The calendar for the next school year was approved by the Bigfork School Board last week, with the first day of school set for Aug. 31. 

The board was required to approve the 2026-2027 calendar by April, according to Superintendent Tom Stack, who explained the calendar options at their Feb. 11 meeting. He said in addition to the deadline requirement set by the teacher’s union Master Agreement, they want to start setting the calendar earlier to better accommodate their new attendance policy.  

Passed by the board last fall, the attendance policy lowers the number of days a student can miss across the board — with K-5 grades allowing seven absences per semester and 6-12 grades allowing 10 absences per semester. The previous policy allowed up to 15 days per semester for elementary and middle school students, and 10 for high school.    

“Down the road, I’m thinking we start adopting the calendars two years at a time,” Stack said. “As early as October, we had parents calling and asking for the calendar for next year. I think that’s mostly based off of our new attendance policy and them trying to get in front of it, which I think is a really good thing.” 

The three calendar options differentiated by how many school days were included in the year, with calendar A having 178 days, calendar B having 179 days and calendar C having 180 days. 

Calendar A has the first day of school Aug. 31 and the last day for students June 4, with a teachers’ workday scheduled for Feb. 15.  

Calendar B starts and ends for students on those same dates, but pushes the teachers’ workday to June 7.  

Calendar C starts on Aug. 31, but ends on June 8, with the teachers’ workday happening on June 9.  

All calendar options included Thanksgiving break from Nov. 25-27, Christmas break spanning from Dec. 23 to Jan. 1, a spring break from March 22-26, two days off in October for the Montana Educators Association (classified as a workday for teachers.) All calendars have Memorial Day and Labor Day off, as well.  

Stack noted that though many teachers and school staff want to see the year start after Labor Day, it’s going to fall later than usual, making it impossible for the school year to end any earlier than the second week of June.  

Vice Chair Julie Kreiman was hesitant to no longer offer President’s Day or Martin Luther King Jr. Day as days off for the students, since that was part of their current calendar. Trustee Deb Woods also expressed doubts about the first week of Christmas break starting on Dec. 23. She asked how many students would be tempted to take the entire week off, since the break starts on a Wednesday.  

Following discussion, trustees identified calendar B as the most acceptable option presented, as it got closer to the goal of 180 school days a year while ending the first week of June, rather than the second week.  

Trustee Ben Woods made a motion to accept calendar B for the upcoming school year, which was seconded by Trustee Mac Kirk. The motion passed with Board Chair Paul Sandry, Trustee Dan Elwell, Trustee Carol Field, Kirk and Woods voting in favor. Kreiman and Johnson voted against the motion. 

The following are the full dates for Bigfork School’s 2026-2027 calendar: 

Aug. 25-27 - Teacher In-Service Days 

Aug. 31 - First Day of School - Release at 1:30 p.m. 

Sept. 7- Labor Day 

Oct. 15-16 - MEA Convention (no school) 

Oct. 30 – teacher workday (no school) - Parent Teacher Conference 

November - End of Quarter 

Nov. 25-27 - Thanksgiving Break December - End of 1st Trimester 

Dec. 23-Jan. 1-Christmas Break 

January - End of 1st Semester 

March - End of 2nd Trimester 

March 22-26 - Spring Break 

April - End of 3rd Quarter 

May 24 - Memorial Day 

May 29 - High School Graduation 

June 2 - 8th Grade Graduation 

June 4 - Last Day of School – Release at 1:30 p.m. 

June 7 – teacher workday 

Reporter Taylor Inman may be reached at 758-4440 or [email protected].