introduced in 2025, would require every district to provide dual enrollment through a community college partnership.

Viewed in this context, TIDE isn’t an outlier — it’s a model. Through its long-standing and hard earned partnership with Foothill College, TIDE already offers early college opportunities that save families thousands of dollars and prepare students for postsecondary success.

Closing TIDE, the one school already aligned with emerging state expectations, would require the district to spend time and money rebuilding these programs elsewhere, at greater cost and with no guarantee of matching TIDE’s results.

Maintaining TIDE allows the district to meet future state requirements efficiently while continuing to serve students effectively. Preserving this program is not only strategic; it is an investment in the district’s ability to deliver on its mission and support students’ success.

10. Closing    
Delivered by Marijane Leonard, 10th Grade Parent

I’m Marijane Leonard, parent of a 9th-grader.


Once again, we urge you to pause any discussion of closing TIDE Academy. Even beginning that process can cause real harm to enrollment and community trust.


With TIDE, our district has something that schools across the country wish they could build: a learning environment where underserved populations like students of color, first-generation students, low-income students, and neurodiverse students have remarkable outcomes.


Yet instead of meeting that success with commitment, we find ourselves poised to turn our backs. The tragedy would not just be the loss of a school; it would be the loss of a model of inclusion, a living example of our values.


We respectfully ask the Board to allow TIDE Academy to continue its work. Together, we can ensure it keeps serving the students who need it most.

11. CTE Pathways
Delivered by Ana Salcedo, Parent

No quiero que cierren Tide Academy. 

Esta escuela les ha dado a estudiantes como mi hijo oportunidades que no existen en otras partes: una educación técnica y profesional diseñada especialmente para prepararlos para carreras que son el motor económico del Silicon Valley. 

Tide no es solo un edificio; es una puerta abierta hacia el futuro para jóvenes que, de otra manera, no tendrían acceso a estas experiencias. Por favor, no le quiten a nuestra comunidad la posibilidad de seguir creciendo, aprendiendo y contribuyendo a la economía de nuestra región. 

Mantener Tide Academy abierta es invertir en nuestros hijos, en nuestro barrio y en el futuro de todos nosotros.

Wednesday, December 10, 2025