La Cumbre Junior High School Principal Jo Ann Caines passed away Wednesday, the school district said. Caines, pictured in 2015, worked as principal since 2005. 
Jo Ann Caines, right, poses with PEAC program students and administrators. 
Jo Ann Caines, center, and other Santa Barbara Unified School District adminstrators attend the 2015 Santa Barbara Education Foundation Hope Awards.
Longtime La Cumbre Junior High School Principal Jo Ann Caines died Wednesday, a day before the school’s eighth-grade graduation ceremony, according to the school district.
Caines, who has worked at the Santa Barbara Unified School District since 1987, was instrumental in the junior high school’s turnaround since taking on the principal position in 2005.
She will be missed by those who worked with her and “the thousands of lives she transformed throughout the community,” district spokeswoman Lauren Bianchi Klemann said in a statement Thursday.
“She was widely admired for having a heart that was bigger than life.”
In a 2015 Noozhawk interview, Caines talked about her travels that lead her all over the world and back to Santa Barbara, where she worked tirelessly to make schools better for her students.
Caines, a Santa Barbara native, graduated from Peabody, Santa Barbara Junior and Santa Barbara High schools.
She had a passion for linguistics and languages in her early years, and took a break from her UCLA studies to teach English in Spain and travel Europe.
She finished her degrees at UCLA, met her husband, and they moved to the Virgin Islands to start a family.
Caines earned her master’s degree in education and they moved back to Santa Barbara, where she began working at La Cumbre as an English as a second language teacher.
She served as the Adams Elementary School principal for 10 years and went back to La Cumbre as principal in 2005.
She is recognized for her “unwavering, transformative leadership that raised educational opportunities for every child,” Bianchi Klemann said.
“Those who worked with her described her as a courageous leader who was a tireless advocate for justice and education of all students. She set a high standard for educational leadership and was recognized as an icon of the Westside.”
Caines started the PEAC program (Program for Effective Access to College) which encourages high school students to take higher-level courses and apply to college.
“Jo Ann Caines is the reason I ran for school board in the first place, and I owe her a bottomless debt of gratitude for so much that has happened in my life,” Santa Barbara school board member Kate Parker said in a statement.
“The biggest beneficiaries of her passion and dedication have been her family and the children of the Westside. My heart goes out to her family. And for the families of the Westside who have lost such a tremendous advocate and champion for children, please know that her mission was our mission, and we will all make sure that her legacy lives on.”
Memorial services were pending.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.