At the June 17 school district board meeting, about 100 parents and students were on hand as board members voted unanimously to add a resolution to their July 15 agenda that would rescind the district's six-period cap if a group of parents can raise $200,000 by Aug. 1.

Concerned parents at Leigh High School began a districtwide grass-roots effort to raise the shortfall amount by Aug. 1 in hopes they could keep the cap from being implemented. In early June, district board members verbally agreed not to impose the cap if the parents succeeded.

The community effort went into overdrive shortly after the district announced in March—to the surprise of many parents—that to save money in a moribund economy, it would impose a six-class limit on the number of classes that a student can take in one year. The move sparked an outcry from parents and students who said that the cap would have a devastating effect on high schoolers in the district applying to college.

The six-class limit would force students to reduce the number of electives they could take—making them choose among band, sports and special academic courses—rather than allowing them to take as many classes as they could handle. Parents said seniors argued with the district that it would make students be less competitive when applying for college admissions.

Mary Pagendarm, who will be a senior at Del Mar High School in the fall, said she would be a big loser.

The drum major for the Del Mar High School marching band said she hopes to eventually start a career as a music teacher. She's concerned, however, that band will disappear as more and more students choose to drop band classes because of the cap. If she can't get band, she says, her chances of getting into a competitive music program in college may be threatened.

"They say the cap may affect the smallest number of students, but it'll affect the kinds of students the district wants," she said. "Music students are the highest performing students."

Another student, Leigh High School incoming senior Arundathi Gurujan, told the district at the June 17 meeting that imposing the cap goes against what the district should be about..

"The school board is supposed to give us opportunities," she said. "But what they're doing is taking opportunities away."

Arundathi told board members that she had started a petition drive among students at Leigh, Branham, Prospect and Westmont high schools to show their strong opposition to the six-class cap. She said she received 208 signatures in a single day, which was an indication of how important keeping the option of taking seven classes was to her peers.

By being limited to only six classes in the coming year, she said, she will be unable to take not only an orchestra class, but a class in science research methods, as well.

"The district is looking at their pocketbooks," she said. "They're not looking at the students, which is where their priorities should be."

Some parents also voiced their displeasure with how the school board went about making the decision to impose a cap in the first place.

Susan Berney-Key, secretary of the Westmont High School Parent Teacher Student Association, said she was disappointed that the district hadn't given the community adequate warning that it was going to make a move that had such a big impact. Like many district students and parents, she said she wasn't made aware of the move until it was already too late.

"The board has failed to adequately represent the parents and students in the district on this issue," she told the board members. "And it has failed to do its job in an effective manner."

The district sent out letters to district parents on March 29 that the cap 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. So, many of the parents were surprised to discover later that the six-period cap had indeed appeared as an agendized item at a board meeting on March 4 without board members consulting the district's community.

"After we got the letter, a bunch of us did the research and found that this did come up in a meeting," said Nancy Mandler, president of the Westmont High School band boosters. "But it was buried in the agenda."

Sherry Spangle, president of the Leigh High School Instrumental Music Parents Association and one of the leaders of the grass-roots drive to raise the $200,000, said it is unfortunate that better notice hadn't been made.

"If we knew about this earlier, we could have already raised the money," she said.

Despite the looming August 1 deadline, Mandler and the other parents are optimistic that they will succeed in raising the money, noting that the leaders of the grass-roots movement are involved in band boosters.

"You're looking at a group of people who already know how to raise money," she said.

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 Period—CUHSD, 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.