By Naomi Hatch The first day of the 2016-17 school year in the Snowflake Unified School District will be Aug. 10 and the last day will be May 25, 2017. Superintendent Hollis Merrell explained at the Jan. 14 governing board meeting that the state requires 180 days of school, so that is why the early start is required. Another change next school year will be scheduling fall break on Thursday and Friday, Oct. 13 and 14, rather than Friday and Monday as it has been previously. Merrell noted that Christmas break will be challenging for Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT) students next year, because the districts’ days off will not coincide. “Right now their calendar ends a week earlier than ours,” said Merrell. “It would be impossible for them to match what all the schools do.” He added that officials of each school district with NAVIT students were recently asked the date of their Christmas break, so that could change, but because Christmas is on a Sunday, school districts won’t have the same days off next school year. The SUSD Christmas break will begin Monday, Dec. 26, and students will return to school on Monday, Jan. 9, 2017. The March 13-17 spring break is earlier this year than last year. Merrell explained that is so the district’s dates coincide with Northland Pioneer College’s schedule, which moved its spring break back a week to be in sync with the rest of the state at the college level. The board approved the school calendars for fiscal years 2016-17 and 2017-18. In other business Jan. 14, the board approved out of state travel April 7-10 for the Madrigals to perform and attend workshops with two top A Cappella groups at Brigham Young University in Utah. There is nearly enough money to cover the trip for all students, but each will be asked to come up with a maximum of $50 for the trip.