San Diego Unified board members voted Tuesday to change the schedule structure at three more high schools next year.
Madison, Canyon Hills and Mira Mesa high schools will transition to the new 4×4 block schedule for the 2026-27 school year. With this schedule, a student takes four classes per semester for a total of eight per school year, instead of the traditional six classes for an entire year.
San Diego Unified’s Superintendent Fabiola Bagula said this makes time for more electives or college-level courses, as well as more opportunities for students to retake or make up courses to stay on track for graduation.
“High school doesn’t look like high school when I was there,” she said. “There’s a lot of really beautiful opportunities. I’ve seen children graduate from high school, not only with a diploma but with even an AA degree.”
In Robert Lovato’s 10th grade biology class, students on the 4×4 schedule will get an hour and a half, compared to an hour, for labs.
Tenth-grader Leilani Hernandez says she would love to take four classes a semester.
“In high school, you know, we’re cut out to only six per year, but there’s so many other classes,” she said. “And I realized like, ‘Oh, I should have taken that,’ but because of our schedule, it’s so limited. But we get two extra classes.”
Students can even graduate early if they choose. Teachers predict better attendance and better focus if students have less classes to juggle every day.
“I think it’s just a great opportunity for our kids,” Lovato said. “Change is good.”
The board planned to vote on this transition in late September but got pushback from some community members who felt this process was rushed and didn’t have enough research.