In a pivotal 4-3 vote, school board approved the new 2025-2026 calendar academic school year calendar. On Jan. 23, the board passed a change to the school calendar. The new calendar will start school as early as Aug. 19 and ending school May. 22. Furthermore, the calendar vote was divided along gender lines with the four women, Alison Sherman, Katie Hockert, Beverly Petrie and Annie Porbeni voting yes, and the three men, Pete Kelzenberg, Chris Lauer and Andrew Thelander, voting no.

This calendar will affect 8,290 students and more than 1,000 staff members. Some of the new calendar changes include ending first semester on Dec. 23 this change comes as the current calendar extends first semester through winter break, Second semester will start Jan.12.

In addition, the new calendar implements one mental health day a month for students, and staff will have professional development on those days.

In a survey provided by Stillwater Area School District in 2022, students surveyed in eighth, ninth and eleventh grade shared their experiences. The findings revealed 17% of boys and 38% of girls deal with long-term mental, emotional, or behavioral problems. Additionally, the survey also found  41% to 54% of students often feel sad or hopeless, 59% to 69% feel anxious or nervous, and 43% to 52% have trouble stopping their worrying. Recognizing these changes, the school board implemented a mental health day a month for students. This is crucial for supporting students through their high school journey.

School board chair Alison Sherman described the goal of the calendar is “to help address the increasing student-reported mental health needs identified.”

The new 25-26 calendar will end first semester before winter break. Senior student council member Jenna Phelps who regularly attends school board meetings, explained that she and many other students did not get to relax over winter break. Additionally, while students had three weeks off school, they still had to worry about the end of the semester that ended after winter break in the previous calendar. Phelps also expressed she felt stress over homework assignments, tests scheduled right after winter break, as first semester was quickly closing in.

“I think that ending the semester before winter break would be a really good thing for students. There is so much stress leading into the end of the semester and ending the semester after winter break doesn’t give students the ability to truly relax over winter break. Ending before winter break will allow students to relax and have a long break without having to worry about schoolwork or what their grades look like at the end of the semester,” junior Aidan Uglem added.

The new calendar will end school in May 22; this is eight days sooner than the current calendar. School board members have cited that with school ending before Memorial Day. For students who get summer jobs, school board members also are hopeful students will gain a competitive advantage against kids who are still in school during those eight days. Consequently, students will lose those last five days of summer work at the end of August.

Adjusting to the new calendar, finishing school eight days earlier will not necessarily give students a competitive advantage. Losing a week in May means both employers and students will need to shift their summer plans accordingly, adapting to the change in schedule. It will cause little disruption and getting use to on both ends. explained history teacher Samuel Grimes.

This new calendar will need some getting used to from students to staff, as a new concept always takes time to develop. With the new end of semester one before winter break and ending school before Memorial Day. Furthermore, allowing one day mental health day a month for students.

“I am confident in five years this calendar change will seem like a no brainer.  I’m originally from Milwaukee and know of several private schools who are on this calendar or have recently gone to this calendar.  It’s no secret that starting earlier in August and ending in May has educational benefits to students.  We just have a tradition in Minnesota to start after Labor Day that was codified into law without any educational basis,” school board member Katie Hockert added.