BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
Teachers, parents and students of TIDE, a tech-focused magnet school in Menlo Park, yelled their frustrations of the possible closure to the Sequoia Union High School board.
Parent Olga Yushina was one of the dozens of parents at Wednesday’s board meeting who started talking back to the board after board member Rich Ginn explained why the board is considering closing TIDE. TIDE is a magnet school and the acronym stands for Technology, Innovation, Design and Engineering.
During a board meeting on Nov. 12, it was reported that enrollment, program offerings and the health of the Sequoia district. At that meeting, the board discussed the disproportionate amount of money TIDE needs to stay open.
A subcommittee found that approximately was $39,000 spent per student at TIDE compared to $22,467 in other high schools, according to Superintendent Crystal Leach.
The board did not make a decision Wednesday but discussed options on how to move forward. The district will look into a deeper into these figures in January, according to Leach.
Yushina said the board should use data that is available to the public for transparency. She said she felt the board was not actually listening to parents.
“You guys didn’t answer us. You’re ignoring us, and now you’re just straight lying to our faces with numbers that don’t exist. And you call this transparency?” Yushina said before other parents started yelling and the board went on a five minute break.
Before the break, parents started yelling “stop lying” at the board.
School board member Sathvik Nori said the board should reevaluate its budget to keep the school open. The board will hold community meetings on Jan. 13 and 15 to hear from students, parents and school employees. The district will also make a page on its website to answer frequently asked questions about the proposed closure.
TIDE, located at 150 Jefferson Drive in Menlo Park, was opened in 2019 as a magnet school with a tech focus. The district spent $9.33 million in 2014 to buy the site that can host about 400 students.
Then-Superintendent Jim Liandes told the Post at the time that the site was chosen because it met the district’s requirement for a small site in the southern portion of the school district, which spans from Belmont to East Palo Alto.
The district has four comprehensive high schools, Menlo-Atherton, Carlmont, Sequoia and Woodside. Aside from TIDE it has two other small campuses, East Palo Alto Academy and Redwood.
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SUHSD approved two charter schools of <400 enrollment in 2025, for five years. TIDE cost $60m to build and was funded by taxpayers to build an intentionally small campus. Students may still apply to attend TIDE until February 1st. Take a closer look at the TIDE community, and see if Dual Enrollment credits are worth applying for an Interdistrict Transfer.
This story should include context for how parents ended up yelling at the board. Prior to that moment, TIDE community members had spent an hour giving 1-minute remarks during public comment. These included student experiences and facts about enrollment and programs at this public school that is a paragon of success (100% graduation rate!) for students of color, low-income students, and neurodiverse students. Board members and the superintendent continue to misstate facts about TIDE, and it is impossible not to be frustrated when the process to vote on closure is moving with lightning speed. A decision of this magnitude should not be made based on bad information!