The acronym, selected with the help of a branding consultant, stands for Technology, Innovation, Design, and Engineering, indicating the school's curricular focus and its proximity to the San Francisco Bay.

[6][5] Students are selected by random lottery into TIDE, allowing families to come from anywhere within the district's boundaries, including Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Woodside, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, and East Palo Alto.

[8] Students learn in small class sizes and participate in electives including hands-on research and computer science.

A very limited number of sports and extracurricular activities are offered at TIDE, which include a video production class, a coding club, and a school newspaper.

San Carlos residents and community members rallied to save Laureola Park from any development, noting the added congestion a high school would bring, while also noting the irony of the district closing San Carlos High School several decades earlier.

[17] By 2016, the district agreed to withdraw plans for a high school in San Carlos, focusing instead on the Menlo Park site, which ultimately was signed as 150 Jefferson Avenue.

The industrial site, while potentially enabling connections to technology firms in the area, also was noted to lack pedestrian and bicycle access, thereby forcing the use of cars and buses.

[19] Arntz Builders of Petaluma, California, were awarded a bid for $36 million for the campus, designed to accommodate 400 students total.