The 2025-2026 school year’s spring break for Missoula County Public Schools was changed from the original March date to a week in April. A wide variety of opinions on this topic are held within Hellgate High School and across the Missoula community.

As Missoula County Public Schools finalized the 2025-2026 school year calendar way back in February of 2025, the Board of Trustees sent out an email asking students, parents and staff members to fill out a two-question form for input on which spring break date they would prefer; third week of March or the second week of April. Not much information was given about the reason for the change other than the fact that it would no longer line up with the University of Montana’s spring break if changed to April.

According to the MCPS Board meeting minutes from Feb. 11, 2025, posted on the MCPS website, 55% of the 2,326 parents that voted, 77% of the 798 students that voted, and 46% of the 615 staff that voted were in favor of keeping the March date. The smallest voting population was the only group that preferred the April date, and not even by a huge majority. 

Some Trustees wanted to go with the parents’ popular vote, but they ended up switching spring break to the second week of April saying that voters did not have enough context on the reason for the change. This was confusing because not much context was ever publicized of why voters would want the April date.

In the same minutes it was stated that they would return to the topic in the next year’s meeting. However, in the 2026 February meeting minutes, not much discussion was had on the topic and the April date was decided yet again for the 2026-2027 school year. They did state however that a survey will be taken again next year for the 2027-2028 school year to get the communities thoughts after trying out the April date. 

This change is difficult for a number of reasons. For families with MCPS and University of Montana students or staff members, this change was very inconvenient. The University still has the original third week of March date off, and now that the spring break dates no longer align travel plans and time off together gets completely thrown off. 

Also, in the previous school year every month had at least one school day off. But this change left March completely break free, having four weeks straight of five-day weeks on top of the two weeks beforehand. This led to straight five-day weeks for six weeks in a row. This stretch has definitely been felt by all MCPS students and staff members leading to a huge downfall in attendance and productivity in class. I personally feel like all of my classes have been very low in attendance in recent weeks and like a break is long awaited.

It also creates an uneven balance in scheduling between breaks. This year, after winter break there are 13 weeks of school until spring break and after spring break there are only 8.5 weeks until summer break. Last year’s schedule was better balanced with 10 weeks before spring break and 11.5 weeks remaining after spring break. Though this will be nice to have a shorter stretch for the last few weeks before school is out, leaving winter break knowing there wouldn’t be another break for 13 weeks was difficult.

The 13 weeks of school seemed especially long in the months of January through March as this time can be a busy time for many students involved in extracurriculars. Many activities seem to ramp up in these months such as spring sports including baseball, softball, tennis, and track and field. State-wide, or even country-wide events are scheduled during this time including State Basketball, Choir and Band trips, music concerts, BPA State, Speech and Debate tournaments, Robotics tournaments, Theatre plays, and more. A lot of the traveling dates for these extracurriculars seem to fall in March, possibly under the assumption that that is when spring break normally falls. Either way, many students are having to miss more school than in previous years and are having no break to catch back up.

Some reasons for why this change was made could be assumed, though nothing can be blatantly found on the topic. It could have been to align with Easter as spring break directly follows Easter Sunday. Another reason could have been to make the stretch between spring break and summer break slightly shorter. It could also be to better align with the end of the quarter as the third quarter ends the Friday before break.

Opinions in the school vary on this topic. Some love the change while others disagree with the new schedule. 

Personally I prefer the March spring break date as it made the stretch after winter break more bearable and less strenuous. It has felt like we haven’t had a break for a long period with the six straight weeks of five days and I am definitely feeling less productive and focused in my classes because of this. Also with family members attending the University, our spring breaks do not align so we are unable to go on a family trip this spring break. However, it will be nice to have less weeks once spring break is done before we get out for summer, and to have some nicer weather on our week off.

Hellgate Junior Eleanor Billingsley said that she does like the change because it happens in a time of “warmer weather which I really enjoy. I like having time off when it’s sunny.”

“Personally I don’t like it,” said Junior Lucia Cherubini. “I like having it in March because there are no breaks in March”.

“Though I like having an earlier break,” said Junior Exie Clark, “it’ll be nice because it’ll be warmer”.

“I think that it’s an unfair change because it makes us have to stay in school for a longer period of time,” Freshman Maddie Price said. “Also it differs from the University’s spring break which can have a negative effect if you are related to anybody at the University”.

Junior Maria Saenz said that she likes “the awaited break because I think it’ll make people enjoy it more now that we haven’t had a break in a really long time”. She also likes that “it’ll be warmer” during the break, more than it would have been in March.

Though there are mixed opinions on this topic and many families will take some time to adjust to this new schedule, the Missoula community will get another chance to vote in February 2027 after seeing how the April spring break plays out.