This Plan Is a Terrible Idea
TUHSD is targeting Tamiscal & San Andreas – the District’s safety net for the highest-need students – instead of cutting in safer, lower-risk places.
Not a Budget Problem. A Pipeline Problem.
Enrollment didn’t “fall” – the District pushed kids away.
- Students were discouraged or threatened away from San Andreas.
- Independent Study referrals were delayed, denied, or never offered.
- Grade inflation and online credit recovery hid who really needed Alt Ed.
Cutting “FTE” Means Cutting Safety & FAPE.
At Alt Ed, FTE = human beings keeping kids alive and on track.
- Fewer adults for crisis response, supervision, and check-ins.
- Less capacity to deliver IEPs, 504 plans, and mental health supports.
- Higher risk of self-harm, drop-out, and failure for the most fragile students.
Comparing Alt Ed to Big Schools Is Nonsense.
One continuation student ≠ one average student.
- Alt Ed students need many more check-ins, smaller classes, and intense support.
- You can raise ratios at big sites without breaking kids; at Alt Ed, you can’t.
- The District is “right-sizing” trauma as if it were algebra.
Alt Ed Already Took Cuts. The District Just Didn’t Say So.
The “no cuts yet” story is simply not true.
- Classes and teachers were already reduced at San Andreas.
- Special education and paraeducator support were cut back.
- Campus supervision and CEC coverage were quietly reduced.
“Co-Location” Is a Closure in Disguise.
They changed the label to dodge the rules.
- Two distinct programs are being crammed onto one site with fewer staff.
- State guidance warns districts not to hide closures behind “co-location.”
- Families lose choice, space, and safety – that’s consolidation.
No Real Impact Study. No Equity Study. No Safety Plan.
The District skipped the basic homework before making the biggest cuts.
- No public equity impact analysis on vulnerable students.
- No published evaluation of FAPE, continuation compliance, or safety impacts.
- Rushed timeline, with decisions largely made before true community input.
There Are Safer Places to Cut. Alt Ed Should Be Last, Not First.
If cuts are truly needed, start with overhead.
- Central office and management layers.
- Consulting and legal contracts that have ballooned over time.
- Non-classroom extras at big schools, not core services at tiny ones.
The Harm Is Predictable – and Avoidable.
This isn’t a surprise risk. It’s a known outcome.
- Fewer adults for the highest-risk kids means more crises and failures.
- Greater exposure to legal complaints and investigations.
- Most importantly: students who only succeed in Alt Ed will have nowhere to go.
Fake Crisis.
Real Damage.
Save Our Alt Schools.
District Proposes Gutting Alternative Education High Schools
On November 5, 2025, the Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) announced a plan to “CO-LOCATE” Tamiscal with San Andreas High School, a cost-cutting move that would effectively shut down Tamiscal’s independent campus to save $1.75 million.
At the November 18 Board meeting, and in more than 100 letters, students, alumni, and faculty from both San Andreas and Tamiscal delivered a clear, unified message: Do not dismantle our schools. The call to keep both programs whole is coming directly from the young people whose futures will be shaped by this decision.
For decades, these small schools have been models of innovation, personalized learning, and deep community connection. TUHSD’s plan threatens to erase that legacy—and the supportive environments thousands of students have relied on.
We’re coming together to protect Tamiscal’s spirit, San An’s independence, and the future of student-centered education in our district.
A Rapid Push With Real Consequences
TUHSD is advancing this proposal with alarming speed:
Nov. 5 – Surprise meeting at Tamiscal, presented as an “information session.”
Nov. 6 – Similar meeting held at San Andreas.
Nov. 18 – District presents its co-location plan at the Board meeting.
Dec. 9 – Targeted date for a final Board vote—before the community has time to fully respond.
URGENT - CALL TO ACTION
Email the Board - Link to Templates
Attend the Dec. 9 Board meeting — speak out against the rushed closure
Join the Coalition — families, students, and community members uniting to protect Tamiscal.
Stand with us. Add your voice. Protect our schools.
This Isn’t Budgeting…It’s Educational Malpractice
Background:
Tamalpais Union District Budget & Impact Reality Check
Key Performance Indicators (2024–2026)
These KPIs come directly from TUHSD budget documents and neighborhood conditions. They show how spending, staffing, facilities, and traffic really intersect — and why cutting or consolidating Tamiscal & San Andreas is a policy choice, not a financial or safety necessity.
TUHSD increases total spending while serving fewer students with fewer teachers — yet chooses to direct the sharpest cuts at Alternative Education.
- Spending: 2024–25 ≈ $117.7M → 2025–26 ≈ $124.8M (+ $7.1M · ~+6%)
- Enrollment: 2024–25 ≈ 4,579 → 2025–26 ≈ 4,322 (–257 students · ~–5.6%)
- Certificated FTE: 2024–25 ≈ 277.6 → 2025–26 = 261.6 (–16.0 FTE · ~–5.8%)
As enrollment declines, TUHSD’s per-student spending continues to rise — evidence that there is fiscal room to protect high-need programs like Tamiscal and San Andreas.
- 2024–25: ≈ $26.8K per student (≈ $117.7M / ~4,393)
- 2025–26: ≈ $28.9K per student (≈ $124.8M / ~4,322)
- Δ per student: ≈ +$2.1K (about +8%)
The district is proposing relatively small percentage cuts overall — but concentrates most of the pain on Tamiscal and San Andreas instead of spreading reductions across the system.
- Total ongoing cuts: $2.2M ≈ 1.8% of ~$124M annual spending
- Alt Ed share of cuts: $1.7M ≈ 77% of all cuts
- Alt Ed share of total budget: under 1.5% of district spending
Less than 2% of the budget is being “saved” — by dismantling programs that serve some of the district’s highest-need students.
Co-locating Tamiscal and San Andreas means removing 9 portables at Tamiscal and preparing a single site for up to 250 students. The district has not provided a transparent, line-item cost estimate for this facilities work.
- Portables: removal, site restoration, and utilities work for 9 classrooms
- Capacity build-out: space, safety, parking, circulation, and support areas for 250 students
- Net effect: TUHSD is committing to new capital spending in order to justify “savings” from cutting Alt Ed staffing.
Any “savings” from operating cuts must be weighed against the (as yet undisclosed) facilities costs of reshuffling and expanding capacity on a single campus.
Moving all Alt Ed students to the San Andreas/Lucky Drive campus concentrates school traffic into a small residential/collector street grid around William Ave, instead of splitting it between Doherty Drive (Tamiscal) and Lucky Drive.
- Student trips: assume ~250 students, ~60% arriving/leaving by car, avg. 1.2 students per car → ≈ 125–150 cars in a tight 20–30 minute window, twice a day.
- Staff & services: +25–35 staff vehicles, visitors, deliveries, and service trips using the same Lucky Dr / William Ave access.
- Net effect: likely queues, more street parking, more turning movements at William Ave, and added conflict with bikes/pedestrians — all concentrated in one neighborhood.
Today, traffic is split between Tamiscal on Doherty Drive and San Andreas on Lucky Drive. Consolidation shifts nearly all Alt Ed trips into the smaller William Ave/Lucky Dr network, without any published traffic study or mitigation plan.
Current Alternative Education enrollment is well below capacity at both schools — meaning there is room to serve more students without dismantling either campus.
- Tamiscal: 120 students enrolled · capacity 150 (30 open seats)
- San Andreas: 31 students enrolled · capacity 70 (39 open seats)
- Total Alt Ed: 151 students · 220 seats (69 open seats)
Tamiscal alone can take 30 more students this year without any construction; San Andreas has room to more than double its current enrollment.
In 2024–25, administrator salaries total about $6.05M, or $1,378 per student. As enrollment falls, admin cost per student rises unless overhead is reduced — yet the deepest cuts are aimed at Alt Ed instead.
Over six years, enrollment drops about 14%, while certificated FTE falls only about 6%. TUHSD deliberately protected classroom staffing — a reasonable choice now being used to justify a “crisis.”
Roughly 85% of TUHSD’s unrestricted budget — about $100M per year — goes to salaries and benefits. Any true “structural fix” must look districtwide, not just at a small Alt Ed program.
TUHSD keeps 5–6× the state-required reserve. Even after projected deficits, reserves never drop below about 15.7%. The “need” to cut programs comes from a local 17% policy line, not from insolvency.
As a Basic Aid district, TUHSD receives about $30.9M more than the state LCFF formula says it needs. Property tax revenues are still growing — there is no external revenue collapse forcing these cuts.
Bottom Line
TUHSD is a high-revenue, high-reserve district with rising per-student spending, declining enrollment, unused Alt Ed capacity, and significant unstudied traffic impacts from consolidation. The district’s own data show that cutting and co-locating Tamiscal and San Andreas is a policy choice — not a financial or safety necessity.
DISTRICT SHENANIGANS
DID YOU KNOW?
CALL TO ACTION
• Protect Student Choice • Preserve Equity • Defend Community Integrity
• Protect Student Choice • Preserve Equity • Defend Community Integrity
Urgent
Call to Action
Protect Student Choice, Equity, and Community Integrity.
A Troublingly Fast Timeline
Dec. 9 — Targeted Board vote for final approval before the community can fully respond…what’s at stake:
Loss of independent study and pathways programs protected under California law
Reduced access and equity for students who rely on Tamiscal’s unique model
Potential misuse of Measure B expectations, voters never approved school closures
Failure to follow required state procedures for repurposing school property
Closing Tamiscal is a policy choice, not a fiscal necessity.
