Sartell Schools Watching Early School Year Start Bill Closely

SARTELL (WJON News) -- Could any area schools start the school year before Labor Day in the future? In February a bill was introduced to the Minnesota House that would allow schools to start their school year before Labor Day.

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Sartell-St.Stephen Schools have already approved their 2025-2026 school calendar but have not set the tentative calendar for 2026-2027 yet. Superintendent Michael Rivard says they purposely did not set the 2026-2027 calendar so the district can see what becomes of the bill. Rivard says the district has had some preliminary discussions about the potential to start the school year earlier in 2026:

"The idea that we would have more flexibility and local control over when we would start our school year is something that sounds like it could be a good thing. I think we would want to take a look at the full calendar for the year before making any decision about whether we would start before Labor Day in 2026."

Rivard says they would want to make sure an earlier start would be good for students and families before making any decision. He says with a later Labor Day in 2026 and 2027 there would be some advantages to starting the school year beforehand.

Up until 1985 schools did start before Labor Day. Rivard says there were some advantages to the earlier start to the school year:

"You know going back to those times there were some real positives about starting earlier. We know that kids are more likely to become engaged at the beginning of the school year versus towards the end of the school year. We do struggle keeping students engaged often when you get to the end of May so starting a little bit earlier could pay some dividends instructionally."

Rivard says the district knows an early start would have a big impact on people's lives so they would be listening closely to their community.

House File 1124, sponsored by Representative Cheryl Youakim of Hopkins/St. Louis Park would let school boards vote to start the 2025-2026 or 2026-2027 school year before Labor Day for two years and then the legislature would have to revisit it.

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