New physical education requirements are putting the squeeze on concert band programs at Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos high schools, but it appears all could be fine at San Marcos High.

Due to the school’s unique “block schedule” – in which classes are 90 minutes long instead of the traditional 50 -- teachers there have crafted a complex scheduling plan that keeps electives such as concert band intact.

The San Marcos plan was approved by the Santa Barbara school board this week, but still needs ultimate approval from the state board of education.

Meanwhile, teachers at the two other schools do not have the luxury of a block schedule, and their band instructors still fear for their programs.

“We could lose all the freshmen,” lamented Les Rose, band instructor at Dos Pueblos High School. “We’ll see.”

Last month, the Santa Barbara school board expanded the P.E. requirements in an effort to comply with state regulations -- which have been under strict enforcement lately in an attempt to address the problem of childhood obesity.

Beginning next school year, students no longer will be allowed to avoid taking P.E. classes all year simply by enrolling in the semester-long marching band. The plan affects mostly freshmen and sophomores, because those are the years in which students typically satisfy their P.E. requirements.

Band teachers believe that the plan could spell doom -- not for their marching bands, which meet during the first half of the year, but the concert bands, which meet during the second. Here’s why: Although students still will receive P.E. credit for marching band, those same students  – starting next year --  must take P.E. during the second semester, thus sacrificing an extra period. This means they will have to drop an elective.

At San Marcos, the plan crafted by the staff is complex, but essentially it involves saving a period by re-jiggering the master schedule for P.E., health and a mandatory freshmen study skills course.

The San Marcos plan will affect hundreds of students, not just those in band. Instead of abiding by the yearslong practice of taking P.E. every day for half of the year,  students at San Marcos next year will take P.E. every other day all year.

San Marcos performing arts teacher David Holmes, who spearheaded an unsuccessful drive to stave off the school board’s P.E. policy, said he is satisfied with the end result at his school.  But he remains concerned about the others.

“I still maintain that the (board members) were badly advised with this issue,” he said. “They opened a can of worms that they didn’t need to open.”

The issue came to light last year, when Assistant Superintendent Jan Zettel told the board that a high-level administrator from the California Department of Education had visited the local district and warned him that its current P.E. policies were out of compliance with the state education code. This, he said, put the district at risk of losing state dollars.

Holmes and other performing arts teachers countered that because the warning was not put into writing, there was no imminent need to abide by it. Plus, they said, the vast majority of districts across the state are technically out of compliance in the same way. They urged the board to do nothing in the short term.

But ultimately, to the chagrin of the performing arts teachers, the board listened to Zettel.

The plan to stop the practice of allowing a full year’s credit in P.E. applies not only to marching band students, but also to cheerleaders and drill team members. Also, it threatens not just concert band, but all electives. But it seemed to be the band instructors who felt the most consternation.

Nobody knows for sure how much havoc the new policy will wreak on the concert band programs at Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos high schools. That depends on which electives the students choose, and which ones they dump. But band instructors do not seem optimistic.

“Think about it – you need a band for graduation,” said Rose, whose concert band includes about 50 members. “You just lost 20 freshmen, and you have 20 seniors graduating. … They could end up with 10 people left playing on graduation. How will that look?”