The first day of school ranks among one of the most important days of the year, and recently that day has been a topic for change.

Traditionally in the US school has started in the first week in September. Overtime this began to change and start dates were moved into both the end of August and mid-September.

In the San Ramon Valley Unified School District the start date for school each year is the 25th of August.

However, recently a new, and frankly brilliant, idea has been brought forward to move the first day of school to mid-August in the SRVUSD.

The chief consequences of this new start day would be having finals the week before Winter Break and the last day of school being in the end of May.

On the face of it this looks like an appealing concept and that is because it is.

The genius behind the concept is that it would relieve all of the stress that one would normally face over Winter Break is removed. Students would no longer have to worry about preparing for finals or other assignments that are due before the end of the semester.

I’m sure any golfer, track athlete, lacrosse player, baseball player, etc. would tell you that the month of December is precious in preparation for Spring Sports. And with the new calendar extra time would be opened up to prepare for these sport.

Furthermore, this extra time that is opened up over break could be spent studying (a frankly outlandish concept) for the next semester or for AP Exams. A survey of a handful teachers showed this was the most desired reason for the new calendar.

This leads into the last yet one of the most important reasons for the new schedule, happy teachers.

The calendar that the district could be switching to is already used in school districts on the Peninsula and in Marin and both districts have experienced incredibly positive feedback from teachers and administrators; and all students know that happy teachers mean happy grades.

With all things considered you would have to be a fool to not vote for the new calendar, maybe it shouldn’t be left up to the district then.