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Tri-County adds Fall Break to new school calendar

Julie Bergman
julie@wiktel.com

Tri-County students will get an extra day off this fall — a new “Fall Break” set for Nov. 13 — as the district gears up for a school year that begins Tuesday, Sept. 8, just under four weeks from now.

Teachers will be back well before students, with planning and in-service days set for Aug. 18, Aug. 31 and Sept. 1-2, ahead of the Labor Day holiday on Sept. 7, when there is no school.

Students will also be out of school Oct. 15-16 for the Education Minnesota teachers’ convention, and again Nov. 26-27 for Thanksgiving.

The first quarter, 41 instructional days, ends Nov. 6. Parent-teacher conferences follow with an early-out day Nov. 12, dismissing at 12:30 p.m. with conferences running until 7:30 p.m.

Winter break begins Dec. 24 and runs through Jan. 3, with classes resuming Jan. 4. Teachers have an MLK Day workshop Jan. 18, and the second quarter — 44 instructional days — closes out Jan. 22, followed by a teacher in-service day Jan. 25.

School is closed Feb. 15 for Presidents’ Day. A second early-out conference day is set for Feb. 24, again dismissing at 12:30 p.m. with conferences until 7:30 p.m., followed by a teacher in-service day Feb. 26.

The third quarter, 41 days, wraps up March 25, and students get spring break March 26 and March 29.

The fourth quarter closes out the year with 44 instructional days, ending May 28 — a noon dismissal that same day as graduation, set for 6 p.m. Memorial Day, May 31, and a final teacher in-service day June 1 round out the calendar.

In all, the 2026-27 calendar totals 170 instructional days and 181 teacher days.

1,776 miles for a purpose: Recovery advocate Jason Lennox walks through Baudette

By the time Jason Lennox reached Baudette, he had already walked roughly 670 miles — a little over a third of the way through his journey. It showed. There was a quiet, unassuming strength to him, but also a tiredness that went beyond the physical — the kind that settles in after months of absorbing other people's pain.

That's what this walk has become for him: 1,776 miles around the edge of Minnesota, carrying not just his own story of addiction and recovery, but the stories strangers hand him along the way. Recovering addicts. Parents who buried a child. He's paired that with hours of his own research into addiction and suicide, and it shows — he moves easily between hard data and raw memory, and something about the way he talks suggests both live very close to the surface.

Lennox, an Owatonna native now living in Hopkins, is a health care executive, speaker and founder of the One Arrow Foundation. He launched his walk — dubbed The Recovery Road — from Stillwater on June 29 and plans to finish Oct. 10, World Mental Health Day. The distance of 1,776 miles is a deliberate nod to the nation's 250th birthday this year.

It's his second long-distance walk for the cause. Last fall he covered 307 miles through Appalachia, from West Virginia to Nashville, honoring the estimated 307,000 Americans lost to addiction and suicide in 2024.

This year's walk carries a different, more personal weight. It's dedicated to Kenzie Mae Leonardo, an 11-year-old from Lennox's hometown of New Richland, Minnesota, who died by suicide last fall. Lennox learned of her death the day after finishing last year's walk, and said it reshaped his focus toward youth mental health — particularly in rural communities like the ones he's walking through now.

"The problem is a lot bigger than any of us can imagine," Lennox said, citing data he's collecting as part of the campaign: roughly 20% of adolescents report thoughts of suicide, 10% have a plan, and 5% take action. The risk is significantly higher outside cities, he said. Rural residents — both adults and adolescents — are about 70% more likely to die by suicide than their urban counterparts.

A Road that Mirrors Recovery
Lennox has been sober since Dec. 9, 2010, after an overdose left him in a hospital bed next to a police officer waiting to take him into custody on multiple felony warrants. He's now more than 15 years into recovery, and in 2022 published a memoir, "A Perfect Tragedy: Finding Purpose in Pain, Loss, and Addiction," timed to release on his sobriety anniversary. The title traces back to his grandmother's death, which he's said finally pushed him toward full commitment to treatment.

He said the isolation of walking rural highways — headwinds, noise, the constant low hum of danger from passing traffic, the uncertainty of which way to go — echoes what he felt in the years before he got sober.

"It felt like being out on an island," Lennox said. "The symbolism is pretty strong with what I was feeling before recovery."

A typical day includes 10 to 12 hours of preparation and unwinding, built around roughly 20 miles of walking, broken into stretches of about 5 miles, with a support vehicle providing water and snacks along the way. The physical toll — sun exposure especially — compounds as the weeks go on, Lennox said, and the emotional weight can be just as heavy. Every mile brings the chance for a conversation, he said — with a stranger, a fellow traveler in recovery, someone who's lost a child — and each one seems to stay with him.

"This is really hard, and I am highly sensitive, so it's emotionally difficult," he said. "It's born out of a desperate and painful place."

Still, he said, the walk is worth what it costs him.

"To come do whatever I can, to make a difference — this is all bonus time," Lennox said. "I didn't expect to live this long when I was in the depths of my problems. The value of my life will ultimately be measured by the value I provide to others."

Breaking the Isolation
Through One Arrow Foundation, Lennox is collecting data from all 87 Minnesota counties along the walking route, which he intends to bring to state legislators. The campaign also includes a documentary, and proceeds support One Arrow grants for prevention, treatment and crisis services.

Asked what recovery looks like now, 15 and a half years in, versus what people might assume, Lennox pointed to a shift he credits to a mentor: getting to stable ground eventually stops being about himself.

"How satisfied you are has nothing to do with you anymore," he said. "It's all about giving."

For families in small towns who feel they have to handle a mental health crisis on their own — because help feels too far away, or because asking for it feels too exposed — Lennox said the instinct to go it alone is common, and dangerous.

"Ninety percent of people don't get help because they feel they should be able to handle it on their own," he said. That isolation, he said, tends to feel most powerful only after it's too late.

"There is a stigma in getting help," Lennox said, "and they absolutely shouldn't feel that way."

Lennox's walk continues around the state's perimeter through early October, with stops planned in rural communities along the way.


HOW TO HELP: Proceeds from The Recovery Road support the One Arrow Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that funds behavioral health programs — prevention, treatment, crisis intervention, suicide prevention and recovery support — particularly in high-need, under-resourced areas.
Donate: onearrowfoundation.org (click "Give")
Sponsor: Sponsorship packages available at onearrowfoundation.org
Follow the walk: onearrowfoundation.org/the-movement
Contact: info@onearrowfoundation.org