School board to mull dress code

About a year after it last revised the student dress code in district public schools, the Cape Girardeau School Board will decide at its Monday meeting whether to make additional changes, focusing on issues pertaining to jeans, shorts, shirts, coats and jackets.

Board president Stacy Kinder, in an email to the Southeast Missourian, said when board members established the policy they expected changes might be needed as the school year wore on.

"We knew that teachers and administrators would be able to see the things that were not working as expected," Kinder said.

At the board's December meeting, principals voiced concerns about the code and presented four suggestions that will be under consideration.

A recommendation to disallow jeans in the junior and senior high schools stemmed from continued dress-code violations involving jeans that are either too saggy or too tight. Sagging jeans are a violation of the dress code, yet many students still insist on wearing them. Tight jeans, worn mainly by females, were termed a "subjectivity" problem by school board members because what may be viewed as too tight for one person may not be too tight for others.

The board voted to modify the dress-code policy last February, effective for the 2012-2013 school year. Students were allowed to wear jeans even with embellishments and other designs but with no holes or tears. The excessive length of shirts was defined as being longer than the wrist when the student's hands were at his/her sides. No regulations regarding coats and jackets were issued, and cargo and carpenter shorts were disallowed.

The recommendation to allow cargo shorts seemed to have been viewed favorably by principals and school board members at the December meeting.

"The main points of interest at the meeting will be whether we allow cargo shorts and no longer allow jeans in the junior and senior high schools," Kinder said.

Dr. Jim Welker, superintendent of the Cape Girardeau public schools, said jeans in the schools always have been an issue, and he expects they will be discussed at length on Monday. He added the recommendations made at the December meeting were vetted and approved by the Missouri School Boards' Association, and any changes made in the dress code will be implemented for the 2013-2014 school year.

Kinder said her main interest in any fine tuning of the dress code lies in making enforcement easier for administrators and in keeping it fair for students and parents.

"I want to make sure the language is clear while providing high standards in student dress," she said. "And I found that in last year's process, it was very beneficial to me to hear from our administrators on all the finer points before making any final decisions on where I stand."

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the upstairs board room at the central district offices at 301 N. Clark Ave.

The dress code's proposed changes may be viewed online by clicking the link to "School Board Central" at www.capetigers.com.

klewis@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, MO