MISQUAH — School starts tomorrow.

That sentence has been printed every September in this newspaper in one form or another. It has never before been printed on September 1.

Lakeside schools open Wednesday, September 2, under the temporary state waiver allowing districts to begin before Labor Day in 2026 and 2027, when the holiday falls late. The board approved the calendar in March after a debate that included teachers, parents, resort operators and people who had not previously known they possessed strong feelings about the second week of June.

The reason is arithmetic. Starting after Monday’s Labor Day would push the district’s required instructional days far enough into June that graduation, summer work, family schedules and the first weeks of the resort season would all move with it. Starting Sept. 2 shifts that pressure to the other end of the calendar, where resorts and 4-H families feel it.

Superintendent Dale Brandt said the district knew the decision would not create a painless calendar.

“You do not get an extra week,” Brandt said. “You decide where the week goes.”

Enrollment is steady overall. Kindergarten has thirty-one children, up three from last year, and will run two sections. Eleven district students have excused State Fair absences to begin the year, most of them 4-H exhibitors still in St. Paul. The Vekved triplets will start seventh grade Friday after returning from the dairy barn.

Barb Nyberg’s third-grade Room 6 has twenty-four students. She was in the building before the class list was final, which is not news to anyone who has known her more than one September. One picture book was placed on every desk Monday so she could walk the room at child height before the name tags went down.

“The bulletin board is not aware of the Legislature,” Nyberg said. “Kids come in when kids come in.”

Renée Fontaine of Loon Ridge Resort & Golf, who opposed the early start, said the effect at the resort was visible Sunday as families checked out before the holiday weekend.

“I still think the state should protect that week,” Fontaine said. “I also know Dale did not invent June.”

The district’s mechanics are otherwise ordinary. Buses run the posted routes and times. Breakfast service begins at 7:35. The first bell is 8:15. Parents are asked not to park in the bus lane, an annual request that has been ineffective since at least 1989.

Supply lists are unchanged from those mailed with class assignments. Fourth grade still requires twelve glue sticks. Sorensen Hardware laid in composition books and glue in August and reports no shortage.

The district office will track the early-start year separately when the board begins work on the 2027–28 calendar next spring. The temporary waiver applies next year as well because Labor Day again falls late.

Tomorrow morning, none of that will matter to a kindergartner with a backpack.

The buses leave on time either way.