Understanding The Fall 2026 Weekly Schedule

Every year, the One Stone weekly schedule changes. It changes based on student and staff feedback, organizational goals, and the spirit of innovation. This requires students and staff to adapt and actively learn to manage their schedules. 

The Fall Schedule will run for a total of 10 weeks, from September 21 to December 10.

No Late Start on Thursdays - For the past several years, staff meetings were held weekly on Thursday mornings during late start. Late Start is not in the schedule this term because One Stone no longer requires every student to engage in Project Good after school each term; instead, students must lead or meaningfully participate in at least one Project Good prior to graduation. 

Early Release on Two  Fridays - Staff meetings and professional development will now be held on Friday afternoons in the fall. Students will be released at 12:15 and the building will be closed to students on the following days:

• Fri, Oct 2, 2026

• Fri, Nov 6, 2026

Experiences (or Experiential Learning) – Engaging, hands-on, project-based learning where coach or specialist expertise meets student curiosity and passion. Experiences have a specific academic focus (science, technology, engineering, math, language arts, social science, computer science, art)  and are often multi-disciplinary and real-world relevant. Learning and projects are designed around student voice, choice, and defined goals for academic and durable skills growth.

Workshops – Focused academic skill-building sessions led by specialists or coaches who help students practice and develop problem solving techniques or gain understanding and confidence with a specific topic. All Fall 2026 Workshops will be math focused. Additional time is provided on Mondays and Fridays, encouraging more real-world and project-based learning.

On Campus Lunch – Students stay on campus to eat, keeping the community together over the meal. Students will often schedule mentor meetings with their mentors during On Campus lunch times.

Open Campus Lunch – Students have the freedom to leave campus for lunch (human-powered by foot or pedal only), reflecting the school's trust in student autonomy. Students will often schedule mentor meetings with their mentors during Open Campus Lunch times.

Community Ketchup – On Tuesdays, students and staff will gather, "catch up,” and have some fun. Bring your own food, but the ketchup will be provided. Each Community Ketchup will have a different focus and students will brainstorm, discuss, and workshop topics and issues that are important to them. This is an opportunity for students to identify problems and develop solutions for issues that have historically only been repeatedly announced during Big Circle.

Mentor Moment – Group time with a mentor focused on a student's personal, academic, and emotional growth.

Pathways – Dedicated time for graduating class cohorts to explore and plan their individual paths to graduation, post-graduation, college, and career direction. Pathways will also feature individual and group goal setting, planning, and reflection activities.

Community Read – Small-group literature discussions run in a book-club style to build shared reading and conversation skills.

Design Lab – Real-world, challenge-based project work where students apply human-centered design thinking with community partners, progressing from XLab (introductory design thinking for incoming learners) to DLab (team-based problem solving with community partners) to YLab (a final, autonomous nine-month project with a community partner). 

Quiet or Riot – The first few minutes of Design Lab time will be left up to chance. Will it be a calm, peaceful, and introspective moment or a high-energy release of pent up emotions? Only the music gods will know for sure…

All Design Lab – The whole school practices various design thinking skills, strategies, or design challenges, reinforcing design thinking as a shared, community-wide practice. All Design Lab is sometimes used for team or project work, peer coaching, or preparation for signature events.

Future U – Held for the graduating class of 2027, Future U is a Language Arts experience that supports students on their plans after graduation, and focuses heavily on the writing and revision process of the personal essay. This one-hour block is held for group and individual college and career counseling. In addition to this weekly time block, students will also attend college essay writing nights and receive 1-1 counseling.

Flex Lab – Open, self-directed work time for students who submit a Flex Lab plan. There are 3 Flex Lab pathways: Professional, Creative, Inquiry, or External Academic. Flex Lab is not a transcripted experience and allows students time, space, resources, and freedom to explore a curiosity, passion, or goal.

XTRME Lab – A specialized, individually-paced track within Flex Lab for select students to develop and practice a mysterious and powerful set of skills.

Mission Lab – A student-driven, project-based, language arts experience that is designed to make students better leaders and the world a better place. Students will apply to join a defined project team that will provide student-driven leadership opportunities that benefit our larger community and One Stone. Due to a variety of events, presentations, and staff meetings, Mission Lab project teams will meet on Wednesdays and four Fridays throughout the fall term:

• Fri, Sep 25, 2026

• Fri, Oct 9, 2026

• Fri, Oct 23, 2026

• Fri, Nov 13, 2026

Mission Lab should prototype or implement at least once during the term and should somehow work to drive retention, recruitment, and/or revenue for One Stone. There will be 3 writing and reading requirements for completion.

Community Clean & Big Circle – Working in Mentorship Groups, the community tidies specific areas of the building, then gathers as a whole group to close out and reconnect before heading home. Important note: Big Circle is a space for connection, celebration, and important announcements, NOT a time for problem sharing or problem solving.

Big Creek 2026: An Idaho Wilderness Expedition

Big Creek 2026: An Idaho Wilderness Expedition

One Stone's SUMMIT Outdoor Leadership Program

Some experiences are hard to put into words. The Big Creek Expedition 2026 is one of them — but we're going to try.

This spring, 13 One Stone high school students embarked on one of the most ambitious experiential learning experiences our school has ever offered. What began ten weeks before departure as a social science intensive on the human history of Big Creek ended seven days later with a group of young people who hiked 35 miles through the Frank Church–River of No Return Wilderness and came home fundamentally changed.

Before the Trail: Human History Through Big Creek

The expedition didn't start at the trailhead. It started in the classroom — or rather, in the One Stone way: deeply, curiously, and with real stakes.

In the ten weeks leading up to departure, students read Maurice Hornocker's Cougars on the Cliff, which opened doors into wildlife biology, big game hunting, and the legislative history of Wilderness and the Frank Church. They researched the arrival of humans in North America and Idaho specifically, learned about the tribes who have inhabited Big Creek since time immemorial, and developed individual research projects on topics ranging from the Sheepeater Campaign, to the life of Wilbur Wiles, to the history of aviation on Big Creek.

Every student became a resident expert on some corner of Big Creek's history and culture — ready to share it with the group once boots hit the trail.

They also practiced backcountry safety and first aid, worked on leadership and teamwork through outdoor challenges, and even had the chance to meet Dr. Maurice Hornocker himself, who visited One Stone to talk with this year's group. By all accounts, the students were completely awed.

Into the Wild: Inspiring Connections with Nature

On May 24th, the group met at One Stone at 4:30am, loaded the van, and drove to Smith Aviation in Cascade. From there, bush planes carried them into the Big Creek airstrip — and just like that, they were in one of the most remote places in the lower 48.

Over the next five days, they covered 35 miles of trail entirely to themselves. No other hikers. No shortcuts. Just wilderness.

The highlights tell the story better than any summary could: significant creek crossings and high water at Big Ramey Creek. Hundreds of ticks. About six morel mushrooms. A wolf spotted at Monumental Creek — close enough to stop everyone in their tracks. Sandhill cranes, bull snakes, mule deer, and bighorn sheep. A frigid swim at Coxey Hole. Rhubarb harvested and cooked at the old Dewey Moore homestead on Acorn Creek. Ancient pictographs in the Big Creek gorge. Waiting out a thunderstorm together in the Big Creek Cave. And through it all — laughter, grit, and a group of students figuring out who they are when the trail gets hard.

Taylor Wilderness Research Station: Off the Grid and Into Wilderness Culture

The expedition ended — and in many ways peaked — at the University of Idaho's Taylor Wilderness Research Station, a fully off-grid outpost deep in the Frank Church that gave students a rare window into what it means to truly live in and with Wilderness.

Students learned about backcountry and off-grid living from the station manager, who gave every student the chance to work with and ride the station's pack horses and mules. There were cat cuddles, dog snuggles, and falling asleep under a sky full of stars. Nobody wanted to leave.

When the bush planes touched down to carry them out of the Frank Church, every student boarded with something they didn't have a week before — a relationship with a wild place, and the knowledge that they belong in it.

What They Carried Home

More than anything, we are proud of who our students became on the trail.

They persisted through discomfort. They communicated through hard moments. They made thoughtful decisions under pressure, shared their knowledge with one another, and showed up for each other in the way that only people who've been through something real together can.

At the end of the expedition, every single student said they were excited to backpack again — and felt more prepared for Wilderness than they had before. Several students who had never backpacked, or who doubted their own abilities, thrived. That might be the thing we're most proud of.

Big Adventures Don't Happen Alone

An expedition like this doesn't come together without a community that believes in young people — and we are so grateful for ours.

A heartfelt thank you to the Selway Bitterroot–Frank Church Foundation and the Idaho Humanities Council for their generous grant support, which made this expedition possible and helped put the right books in students' hands. Thank you to the University of Idaho's Taylor Wilderness Research Station for opening your doors, sharing your world, and giving our students an experience they'll carry for a lifetime. And thank you to Boise Co-op for fueling the trail with lunches and making sure nobody hiked hungry.

Thank you also to our 39 incredible individual donors — many of whom gave for the first time this year — whose generosity went directly toward getting these students into the backcountry.

It takes a village to get 13 students into the wilderness. We are so lucky to have ours.

What's Next

We hope to bring The Big Creek Expedition back again next year — and we're already dreaming bigger. Plans are underway for a fall backpacking trip, an expanded winter yurt trip, and potentially a summer 2027 Wilderness experience for students.

Once you've seen what the wilderness does to a teenager who thought they couldn't do it — you want every student to have that chance.

Stay tuned for more SUMMIT Outdoor Leadership Program News 🐺