Madison County School Board approves changing 'winter break' to 'Christmas break' (2024)

Despite numerous resident objections, the Madison County School Board has approved changing “winter break” to “Christmas break” in the 2024-25 school calendar.

In March, Madison County resident Mike Sharman made a comment suggesting the change of “winter break” to “Christmas break.” The board then suggested making that change in the 2024-25 draft school calendar.

“Christmas is a cultural thing in our community,” board member Christopher Wingate said. “I support the idea.”

Sharman also suggested changing “spring break” to “Easter break.” However, Easter in 2025 is late, not until April 20, nearly three weeks after spring break. Instead, board members suggested adding Good Friday, April 18, as a holiday. However, superintendent Anna Graham said adding another holiday could cause an issue with the calendar because school divisions are required to be in school a certain number of days or hours. The draft calendar without Good Friday as a holiday includes 178 days of instruction. Several snow days are built in.

Wingate and board members Nita Collier, Greg Martz and Charlie Sheads supported the idea of changing “winter break” to “Christmas break” and asked that it be included in the draft calendar.

As in previous years, the draft calendar was posted to the school division’s website for public comment. Though the comments were only briefly mentioned during the April school board meeting and not available to the public prior to the meeting or attached to the agenda, 157 people responded. Of those, 58 opposed the change of “winter break” to “Christmas break.” Thirty-seven supported it.

One said they could go for either option and several asked for a break during March. The addition of the Good Friday holiday was also noted by some as favorable.

During the meeting, Sharman reiterated his support for the changes. He noted that the country is “one nation under God” and said Christmas actually is celebrated much longer than one day, with stores putting out holiday items in the fall and Hallmark being the top channel in November and December because of its slate of Christmas movies.

Pastor Russell Biber agreed, stating Christian holidays represent a majority of the people and while he doesn’t disagree with someone’s right to celebrate as they wish, he doesn’t want to create a Godless society.

Parent Devlyn D’Alfonzo disagreed. She said she’s not anti-religion but is anti-state enforced religion and winter break includes all residents, while Christmas break leaves out the many other religious holidays that occur in winter.

“I suspect it would be offensive to you to celebrate Kwanzaa break as you don’t celebrate that holiday,” she said.

D’Alfonzo said public, federally funded school divisions cannot endorse one religion over another and both legal precedent and basic human decency don’t support the change.

“Put your person theology aside and focus on the diverse range of students who rely on you,” she said.

Christina Barden agreed. She said the board is there for the educational needs of the students and that not all students celebrate Christmas.

“All deserve to feel included by their public school board,” she said.

Carol Shirley said that while Christmas is the major holiday over the break, renaming it leaves the ones who don’t celebrate it out even more. She said changing the name isn’t going to help children with their schoolwork or to want to come to school. Instead, she said, it would make them feel even more isolated.

Wingate said the change isn’t one based on personal beliefs, but rather state law. He said the state recognizes 12 legal holidays and that if people don’t like it, they should delete Christmas and Thanksgiving from that list. He said that by not calling it Christmas break, it would be discriminating against those who celebrate it.

Martz said Prince William County, one of the most diverse school divisions in the state if not in the country, has numerous religious holidays on its calendar including Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

“It’s not uncommon practice,” he said. “The works of the calendar reflect the makeup of the community.”

The calendar was approved 5-0.