On Wednesday night, the school board approved a traditional instructional calendar for the 2014-15 school year and postponed a decision on the 2015-16 calendar.

They narrowed the choices to four options: early starts for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years in which first-semester finals would be before winter break; continuing the current “traditional” calendar with school starting in late August and finals in January for both 2014-15 and 2015-16; a hybrid with a traditional start for 2014-15 and an early start for 2015-16; or starting after Labor Day in 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Every teacher in the district had the opportunity to vote for which calendar they preferred, and the calendar with early starts for 2014-15 and 2015-16 had the most votes, with 48.3 percent, economics teacher Gabrielle Kashani said.

However, for a calendar to reach the school board for approval, it must have a 50 percent plus one votes. Thus, there was a run-off between the calendars with early starts for both years and the traditional starts for both years. The calendar with traditional start times won.

“It was very close. It won by less than ten votes,” social studies teacher Alli Cota said.

The school board adopted the traditional start for next year, but they tabled their vote on the 2015-16 calendar for further discussion in January.

On October 4, vice principal Anne Dolid emailed all students a survey about their preferences for the instructional calendars.

“I did not feel like I was consulted during the decision making process, but I sure wish I was,” sophomore Mika Lee said.

Lee said that she would prefer starting school after Labor Day because there would be more time between winter break and finals week.

However, sophomore Maria Rogers said that she wants a schedule in which finals are before winter break.

“I feel like [the traditional start for 2014-15] is kind of annoying because they made such a big deal about [the early start] and got all our hopes up,” Rogers said.

Kashani said that the community voiced their opinions about the calendars through informal conversations and public comment at school board meetings.

At the school board meeting last Wednesday, four seniors spoke, all in favor of moving finals to before winter break.

Freshman Annika Heuser said that she agrees with the proposition to move finals to before winter break.

“I feel like it would be wonderful due to the fact that [currently] you’re stressed during winter break.”

Note: The headline was changed on November 21, 2013 from “PUSD approves an ‘early start’ for the 2014-15 instructional calendar” to “PUSD approves a traditional start for the 2014-15 instructional calendar” for factual purposes.