Should School Start AFTER Labor Day in Southern Utah?

For many students in Southern Utah, Labor Day is a breath of fresh air from the chaos that comes at the beginning of the school year.

However, since I was a wee lad, I’ve always wondered why school in Southern Utah started before Labor Day, rather than after.

Don’t get me wrong, I always LOVED Labor Day (especially because it’s so close to my birthday), but a good chunk of schools in Utah will have their first week of school and then BAM…Labor Day.

It’s a question that I would hear a lot about during college. I remember having professors who were frustrated with the schedule because whenever they would give syllabuses out, the students would immediately forget it because of Labor Day.

Some of my professors would avoid giving info-heavy lectures until after Labor Day for that exact same reason.

If schools throughout Utah were to start classes after Labor Day, the missing days of the calendar would go toward the end of the year, classes ending at the beginning of June rather than the end of May.

This would work WONDERS in Southern Utah. Why? Because the weather would cool down before kids got onto school buses with less-than-ideal air conditioning.

Recess would become far more enjoyable in the beginning of the year.

P.E. wouldn’t be a heat-stroke-ridden nightmare like it was when I was a kid, and more kids will want to stay physically active throughout the school year.

One of the hottest months in Southern Utah is August, and I can’t tell you how many times I saw kids get sent home due to heat stroke at the beginning of school.

This is absolutely a first-world problem at its finest, but a change like that may be just the thing for such an arid place like Southern Utah.