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Elementary- and middle-schoolers: start buying your uniforms now.
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High-schoolers: stay tuned.
The Beaufort County Board of Education voted Tuesday to mandate uniforms for all elementary and middle school students countywide beginning next school year but tabled discussion on high-schoolers until next month.
Board Vice Chairman Bob Arundell introduced a motion that would have exempted high-schoolers from a mandated uniform policy, but after several board members disagreed, the board decided to delay discussion until its Sept. 2 meeting.
The board did vote, 9-1, to approve the rest of Arundell's motion with board member Earl Campbell voting against it. Campbell said he believed the board was weakening the proposal by delaying discussion about high-schoolers.
The rest of the motion includes:
•The district administration must establish a dress code that "shall define the specific kinds of dress with sufficient detail as to type, size, style, fit and color(s) to ensure proper educational decorum."
•Superintendent Valerie Truesdale will establish the procedures by which each school will adopt its uniform with flexibility for each school to determine details such as color and style.
•Truesdale must devise a plan for "strict and consistent enforcement" of the policy that will not burden teachers or take time away from scheduled instruction.
•Students will adhere to the new dress code and uniform policy in the 2009-10 school year.
The district has been chasing a uniform policy since June when a small committee of board members proposed a policy that would mandate uniforms for all students, including high-schoolers. Under that proposal, elementary and middle schoolstudents would begin wearing uniforms during the 2009-10 school year, and high-schoolers would follow suit the next year.
Board members have said the policy will curb what they say is rampant, inappropriate dress districtwide, including boys who wear excessively baggy pants that hang too far below their waist and girls who wear revealing skirts and tops. Others have said uniforms create a more studious environment.
Most of a short board debate Tuesday was over high-schoolers. Arundell said even if the board decided to exempt high schools, the board could revisit the policy a year from now if they continue to dress improperly.
"If the high school students don't clean up their act on the dress code... then they ought to be aware that there are board members that will (pursue again) a mandatory dress code," board member George Wilson said.
Many of the details about how each policy will be crafted at schools has been left to Truesdale. The administration could choose to use a previous proposal from June that would ask each school to form a committee of parents, school officials and students to draft their own uniform policy within boundaries set by the district.
The tabled high school piece included a provision stating that although the district was not mandating uniforms at high schools, the school could adopt its own policy if its School Improvement Council was interested in one. The council would send a ballot to each family and seek a simple majority. Beaufort High School tried that in 2007 and failed to get even half of the ballots back, killing the proposal.
In other news, the board also voted to tell the Jasper County Board of Education it's interested in continuing joint service to students at the Beaufort-Jasper Academy for Career Excellence, which is owned by both districts. It also voted to clarify ownership to pay for much-needed repairs. The Beaufort County School District would assume governance and ownership of the academy and Jasper County students would continue to be served.
The board also supports expanding the building, including adding an instructional services center to provide technology training to regional teachers. That proposal, plus needed repairs, would cost about $9.9 million.
The board meets with the Jasper County Board of Education on Thursday.
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