First Day of School is August 3rd, Board Votes For Early School Start

It is going to be back to school early the next two years for Mesa County School District 51 students. The school board made the decision Tuesday night.

According to the Daily Sentinel, school will start this year on August 3rd, and next  year the first day will be August 1st. In 2014, the first day of class was August 4th.

The school board wants to try "early" school for a couple of more years to see if student performance improves. The question, "will student's forget less during a 10-week summer than they would in a 12-week summer?"

I don't have kids in school so, ultimately, it doesn't matter to me personally, but I have to say it seems awfully early to be starting school at the beginning of August, when we still have seven weeks of summer remaining.

One of the recurring themes I heard last year regarding the early start was the challenge of families to get their vacations taken by the start of school. With the school ending the third week of May, it leaves essentially 10 weeks for vacations to be taken.

At first glance, 10 weeks seems like a long time.But, consider the fact that often times in the workplace there are restrictions on when vacations can be taken, and quite often, people can't be gone at the same time as others, so the scheduling of vacations becomes problematic. That is compounded by the relatively short amount of time available during the 'summer' for vacations to get taken before school starts.

With various breaks scheduled throughout the school year, there certainly are other options for vacation time - however, it seems most families prefer to take family vacations in the summer time when the weather is always nice.

But, maybe family vacations aren't all that important. Maybe the most important thing is the kids - and what's best for them. I guess we'll know in a couple of years if an early start to school is what's best for the kids.