The Santa Barbara Unified School District board will discuss adding a seventh period to Santa Barbara junior high school schedules after teachers have raised concerns about equal access to electives.
Teachers claim students need the additional period to allow multilingual learners and students with Individual Education Programs to participate in art and music electives.
York Shingle, president of the Santa Barbara Teachers Association, explained that English language learners currently have to take a language development class in addition to an English course, which fills up their schedule, making it harder to take electives.
“If they want to take an elective, they either have to come early or stay late,” Shingle said, “which a lot of schools offer, and that’s great, but what that means is it’s dependent on parents being able to get their kids there early or let them stay late, so that becomes kind of an equity issue.”
The SBTA proposed the schedule changes during contract negotiations, but the school district claims that the issue can’t be part of contract negotiations because the issue affects students’ schedules rather than teacher working conditions.
Instead, the issue is set to be discussed at a public school board meeting on Tuesday.
“The district remains fully committed to its legal obligation to negotiate the impacts of any decisions that affect teacher working conditions,” spokesman Ed Zuchelli said in a statement. “If the board approves a schedule change, any effects on working conditions will be negotiated with SBTA.”
The discussion comes as the district is facing a “substantial budget deficit” and is considering reductions.
In recent years, Shingle said they’ve seen a decrease in the amount of electives offered to students. For example, Shingle said there used to be two full-time Spanish teachers at La Colina Junior High, but now there’s only one.
“What we want to do is expand electives so that there are more offerings,” Shingle said. “Students who don’t need support classes could take an extra elective, they could have two so they get to experience a variety of things while they’re in junior high school that can potentially open them up to more possibilities as they move on to high school and beyond.”
If the district did add a seventh period, Shingle said elective teachers would get to offer a variety of classes.
Shingle said he hopes the board is supportive of adding a seventh period and moves the discussion to the bargaining table.
The Santa Barbara Teachers Association is in negotiations for a new contract. The current contract expires on June 30.
The school board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at 720 Santa Barbara St.
Students, teachers and community members can speak about the issue by emailing dist_board@sbunified.org or by speaking in person during public comment.