A new school year means new friends, new teachers, and, at some Santa Barbara schools, new principals. 

This year, Santa Barbara Junior High, Santa Barbara Community Academy, and Harding University Partnership School all welcomed new principals from either outside the district or from other schools within the district.

Coming from Kern High School District, Valarie Labrentz is taking over for Dan Dupont, who was the principal at Santa Barbara Junior High for four years. 

Labrentz is no stranger to Santa Barbara, as her husband grew up in town and attended UC Santa Barbara, so they would regularly come visit family in town. When she saw that there was a position open for a new principal at Santa Barbara Junior High, she jumped at the opportunity to throw her hat in the ring.

“I’m so excited to be here. This school is amazing,” Labrentz said. “I am so blessed and so lucky to have such an amazing group of teachers. They are really here for the kids.”

After 10 years of working at the high school level, Labrentz said she’s excited to work with junior high students and has already had conversations with administrators at Santa Barbara High School about how they can work together.

“I’m so excited to be in this junior high realm and getting to know that I get to start that impact before they get to high school,” Labrentz said. “I’ve been on the other side of it, so I know what they need when they’re going to get there. So just trying to really help our kids transition well when they go to high school.”

Before students go off to high school, Labrentz said she wants them to have good organization and social emotional skills.

“Junior high is tough, but high school is really tough,” Labrentz said. “And you know you’re going to face some real adult-type issues, and it’s really important that they learn how to cope with those now as they start to transition into high school.”

Academically, Labrentz said they want to focus on improving math scores, as well as supporting emergent multilingual learners.

She’s also focusing on changing behavior, reminding students to be self aware, think of others, and to soar, just like the school mascot, the California condors. 

“We want our students to be self-aware,” Labrentz said. “We want them to be other-centered, focusing on accountability and being resilient. So that is a language that we are really infusing in everything across our campus.”

Bradley Brock at Community Academy

Santa Barbara Community Academy also has a new, but perhaps familiar principal. Bradley Brock is now overseeing both La Cumbre Junior High and Santa Barbara Community Academy, which share the campus at 850 Portesuello Ave. in Santa Barbara.

“It feels like a natural transition,” Brock said. “The Community Academy and La Cumbre have been co-located for many years, and it’s an opportunity for me to really bring these communities together — students, families, teachers — and we’re really looking forward to this year.”

Brock is taking over for Suzette McCormick, who retired at the end of last school year after leading Santa Barbara Community Academy for four years.

Due to declining enrollment at the school, the district decided to have Brock oversee both campuses. Later this fall the district will be exploring what to do about the Community Academy’s future. 

Potential options include operating both schools with one principal, combining the two schools into one school, or merging Santa Barbara Community Academy with another elementary school, according to the district.

While enrollment numbers are not yet finalized for this school year, Brock said Community Academy’s enrollment has gone up and they are seeing major improvements in test scores. 

“The academy is really having a glow-up moment right now when it comes to their academic outcomes,” Brock said. “I think it’s proof positive of all the work that the teachers have done collaboratively to really put students first here.”

Brock has been the principal at La Cumbre since 2019, replacing Jo Ann Caines, who died in June 2018. Before coming to Santa Barbara, he was an administrator at the Irving STEAM Magnet Middle School in Los Angeles.

Gabriel Sandoval Moves From Cleveland to Harding

For the first time in 12 years, Harding University Partnership School has a new principal. Gabriel Sandoval joins the campus after previously serving as the principal at Cleveland Elementary School for 11 years. 

Sandoval said Superintendent Hilda Maldonado asked him to move over to Harding and take over for Veronica Binkley, who retired at the end of last school year. 

“It was an honor to come over and be selected to come to a new place,” Sandoval said. “I am missing my family at Cleveland, and that’s been the hardest part, but I know now I have a second family.”

As two district principals, Sandoval said he and Binkley had regular conversations and shared academic philosophies and strategies.

“It was surprisingly similar on how we’ve been handling our elementary schools, as I’ve seen it in practice so far,” Sandoval said.

Going forward, Sandoval said he wants to focus on family engagement, and a sense of belonging for students, staff and families. 

When it comes to academics, Sandoval said he wants to look at how specific subgroups of students are performing.

“Understanding who is benefiting from the systems we have and who is not,” Sandoval said. “And how do we then go and support those subgroups, so that we make sure we are having more achievement and success with all students.”

He has been in the district even longer than his Cleveland tenure; Sandoval was the assistant principal at Santa Barbara High School from 2012-2015.