By: Erica Walker
 LEESBURG, VA-Traditionally, Loudon County Public Schools would open on the Tuesday after Labor Day. However, the school board suggested that public schools should start one week in advance so that students would have more time to prepare for the SOL tests.
            In the previous school year, when the news about school starting in the end of August as opposed to it starting in the beginning of September, students were shocked and didn’t understand why the sudden variation of the school schedule had happened. However, senior Rachel Austin looked on the bright side of the change. She stated, “I wasn’t upset about school starting early because it means we get to start summer early.” Last year as a freshman, Olivia Corso said that people would be upset about this change at first, but they won’t mind after a while. Now, she claims she wasn’t thrilled about summer being shortened this year, “but I’m glad that we’ll be starting earlier from now on, because it means we’ll be ending earlier, too!”
            Students will be released from school on June 8^th this year, giving them a 3-4 month summer. However, they have to get through the school year first.