The Great Falls Public Schools board voted unanimously to adopt the school calendar for the 2025-2026 school year.

The collective bargaining agreement with the Great Falls Education Association requires that a committee, composed of three teachers, three administrative personnel, three classified personnel and three parents, be appointed by the superintendent to submit recommendation for a proposed school calendar to the superintendent.

The proposed calendars will be presented to teachers by the superintendent for feedback before being presented to the school board, which makes the final decision.

GFPS replacing battery backups

GFPS board policy also requires the school board to set the school calendar.

The calendar committee met Jan. 18, Feb. 8 and Feb. 29 to develop and discuss options for the 2025-2026 school year.

The committee narrowed 13 options down to three for the 2025-2026 school calendar to solicit feedback from staff, students, parents and community members.

The committee considered start and end dates, number of days in quarters, testing dates, athletics and other activity schedules, number of and frequency of holidays/breaks and payroll spacing, among other factors.

GFPS elementary libraries getting remodel through donations

The district opened the calendar options for feedback from Feb. 9-23 and received 1,294 responses. Of those, 40 percent were community members with children in GFPS schools; 27 percent were GFPS staff members with children in GFPS schools; 25 percent were GFPS staff members with no children, four percent were community members with no children and four percent were students, according to Luke Diekhans, GFPS’ human resources director.

The majority of survey respondents, 56 percent, selected option B, which the committee recommended it to the board and was unanimously approved during their March 11 meeting.

Of the remainder of respondents, 11 percent selected option A and 33 percent selected option C.

GFPS hosting info sessions on new CORE School; lottery opens March 26

Diekhans said they received a wide range of comments from wanting to start school earlier or get out later and wanting long holiday and spring breaks.

Kim Skornogoski, board member, said that she’d been on the calendar committee for a few years and that they’ve added more community members and staff.

She said that the number of survey responses was higher this years than past years.

She said it’s an exercise in trying to make as many people happy as possible.

Gordon Johnson, board chair, said that they are often asked how the calendar is constructed and that it’s not random.

There was no public comment on the calendar for the 2025-2026 school year, which is below.