Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS) made a huge mistake.

According to the 2023-2024 school year calendar, VBCPS will eliminate the last few days of warm beach weather, ultimately negatively affecting students and teachers. 

“This earlier start provides a small head start on courses associated with IB and AP testing,” according to former VBCPS Chief Schools Officer, Dr. Eugene Soltner. 

The VBCPS 2023-2024 school year calendar acknowledges that the first day of school will begin on Monday, Aug. 28, before Labor Day. Historically, school in Virginia Beach has always started after the holiday, which gives students more time to work their jobs and enjoy the last days of their already short summer break. 

The main reason the decision was passed is due to more student exposure to AP material. This is illogical. It would be understandable if prior testing scores were lower, however, that is not the case in Virginia Beach. 

According to usnews.com, which displays how well schools as a whole perform in reading, mathematics and science compared to the district and state average, the majority of Virginia Beach schools including: Ocean Lakes High School, First Colonial High School, Kellam High School, Salem High School, Princess Anne High School, Kempsville High School, Cox High School and Tallwood High School, all score far above district and state averages in these categories. These schools also have high AP participation rates that correlate with high percentages of passing rates. 

“With Virginia Beach being a tourist town, summer ends on Labor Day. Starting school early infringes on everyone who works during the summer season,” said AP English teacher Sarah Burford. 

Summer jobs typically depend on high school and college students. However, college students go back to school in early August; therefore, solely relying on high school students to maintain the job. 

“I’m employed as a beach lifeguard for the summer. All the guards are composed of high school and college students, but the college students go back early and the high school students are left to manage the beach. We work until labor day, but since school is starting early, we will likely be forced to close down the beach early for the first time ever,” said junior Anna Kain-Kuzniewski.

The fact that VBCPS made this decision almost behind the curtain is concerning. Very few students and teachers had any idea about the devastating change until the calendar was released. A good public school system would branch out to all schools prior to the decision. That way, this illogical idea could be eradicated quickly due to input from teachers and students who actually care about summer and tradition.