Lincoln County School District #2 committee lays out calendar options; staff favors earlier start to preserve Fridays

Lincoln County School District #2 officials and community members spent a public work session reviewing two proposed 2025–26 school calendars and the tradeoffs that determine how many Fridays students get off and whether the district could start after Labor Day or extend the school year into June.

The discussion centered on two committee-built calendar options (called Calendar A and Calendar B), state contact-hour rules and operational constraints including custodial workloads, bus staffing and athletics. Superintendent Rob Erickson told attendees the district would not make “wholesale changes” for the coming school year without more study; nevertheless, the calendar committee recommended Calendar B as the proposed option after a staff survey that favored the earlier start option by a 78%–22% margin.

Why it matters: the choice affects families’ schedules, district payroll for support staff and when maintenance and capital projects can be completed. Facilities and transportation managers said shifting the year into June would compress summer project timelines and worsen staffing shortages, while teachers and some parents argued shorter weeks improve staff and student well-being.

The committee described the two calendars. Calendar A preserves a longer winter break; Calendar B shortens parts of the winter break to “gain more Fridays” during the year. Committee facilitator Jason Horsley told the meeting the calendars were created by laying high-use dates (athletics, music, other events) onto a yearly grid and adjusting professional-development days and school-start dates to maximize Fridays without reducing instructional requirements.

State…