In the 2025-2026 school year, the Missoula County Public School system opted to push back the allotted five days of Spring Break from where it would normally be at the end of March to April 6-10.
Students and staff across the district have questioned why the decision was made to reschedule Spring Break.
The decision was made by the MCPS Board of Trustees on February 11, 2025. In this discussion, board member Trevor Laboski (MCPS Executive Director of Human Resources) discussed that in order to decide between the two options for Spring Break, the board conducted a week-long survey on students, parents, and staff which received 798, 2316, and 615 responses respectively.
Official survey results (which are disclosed in this video) indicated that keeping Spring Break during March was preferential, having 2163 votes compared to April’s 1566 votes. Of the groups surveyed, MCPS staff was the only group to have a lean in votes towards April (with 54% of responders voting in favor of the change).
Multiple concerns were brought up during the discussion, including that of sports (such as baseball and softball) experiencing conflict because a shift in the timing of Spring Break would interfere with practices and games. This concern was effectively nullified by Micah Hill as he explained that the March break would be in the beginning of the practice season regardless.
Another opinion was addressed by an attendee during the time allotted for public comment. He stepped up to the stand and stated that he believes that the board decision should follow the results of the survey. Board member Arlene Walker-Andrews made a similar comment, stating that she felt inclined to follow the interests of the parents “in this particular case”.
Contrary to this, board member Meg Whicher mentioned that when she had questioned parents about the change she had found that many were excited. She explained that the excitement was due to April offering warmer weather as well as breaking up the later months of the year for students and staff.
Following the discussion, Whicher made a motion to move the break to April with a second from member Lisa Davey. This motion led the decision to be finalized that the break be moved to April and officially taking it out of line with the University. The board also stated that they would be open to changing the schedule back to March next year if the decision doesn’t work as intended.
With Spring Break now just around the corner, Sentinel High School students continue to reflect the views in the survey by expressing their confusion and general lack of support for the current change.
Junior student Cloud Deneen claims that she recalls taking the survey when it was sent out, but that it was very vague and only questioned whether to have the break in March or April. This was also a concern mentioned in the board’s discussion by member Jenny Walsh, as many appreciated the poll but were left confused as it lacked any context. Labowski stated that the board decided consciously to leave the survey vague in order to leave it “as neutral as possible”.
Deneen voted in favor of keeping the break in March and claims that she still follows that belief. Her reasoning is that “the wait was long enough already between Spring Break and Winter Break” and the additional time had made school feel “more tedious”.
She has also talked to friends about the change and claims that she doesn’t “…think anyone likes it” and she “doesn’t see any benefits to it”.
Another reason brought up briefly during the meeting is the impact on school sports. Sentinel junior Raychel Doty states that baseball is significantly impacted by the change in schedule. This is because where the teams would normally have practices during the break in March, April’s break is far enough into the season that games have already been scheduled throughout the five days.
The break has also had an impact on teachers. English teacher Goldie Golding claims that she was initially in support of the change in schedule for “selfish reasons” as she hoped for warmer weather and cheaper traveling prices when she would go on vacation. However, Golding agrees with Deneen, saying that there was never a reason provided to staff explaining the change and that the extra two weeks have “[felt] like a lot”.
She also believes that it would be best to align with the University of Montana because it would offer families with students in college or professors with high school students time where they could be together (rather than trying to coordinate differing schedules).
Although Golding doesn’t think there’s any possibility of finding a “perfect schedule”, she agrees that the additional time has felt tedious. She’s also seen the same pressure she’s experienced reflected in the behavior of her students saying that it’s become clear that they “need a break”.
Walsh states that after Spring Break, a survey will be sent out to students and staff in order to see how the new schedule was received. The board will then consider the results of the survey when deciding whether or not it feels necessary to change Spring Break back to March.
It was made clear by the results of the first survey where the student body stands on the topic, and Sentinel students hold high hopes that the break will return to March in the 2026-2027 school year.
