Billings Schools To Adopt Shorter Year With Longer Days In 2025

Billings School District Two is adopting a shorter school year with longer school days starting in 2025. This change will reduce the school year to 173 days, with school starting 10 minutes earlier and ending 10 minutes later.

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Billings School District Two is set to implement a new school calendar starting in the 2025-2026 school year. The change will result in a shorter school year with longer school days.

The school board voted to reduce the school year from 180 days to 173 days. All grades from kindergarten to 12th grade will begin their school day 10 minutes earlier and end 10 minutes later. This adjustment will allow the school year to end in late May instead of mid-June.

Kyra Gaskill, Executive Director of Elementary Education for the Billings Public School District, explained the benefits of the new calendar. “The new calendar also gives us extra days to do teacher training and it also gives us time to do admin training where we are really focusing on the piece of instruction and how we improve student learning and instruction,” she said.

The extended school days will help the district meet accreditation requirements despite the shorter school year. Gaskill noted that 81% of the Billings Education Association, the educators’ union in the district, supports the calendar change. “I believe there is a director correlation between having quality educators and retaining those educators and training them so that retention and recruitment is to me a direct correlation to student achievement,” she added.

Gaskill emphasized the importance of parental input in such decisions and encouraged parents to attend public meetings to share their feedback. Those unable to attend can reach out to their child’s principal or the superintendent. More information on upcoming SD-2 meetings and events can be found on the district website, billingsschools.org.

Courtney Munson, a Billings mother of three, shared her positive outlook on the new schedule. “Since I do work from home, my kids are in a daycare setting, they come home while I’m finishing my day. When they don’t have school, I’m dropping them off at the hour-by-hour daycare center or trying to manage work, meetings, and trying to manage three kids, and it’s a lot more chaotic. Whereas summer may be a little longer, but I’ll be able to plan for summer camps,” she said.

Munson also mentioned that the shorter spring break, which will be three days instead of a full week, is a manageable trade-off. “From my perspective I appreciate the change because my kids are actually all IEP Special Needs kids so that consistent schedule of not having random days off is really beneficial,” she stated.

School district officials are optimistic about the change, believing it will aid in teacher recruitment and retention. The calendar change is currently set as a trial for the next school year.