Flagstaff Unified approves 2025-26 calendar, shifts secondary schools to later start times

The Flagstaff Unified School District Governing Board on Tuesday approved the 2025-26 school calendar, adopting a schedule that will shift middle and high school start times later and move elementary start and release times earlier beginning in August 2025.

Superintendent Kurt Penza said the change grew from committee work, research and community input and is intended to give the district a lever to address adolescent sleep and mental-health concerns. "If this change results in students being better rested, benefiting their physical and mental health, as the research seems to show, this change does have my support," Penza said.

The calendar committee and the district's negotiations committee recommended the schedule (identified in meeting materials as Calendar C) after…