In late February, the 2025-26 Shaler Area School District school calendar was approved. The framework of the calendar remains similar to previous years, with some changes coming as well.
The early mock ups for the school calendar began around the time of Thanksgiving break.
“(We) start at Thanksgiving. And some people probably like, ‘What?’ Why are you thinking about next year?’ It’s only November,” Superintendent Dr. Bryan O’Black said.
The 2026-26 school year is set to start on Tuesday, August 19 two days earlier than this year’s start date. There are plenty of students and even staff members that aren’t thrilled about the start date.
Teachers have to start the year earlier than students. The first day for all teachers is August 13, six days prior to the first day for all students. In a survey done by The Oracle, 79.3% of the 53 Shaler Area High School teachers who responded believe that the 2025-26 school year starts too early. Out of that 79.3%, 30.2% percent of teachers voted that the start date is “way too early” and 58.5% of respondents said they would rather “start later in August and finish the year in early June”.
Starting the school year early is a trade off that has to be made in order for seniors to graduate in late May. The last day of school for all students is May 29, 2026. The last day coming on the 29th is largely due to the fact that students at Shaler Area traditionally graduate on a Friday. 
“There are some traditions that are worth keeping, and that seems to be one that the community really, really likes. It also gives us Saturday and Sunday as makeup days for graduation in the event that we had to cancel because of weather. We don’t have a venue that we can move inside. None of our auditoriums are big enough to hold the event,” Dr. O’Black said.
While seniors have been able to graduate on a Friday for years, the school calendar has not always started as early as next year’s. The 2019-20 school year had the first day for students August 28 with graduation on Friday June 5.
Many of the comments about the calendar suggested that a simple shift to a week later would be ideal. Teachers would start on August 20 and the first day for students would be August 26. Graduation would then be Friday June 5.
Another concern of many teachers who responded had to deal with midterms. The early start to the year means the end of the first semester will occur January 9, a week students return from two weeks off over Winter Break.
“The early start makes the timing of first semester exams problematic, and the early (end of the) year creates an absolute crunch for Keystones, senior finals, AP tests, etc,” one of the respondents said.
But there are some aspects of the calendar that have been well received. Teachers almost unanimously had high praise for the length of winter break.
Winter break starts on December 19, 2025 with an early dismissal. The break spans from Friday, December 19 through Friday, January 2, 2026. With the last day of break coming on a Friday, it also gives the students and faculty the weekend following break off. Winter break will be a total of 17 days.
Spring break also seems to be a highlight of the calendar for most. Spring begins March 30, 2026 and goes through April 3, 2025. Easter weekend follows the break. Similar to the 2024-25 school year, spring break is a full week long. Teachers were split on preferring a full week off or splitting up the days off into two short weeks. Some pointed to the effect that long breaks can have on academics and student routine.
“Breaks are good, but need to be well-timed,” one teacher replied.
But Dr. O’Black said he has gotten mostly positive feedback from parents about an entire week off leading up to Easter weekend.
“Parents typically like consistency in the school calendar, because they can determine where vacations are,” Dr. O’Black said, citing that families may travel during spring break, so the full week off is beneficial for them.
“My family really loves to travel, and the weather is usually good for it during Spring break. So since we have a full week off, it makes it a lot easier to plan our trip. It’s also nice to not have to miss school and make-up the work,” junior Payton Fox said.
For teachers and for students, it seems the main sticking point for most is still the early start date.
“Don’t get me wrong, having two weeks off for winter break is really cool, and I like having a week off for spring break. But I know summer vacation is going to go quickly. Starting school in the middle of August will make it feel shorter,” junior Cy Engel said.
You can access the 2025-26 school calendar using this link 2025-26-School-Calendar
