But a group of parents is trying to keep the cap from being implemented because it will restrict the number of electives students take in high school making their college applications less competitive.

"This is a big, big deal for such a small price," says Randy Palermo, co-vice president of the Westmont High School Parent Teacher Student Association. "And there's been a significant backlash to the announcement."

The Campbell Union High School District serves approximately 7,000 students in Boynton Continuation, Branham, Del Mar, Leigh, Prospect and Westmont high schools.

Because district parents fear that this decision would have a severe impact on the ability of their children to compete with others for college admission, a group of them met with the board and district administrators to try to work out an alternative solution to the problem. Under an agreement reached with the district in June, if the group can raise $200,000 by the end of July, the six-class maximum will be rescinded.

The grass-roots effort to save seventh period in the district is being coordinated by parents in the Leigh High School Instrumental Music Parents Association.

Programs like art, music, sports and drama will be affected most, because these electives are usually held during seventh period, said the association's president, Sherry Spangler. Leigh High School is home to an award-winning marching band, so students and parents there are particularly concerned about the cap's effects on extracurricular programs.

But the ramifications of the cap will not be limited to that campus.

"This will have an absolutely devastating affect on all of the district's kids," she said.

"And it couldn't come at a worse time for college-bound kids. The UC and CSU campuses have recently tightened admission requirements to their schools. And many parents are saying their children cannot get in with the minimum requirements."

For the most part, however, said Peluso, chances of getting into college will not be affected much, as the number of electives that the universities consider in the application process is not significant.

"Participation in these programs isn't what the universities generally base their decision on," he said. "The UC and CSU campuses only require one fine arts class for admission."

San José State University admissions director John Loerra agrees, to a point.

"Most art, drama, band and sports programs aren't really considered that much in most college admissions at CSU and UC schools," he said, drawing a distinction between them and college-prep electives like art history and economics. "But when applicants are looking at getting into impacted schools or programs, the universities do look at what the students have done to improve themselves holistically."

Parents are also concerned about how universities view the overall child, so fundraising organizers are going ahead with their efforts, and they are well aware that their time is limited. But they say the time crunch for requesting donations was unavoidable because they received the news so suddenly.

The district sent out letters to district parents on March 29 that the decision had been made. At a May 17 school board meeting, the parents complained that the district solicited no public input on what is a critical matter to all of them.

Palermo was surprised at how little warning the district gave the parents.

"I went back to look at the school-board minutes and I never saw anything that said seventh period will be cancelled," Palermo said.

"If they told us about the situation when they were first thinking about it, we could have already have raised the money," Spangler added. "But there was no warning. It came out of the blue."

Nonetheless, organizers are confident they will raise the necessary funds on time. They are distributing fliers within the community requesting help and donations of at least $50 per district family.

"I think most parents will help out," Spangler said. "We calculated it out, and found that to reach our goal, it comes to only about $27 a kid. The problem is really just getting the word out."

Roberta Zarea, a parent volunteer and secretary for the Leigh High School Instrumental Music Parents Association, said that the organization believes it will meet and even exceed its goal. And should that happen, Zarea said, the group plans to establish a foundation for the extra funds "for a rainy day in case something like this happens again."

To make a tax-deductible donation, write a check to: "CUHSD" and write "For 7th period" on the memo line. Send the check to Save 7th Period­CUHSD, P.O. Box 7108, San Jose, CA 95150. For more information or to volunteer, send email to savecuhsd@yahoo.com or visit the website at http://www.save7thperiodcuhsd.energetic.com.

Borders Bookstore at Oakridge Shopping Center will be donating 15 percent of its sales on July 4 to the save-seventh- period effort.