A seventh period is coming to junior high schools in the Santa Barbara Unified School District — but not until the 2027-2028 school year.
The Board of Trustees voted 5-0 Tuesday night to create the seven-period schedule at junior high schools, but only after back-and-forth wrangling and a major push by board member Celeste Kafri to make the jump immediately, with the start of the upcoming school year.
“We have so much momentum here,” Kafri said. “The whole board supports a seven-period day. I would say, ‘Let’s rip the Band-Aid off and do it.’ “
The Santa Barbara Teachers Association also wanted the seven-period schedule to begin with the upcoming school year. But board President Bill Banning quashed the idea.
“There are too many moving parts to do this next year,” Banning said. “The last thing we want to do is do this wrong.”
Currently with a six-period schedule, students who aren’t fluent in English or who have an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, must take a support class, which often eliminates their chance of taking an elective, such as music, theater or art.
By creating a formal seven-period day, all students would have the option to choose from a wider selection of elective courses, not just those offered during zero period.
The district has four junior high schools: Santa Barbara, La Cumbre, La Colina and Goleta Valley. Three of those campuses offer a zero period, but the options for those electives are scant and vary from campus to campus. La Cumbre Junior High does not offer a zero period but does offer a seventh period for musical theater.
Following a meeting on Feb. 10, the district released a survey to families across all junior high schools to measure their view of adding a seventh period. The survey received the most support from families of students at, or entering, La Cumbre and Santa Barbara junior high schools. Those two schools also have the highest rate of families requesting transfers out of and into a different junior high school.
La Cumbre Junior High supported the proposal, with 69.6% of survey respondents in favor, while about 66.9% from Santa Barbara Junior High supported adding a seventh period.
Among respondents for Goleta Valley and La Colina junior high schools, less than half supported a seventh period, with 49.2% at Goleta Valley and 47.5% at La Colina in favor of the addition.
Overall, about 54% of families who took the survey supported a seventh period, 30% opposed it and 16% were neutral.
The district staff presented two options Tuesday night: one to start the plan only at Santa Barbara and La Cumbre junior high schools in 2026, and another proposal to start at all four schools in 2027.
Principals from La Cumbre and Santa Barbara junior high schools preferred to wait until all schools would add the extra hour of teaching at the same time.
“I do not want to solve one inequity by creating another one,” Santa Barbara Junior High School Principal Daniel DuPont said Tuesday night. “I feel like waiting until 2027-28 to do this is the way we all do it right. I am convinced we only have one chance to do this and I want to do it right.”
The principals were concerned that two schools would have longer days than the other junior highs if the program weren’t rolled out at all schools at the same time.
“I do think we have to do it right, and I think there is strength in numbers, especially what we have learned from our cellphone implementation policy that we are stronger together,” La Cumbre Principal Bradley Brock said.
It’s been 19 years since local junior high schools have had a seventh period, Brock said, and waiting one more year to implement the new program will allow for the most success.
The district eliminated a seventh period for schools nearly two decades ago because of budget cuts. It is unclear how much adding a new seventh period will cost the district, but preliminary estimates suggest it could mean adding 13 teacher positions across the four schools.
Brock said waiting a year will allow the district to plan better.
“That will give us a much longer runway for us to really take all of these factors and really make sure we are tending to them and doing it the right way,” he said.
Although Kafri initially wanted to start the seven-period option right away, she ended up supporting its implementation in 2027. Board members Gabe Escobedo, Sunita Beall and Rose Munoz were initially in support of starting the initiative at only two of the area’s junior highs next year until Banning suggested waiting until the program could be rolled out at all four.
“For me, the risk is just too high to say we can do that at a couple of schools,” Banning said. “I think we are walking into a buzzsaw if we say we can do this.”
