Calvert Board Of Ed Declines Move To Put “Christmas” And “Easter” Vacations On Official School Calendar

PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. — Don’t worry, Winter Break and Spring Break still exist. They’re just going to be called by their original names, despite a motion by Board Member Paul Harrison to change their names to “Christmas Vacation” and “Easter Vacation” at the May 21 Board of Education (BOE) meeting.

In a review of the 2026-2027 school calendar, the BOE discussed adding two additional inclement weather days and moving the last day of school back from June 9 to June 10. The last day for teachers will be June 11 instead of June 10.

Harrison proposed changing the names of Winter Break and Spring Break to Christmas Vacation and Easter Vacation to “align with COMAR.” The Code of Maryland Regulations, known as COMAR, does not actually call these breaks Christmas and Easter break, as Harrison suggested.

Harrison was referring to the reference in COMAR that uses Easter and Christmas Eve as date benchmarks for which schools should begin these breaks. COMAR’s guidance says Winter Break is from Christmas Eve through Jan. 1, and Spring Break is the Friday before Easter until the Monday after Easter.

“I’ll reiterate, those dates were considered to be benchmarks. They gave you guidance on what days had to be given. COMAR does not refer to the larger break as Christmas Break. So we would not be aligning with COMAR by calling it any particular thing. They don’t prescribe what we call that span of time, they simply give us the benchmark of Christmas and Easter to tell us what we must give off,” said Scott McComb, director of system and instructional performance.

Superintendent Dr. Marcus Newsome also clarified that the section in question, Education Article 7/103, says the vacations are benchmarked to what is considered a holiday but refrains from using any religious term to name them.

Board member Melissa Goshorn voted yes on the motion alongside Harrison. Board Member Lisa Grenis and BOE President Jana Smith-Post voted no. Member Joe Marchio was absent from the meeting. According to meeting rules, tied votes without a tiebreaker present are failed measures.

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