School Board Can't Decide on School Uniforms

After discussing the issue for nearly two hours Monday night, and hearing recommendations from both the principal of the only school in town with uniforms and the superintendent, the Manchester Board of Education failed to reach a decision on whether or not to extend the pilot uniform program at Arthur H. Illing Middle School. 

Illing Principal David Welch appeared before the school board Monday seeking direction as to whether or not students at the school would continue to wear uniforms next school year. Illing has been trying out a "pilot uniform program" for the past two years and is the only school in the district where students currently have to wear uniforms; the program is set to expire at the end of the current school year unless renewed by the Board of Education. Welch said he needed an answer from the school board because he would need to contract with the vendor that supplies the uniforms by the end of week in order to have supplies for next year's incoming students.

When asked for his recommendation, Welch, who is in his first year as principal at Illing, said uniforms seem to have improved the climate at the school and teachers now seem to spend less time focusing on dress code issues, but also acknowledged that enforcement of the policy has been difficult and time consuming - time he felt could be better spent on other issues. 

"It usurps a lot of my time, a lot of my energy, a lot of my administrative team's energy," he told the school board. "…I still am not convinced that uniforms do anything at all for achievement gap or anything else. I think you're in anecdotal world again." 

Welch said that 123 families at Illing last year needed to be provided with the uniforms because they could not afford them, which he said cost the school at least $1,000, if not more. 

"We are looking at every nickel and dime to save programs, yet we're looking at a $1,000 here?" said Neal Leon, a Democratic member of the school board. "…That bothers me."

Interim Superintendent Richard Kisiel told the school board that in a survey sent out to 2,200 families across the district, 28 percent responded, with the majority favoring the uniforms, but that administrators at the town's other schools were not in favor of them. 

"All the principals in all the schools are opposed to it," Kisiel said. "I think their concern is not so much the uniform issues as much as the management issues that are associated with the policy." 

Welch said he did not think it was fair or effective that Illing should be the only school in the district where students had to wear uniforms. 

"I will say that a two year program sitting out there in a vacuum makes no sense to me right now," Walsh said. 

Board members said they wished they had more time to discuss the issue and more feedback from the community, teachers and administrators on the subject. 

Leon pushed for a vote to drop the program at Illing, but that failed 5-4. 

But, from there, the school board still could not decide what to do about the program - extend it at Illing, bring it to other schools, or eliminate it altogether. Finally, the school board decided to pick up the issue again at its next meeting in two weeks, when it has more data provided to it about the issue. 

In other matters Monday, the school board voted to endorse plans to construct a fifth/sixth grade academy by joining Elisabeth M. Bennet Academy to a nearby Cheney building, as well as a "like new" renovation of Robertson Elementary School and contract a brand new Washington Elementary School. Those plans must still be approved by the Manchester Board of Directors before they would appear on a referendum ballot in November for voters to decide their fate. 

The school board also decided to only fix the roofs at Bowers and Waddell elementary schools, and not Verplanck, because a $4.9 million referendum to repair all three roofs approved by voters last November was found to be insufficient to fix all three.