La Cumbre Junior High and Santa Barbara Community Academy to Share One Principal

Staffing changes in the Santa Barbara Unified School District are worrying parents. But the district insists that declining enrollment is to blame.

Assistant principals have been removed at three elementary schools: Washington, Roosevelt, and Adams. 

Additionally, just one principal will be running both La Cumbre Junior High and Santa Barbara Community Academy (SBCA), an elementary school that shares a campus with La Cumbre in Santa Barbara. 

Parents at the last school board meeting, and in letters to the Independent, spoke against the changes. They were advocating for a full-time principal for SBCA and against staff reductions and higher class sizes at elementary schools that they say could jeopardize their children’s education.

“We are concerned that there is a years-long pattern of the district maintaining high paid and superfluous positions at the district level while cutting the most valuable resources for students, currently centering on class size and teacher numbers,” said Washington Elementary parents in a letter to the Independent. “We respectfully request that the Board of Education evaluate alternative fiscal strategies that prioritize student outcomes and maintain staff continuity.”

On May 19, the school board voted to have one principal, La Cumbre principal Bradley Brock, oversee both La Cumbre and SBCA. Suzette McCormick, the current SBCA principal, plans to retire after this school year.

However, SBCA will gain an assistant principal to assist in curriculum and supervision, according to the district. SBCA’s enrollment is expected to drop by 40 students next year, from 208 to only 171.

SBCA is a small school “but it truly is mighty,” said Carla Alvarado, a parent of two daughters at SBCA, at the May 19 meeting. Other parents joined her to say the school feels like a “second home,” and urged the board to reconsider the decision that they say will destabilize the campus. 

“We all want equity and educational rights for our children,” said Araceli Hernandez, who said she has been a mom at SBCA for a decade, where she’s seen multiple principal and staff changes over the years. “We feel like this is going to affect our children even more.”

Some worried about the school’s test scores, which they say are already low. 

In the 2024-25 school year, only 32.58 percent of SBCA students met or exceeded standards in English, and only 25 percent met or exceeded standards in math, based on data from the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress.

Santa Barbara Teachers Association president York Shingle also spoke, saying that “the SBCA and La Cumbre thing is not great.” He thanked the board for hiring an assistant principal at SBCA, “but what support are you giving La Cumbre?” he asked. He suggested that having one principal running two school sites would not work. The schools are also high-need, with larger populations of socioeconomically disadvantaged students. 

Although La Cumbre has the second-lowest enrollment of the district’s junior highs — with a projected 459 students next year — community members also expressed concern that it is already understaffed compared to other junior highs in the district. 

“We need to stop treating our community and our staff this way,” Shingle said.

District leaders explained that school staffing shifts each year depending on enrollment. Student numbers have declined significantly in recent years — losing more than 2,400 students (17 percent) over the last 10 years. 

Chief Operating Officer Steve Venz said next year’s projected enrollment is even lower. 

Only 11,446 students are enrolled for next year, a major drop from the 12,573 students in 2021-22.

It’s affecting school sites and grade levels across the board. 

That does not necessarily mean layoffs, however. Teachers are being transferred to other schools, or retiring without a replacement.

Washington, for example, recently lost three teachers this year due to declining enrollment, who either moved to a different school or retired. But while parents were concerned about increasing class sizes, the district confirmed that class size caps are still in place as outlined in teachers’ contracts. Washington is projected to have the third lowest class size of all elementary schools.

Enrollment affects not only staffing but also budget decisions. While the district is community-funded — based on local property taxes — it does receive some state and federal funding based on the number of heads in the classroom (mainly used for special education). 

Right now, the district is facing a $6.5 million budget deficit and $6.2 million in projected cuts. 

In addition to eliminating three assistant principals and other staff positions, two teachers received layoff notices: a teacher of vision-impaired students and a teacher of deaf and hard-of-hearing students. While, in March, the district originally identified 66 positions to potentially be reduced or eliminated, retirements helped bring the number down, said Venz. 

Eliminating some assistant principals was “an overall budget strategy,” said Sonia Wilson, the district’s assistant superintendent of educational services.

In terms of SBCA and La Cumbre, she said,  “We felt, and with direction from the board, it would be fiscally appropriate to utilize a single principal across both school sites … due to declining enrollment and the shift that happened between last year and this year.”

Why the continued drop in enrollment? Venz pointed to two main reasons: declining birth rates and increasing costs of living. Fewer people are having babies, and more people are leaving the area due to affordability. 

“They’re not all going to private school,” which is the case in other parts of California, Venz said. “They’re leaving the area.”

Student numbers still could fluctuate before the next school year begins, Wilson said, “so we’re monitoring enrollment closely.” A long-term decision about SBCA’s future is expected in the winter and could entail combining SBCA and La Cumbre to create a TK-8 school or keeping a single principal for both schools.