Kalama School District Calendar 2026-2027

Kalama’s three schools occupy a compact corridor above a Columbia River town whose port, small businesses and industrial activity are visible in community life. Kalama Elementary, Middle and High School create one local progression, and the shared Chinook identity keeps performances, athletics and family events closely connected across grade levels. Students grow up in a small district while regularly encountering the wider economy moving through the river and port.

The Chinook Shoppe turns that setting into a public classroom. The student-run store operates in the Port of Kalama’s Mountain Timber Market and sells apparel, metal art, cutting boards, cards and other work designed or made by students. Art, agriculture, construction, engineering, marketing and business classes all contribute. High-school students help manage layout, products, pricing, inventory and sales; middle-school woodshop and younger students have also supplied items. Customers provide a real test of design and business decisions, giving career education a presence beyond campus.

Beginning in 2026–27, Kalama’s middle and high schools use twelve-week trimesters with five longer classes each day. The change raises the number of credits a high-school student can attempt each year and creates more space for electives, intervention or credit recovery while reducing the number of simultaneous courses. It is a current operating change developed through staff, student and parent input. Students can now use the compact campus route and the port partnership within a schedule that leaves more room to explore enterprise, technical work and new electives.