Religious References Stricken From School Calendar

Students in Montgomery County Public Schools will have Christmas, Yom Kippur and some other religious holidays off next year, but they won’t be noted that way on the school calendar.

The Montgomery County Board of Education on Tuesday voted 7-1 -- with member Mike Durso opposing the measure – to remove religious references from next year’s school calendar.

What do you think of the change? Should all religious holidays be included? Or all such days be omitted from mention? Tell us in comments below.

Board member Rebecca Smondrowski made the motion that deletes any mention of religious affiliations to holidays and breaks, reports Montgomery Community Media.

So schools will be closed December 24, 25, 28, 29 and 31 for Winter Break, but Dec. 25 will not be listed a Christmas holiday. The next calendar also lists March 25, 28, 29, 30 and 31 and April 1 as a spring break, omitting the Easter holiday reference.

“It is about equity,” Smondrowski told MyMCMedia after the vote. “I felt that we needed to look at this issue in a more comprehensive way and in a way that works for all members of our community. I made the motion because if we are closing for operational reasons then there should be no need to make reference to religion. That is the most equitable solution that I could see while recognizing that we need to be seriously addressing the criteria for how these things are decided in the future.”

The issue of listing a religious holiday on the schools’ calendar was brought up by The Maryland Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations in partnership with the Equality for Eid Coalition. The group’s want Montgomery County Schools to list the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha as a day off for students.

This year Eid al-Adha and the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur fell on the same day, Oct. 4. Both religious holidays were noted on the Comprehensive Calendar, according to a school board document.

Superintendent Dr. Joshua Starr had recommended leaving off the names of two Jewish holidays -- Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur -- from the school calendar but still keep them as days off school.