Contrary to previous procedure, Coupeville School District will start its 2015-16 school year before Labor Day.

School will start Monday, Aug. 31 and end Thursday, June 9.

A committee creating the new calendar found school wouldn’t start until Sept. 8 if it were to wait until after the holiday.

Superintendent Jim Shank said the committee felt that might be pretty late to start and polled 77 staff members on when they’d like to see the school year start and end.

Of the staff polled, 57 percent preferred a starting date of Aug. 31 through Sept. 4 and 43 percent preferred starting Sept. 8.

Staff also preferred the year end earlier in June.