Early yesterday, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Board of Education voted 3-2 in favor of changing the current district calendar. The change will be implemented next year, with classes slated to start Aug. 16 and end May 30. The change will also remain in effect for the 2013-14 academic year.

The decision to alter the academic calendar so that school begins earlier in August materialized after a charged five-hour discussion. While some attendees said the change would disrupt family traditions, others favored the change because it would allow students to wrap up their first academic semester before winter break.

The latter group cited stress-relief as one reason for supporting the change. At Stanford, School of Education senior lecturer Denise Clark Pope was one advocate of the new academic calendar.

— An Le Nguyen