A heated debate broke out at last week’s school board study session meeting over whether to call students’ time off in December “Christmas” or “winter” break in Sumner County Schools. The fallout from that controversial debate is continuing.

The debate arose during a review of next year’s academic calendar and was over whether Sumner County Schools will name their time off in December “Christmas” or “Winter” break.

Last year, board members voted to change the break’s name from Winter Break to Christmas Break. Previously, it had been called Winter Break since at least 1994. The overwhelming majority of schools in middle Tennessee use the term “winter break” for the nearly 4-week time off from school stretching from December to early January. Trousdale and Sumner counties currently call the time off “Christmas break”.

Board member and conservative Republican Wade Evans brought the topic up, pointing out that he had posted online about wanting to discuss changing the name back to Winter Break after receiving feedback from those in his district expressing concerns.

“Parents can feel a certain way, but we are making decisions that impact our kids. I’d argue that most who want to argue with me think that I want to take away something from one group or another. I think they also wouldn’t want to exclude kids,” Evans said. “I looked at 16 counties around us, and one calls it what we call it. So are those counties wrong for what they call it? No. At the end of the day, we’ll be fine and we’ll move forward in the community.”

Another board member, Meghan Breining, agreed with Evans, saying she believed they should change the name back to “Winter Break” so no child feels excluded.

“Let’s make sure when we are having these conversations, it is not our job to dictate to our whole community what a two-week period should be called from a faith-based standpoint,” she said,

Other board members disagreed vehemently, saying people are going to get offended regardless of the decision and that changing the name back to Winter break is unnecessary.

“Would you rather have me lie to you or tell the truth. Christmas is Christmas, why do we have to worry about offending everybody over the truth?” said Board Member Andy Lacy.

Board member Tammy Hayes offered a solution to appease both sides, proposing that when they vote on the finalized calendar, they put two out. One version would refer to the break as “Winter,” while the other referred to it as “Christmas.” Many expect a compromise result at Tuesday’s meeting, adopting the term “Christmas/Winter Break”, which Evans says he will support. The 11-member board plans to vote on the calendar at this week’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 21.

Evans has pointed out that the school board isn’t attacking Christmas in any way. “We aren’t considering calling Christmas trees ‘holiday trees’ like past controversies across the country,” he pointed out. “Nor is there any hidden anti-Christmas agenda; we are just recognizing the reality of the calendar dates as being broader than Christmas alone.”

Evans has been the target of hate-filled texts and emails since raising the issue, including threats against him and his children. This is the second controversy surrounding Evans in the past month, after he voiced regret over voting to honor Charlie Kirk in Sumner County schools. On Sept. 23, the Sumner County School Board unanimously passed a resolution designating Oct. 14, Kirk’s birthday, as “Charlie Kirk Day of Peaceful Discourse” to reaffirm the First Amendment values Charlie advocated for, honor “his contributions to civic education and public service,” and ask students to, “reflect on the unalienable rights given to each American in the Bill of Rights and how we all can work together to live out and celebrate our shared American values.” The resolution does not establish an annual Charlie Kirk Day of Recognition.

But after receiving backlash for his vote from some members of the public over his yes vote for the Charlie Kirk measure, while the board had balked at memorializing the suicide of a young Sumner County student who had experienced severe bullying, Evans expressed some regret over his vote.

In a Facebook post from his official school board member page asking for feedback on the proposed 2026-27 school calendar options, Evans wrote the “feedback” he received over his vote regarding Charlie Kirk and renaming Winter Break last year was a, “great reminder that now more than ever, I represent all the families in District 4.” While some students were wearing red in honor of Charlie Kirk on the 14th, others were wearing blue to recognize the death of the bullying victim and objecting to the school board being selective in who they chose to honor and who they chose to ignore.

Conservative activist Riley Gaines, who lives in Sumner County, weighed in and directly addressed Evans’ post in her own social media:
“My county in TN voted for October 14th to be recognized as Charlie Kirk Day by the county & school system. Here’s one of the ‘Republican’ school board members saying he regrets his vote for CK day. Oh, and also working to change ‘Christmas break’ to ‘Winter Break’,” she wrote.
The latter part of Gaines’ statement refers to the section of Evan’s post directly before his seeming remorse for the Kirk resolution and where he also first announced he would be asking the board at its October study session to go back to using the term “Winter break” instead of “Christmas break” in order to be more inclusive of those who may not celebrate Christmas. Evans followed up on his plans concerning the name of the December break at last week’s study session, sparking the debate that has embroiled Sumner County for the past week.

Steve Gill is editor and publisher of TriStar Daily.