“If Team wasn’t here, I would have not gone to college.”

Sandra Madanat, a student who graduated from Team in 2006, is one of a large number of vocal opponents to the proposed cancellation of the Team academic program.

“Team pushed me past any boundaries, any limits,” she said.

Despite news of a possible elimination, the program held the first of its three prospective student orientation meetings on Monday. The presentation was cut down to an hour and a half to allow for thirty minutes of discussion regarding the recent news.

Early in the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 25, the home page of the Team website was updated to announce that the first orientation meeting had been cancelled. The news spread quickly, aided by an emailed statement said to be from the TUHSD that announced the supposed closure of Team.

A petition started that evening has gained over 2,400 supporters, and a Facebook group formed at the same time is composed of over 3,200 people as of Monday night.

Team leaders Chuck Ford and Nikole Denton spoke to a crowd of over 130 people on Monday. People stood in the corridors and sat on mats in order to fit in the crowded classroom.

After the main presentation, discussion turned to strategies aimed at combating the proposed closure. Around 60 people stuck around for the strategy meeting, where flyers were distributed that included the District Board of Trustees, Marin County Board of Education, and California Department of Education contact information.

Supporters were urged to attend the next board meeting and to contact relevant officials.

“It seems to me that the superintendent will be recommending to shut the program down,” said one person at the meeting who asked not to be named. “One of the most frustrating things is that they’re not sharing their reasons.”

Sue and Paul Finkle spoke to the crowd about the experiences two of their children had in Team.

“As parents, we need to demand that there be more programs like this,” said Sue Finkle. “There just aren’t other programs like this out there.”

Parents in the room were eager to protest the potential closure.

“I wish that all kids had the opportunity to do this,” said Finkle.

Purported talking points for the upcoming board meeting were passed around the room, which stated that trustees will “consider an administrative recommendation to not offer the Team Program beginning with the 2013-2014 school year.”

The file was provided to the Facebook group by student Nicole Durtschi, who claimed to have received it from an unidentified board member, but the document’s veracity has not been determined.

Concerns said to be stated by the board in the document included difficulty with scalability, a focus on enrichment instead of assistance, and personnel changes.

The document ends by stating that the recommendation “is not a reflection of the quality of experience offered by the Team staff.”

The future of Team will be discussed at the next board meeting, which is open to the public at Redwood in the Kreps Conference Center on Feb. 6 at 7 p.m.