Schools

BOE Adopts Pilot Uniform Program for Illing

The school board unanimously voted to endorse a program that would require all students at Arthur H. Illing Middle School to adopt a "uniform dress" Monday.

Call it what you will, but the Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to institute a pilot program that will see Arthur H. Illing Middle School adopt in the coming school year.

After hearing several presentations on the concept, and discussing the practicalities of implementing it for more than an hour Monday, the school board voted 8-0 to endorse the program on a trial basis for the coming school year. Mary-Jane Pazda, a Republican member of the school board, did not attend the meeting.

“We want to have pride in our schools,” said Illing Middle School Principal Troy Monroe as he detailed the school’s plans for implementing the program to the Board of Education Monday. “This is an opportunity to support that and build that pride with some of our marketing, some of our branding.”

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The new program would essentially see the middle school test out the concept for the 2011-12 school year, with an eye toward possibly extending it throughout the district in coming years if it proved successful.

Based on the information presented to the school board Monday, students would have to wear approved collared or polo shirts of a certain color bearing a school insignia and purchased from a selected vendor, and tan or khaki pants conforming to a certain look and style, but which could be acquire from an assortment of retail stores provided they conformed to the school’s specifications. Students would still be allowed to wear whatever shoes or sneakers they wanted, excluding open-toed shoes and sandals.

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“What we’re trying to create is a sense of decorum,” Monroe said of the program’s intention. “It’s all about work. When you come into this building we want you to work.”

Kelly Juleson Scopino, a Democratic member of the school board, said she had some concerns about forcing students to buy a mandated shirt with the school insignia from a chosen vendor without knowing how much the shirts would cost. Juleson Scopino also questioned why, if one of the intentions of the uniforms were to eliminate designer brands and status symbols from within the school, students were still being allowed to wear whatever footwear they wanted.

“Shoes are one area where a student is allowed to be creative, but I also know how expensive shoes can be,” she said.

Monroe said that by adopting a vendor, which would be selected through a public bidding process, it gave the school the ability to control such things as the cut, style and color of the shirts, eliminating potential complications that could arise if for example students were told to simply all go out and buy green polo shirts. He said he was afraid that applying the policy to footwear as well would be overly strict and off-putting.

“Whatever shoes they want to purchase or their families want to purchase, that’s up to them,” Monroe said. “If we start going that far, we’re really going to find it difficult to get people to buy into this program.”

Several members of the school board wondered what would happen if students or their parents wanted to adopt out of the program or simply chose not to follow it.

Monroe presented the Board of Education with a list that detailed the program, accepted dress and the consequences that would arise if students chose not to follow it. He said students would find it difficult to “opt out” of the program because their only alternative to wearing the uniforms would be to attend another middle school, and Illing was the only public middle school in Manchester.

“There will be people who will not be happy, we know that, but I don’t think there are alternatives other than to comply,” said James Farrell, a teacher at the school who presented the program alongside Monroe Monday.

School Superintendent Kathleen Ouellette advised the school board merely to vote to endorse the program, rather than adopting it as official policy, which would allow for flexibility if adjustments needed to be made once it was implemented.

“It is a pilot, and certainly we are going to make some mistakes along the way and make some adjustments,” Ouellette said.

Michael Rizzo, a Republican member of the school board, said he was concerned that if the program was left too nebulous from the start that it could get “watered down” if too many adjustments were made in the future.

“I think the danger here would be presenting right from the start a softening of the policy,” Rizzo said. “I would strongly suggest that we decide what we are going to do and then go forward.”

Once Monroe solicits proposals, he said he would return to the school board and present them with the options and costs.

In other news Monday, Ouellette announced that the 2011 commencement would be held on Thursday, June 23, at the Comcast Theatre in Hartford. 


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