A proposal to require school uniforms will not be recommended, Interim Principal Ron Alexander said in a letter sent to parents Thursday.
“Thank you for your participation in the recent dress code vote,” Alexander told parents in the letter. “Parent response to this request resulted in 59.6 percent of parents of ninth-, 10th- and 11th-grade students responding. This report card pickup is the largest response rate for the entire year.”
There were 802 ballots cast out of 1,346 families, according to Alexander. There were 452 “no” votes and 350 “yes” votes to school uniforms. Fifty-one percent of parents were required to approve for the uniform proposal to pass.
Alexander decided not to conduct a follow-up phone campaign targeting parents who did not come to the school to vote, said Libby Carter, a member of the Dress Code Committee. She is also a teacher and parent of a Pinecrest student.
In a take-home ballot provided to parents of eighth-grade students at West Pine Middle and Southern Middle Schools, 114 votes of a possible 497 were returned.
Eight parents at Southern Middle voted in for the uniform proposal, while 37 voted against. There were 262 possible votes. At West Pine, 26 parents voted in favor and 42 voted against, with a possibility of 235 votes.
“We are pleased that so many parents decided to be involved in their students’ school life,” Carter said. “However, we are obviously disappointed that a much-needed change is not going to happen.”
But Carter said the “many months of work that went into the process will not be lost” as the committee goes on to “re-evaluate the current dress code” and ways to increase student safety.
“We’ll take the students’ and parents’ ideas and suggestions into consideration,” Alexander said.
If the dress code policy change had passed, the proposed uniform (khaki pants, shorts or skirts and golf shirts with the Pinecrest logo) would have become mandatory for all students at the start of the 2003-2004 school year.
“We would encourage parents to take a good look at their children,” Carter said. “Parents should study our school dress code and encourage their children to dress appropriately.”
