Dress Code Revisted: Effort to Remove High School Students Fails

An effort to remove students from the district's was unsuccessful during Tuesday night's regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting.

School board member Charles Scalesse put forward the motion to amend the policy's language removing the upper grades from the dress code.

The board approved the dress code for the district's K-8 students beginning this fall, and the district's high schoolers for the start of the 2013-13 school year.

Scalesse and Christine Maisano were the only two school board members to vote against implementing the new policy during .

At that time, both said they felt more time was needed to determine the merits of a district-wide dress code.

'No Major Discussion'

Scalesse said he wanted to amend the policy to remove the high school, at least for now, because he felt the implementation of a district-wide policy was unfair to the EHHS community.

He noted that — —  the students, parents and staff of the upper grades were never given the opportunity to express their opinions or share feedback on the dress code prior to the board's vote.

"Parents of the high school students were never informed," he said, adding that the same goes for EHHS teachers and staff members.

"Really there was no major discussion," he said.

Once the feedback and information was gathered regarding the merits of a dress code at the high school, the school board could then go back and extend the district's policy to include the upper grades, as well.

Motion Fails

Other board members, however, responded that that is why the one-year delay in implementing the dress code for the high school was built into the new policy: to allow for time to gather survey results, feedback and other data for the upper grades.

Then, after reviewing all of the information, if members felt the dress code was not a good fit for the high school, they could remove the upper grades from the policy at that later time.

Board members then took a vote on Scalesse's motion to amend the policy removing the high school form the dress code.

It failed, with Scalesse the only board member voting in favor of his motion.

'Captured Their Attention'

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Erica Forti said approving the dess code at the high school one year prior to its scheduled implementation may actually lead to a heightend amount of feedback from parents, students and staff than if policy had been approved in separate steps for the upper and lower grades.

"It has captured their attention and they are thinking about it... because they're captivated by the fact that it could happen," Forti said.

Dress Code Pamphlet Handout

Forti also noted that a pamphlet was expected to be handed out to students Wednesday that reviewed the dress code and possible shopping ideas and options.

She added that the document was being funded through the district's PTO/PTA committees.