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Should Derby mandate school uniforms for students? Answer the poll at the bottom of the story.
DERBY – Members of the Derby Board of Education are working on a policy that could bring school uniforms to the district.
The schools in Derby already have written policies within student handbooks that give guidance on what’s not appropriate to wear. Crop tops are a no-no, along with muscle shirts, ripped jeans that show too much skin, and shirts with messages advertising drugs, sex or obscenity.
Derby Board of Education Chairman Jim Gildea said educators shouldn’t be spending time adjudicating the dress code. Deciding whether a student’s outfit violates the dress code distracts from the primary tasks at hand – teaching and learning.
School uniforms could simplify the matter and put everyone on the same page, Gildea said. It would be districtwide, he said.
“When we talked to administrators, we were having a rash of discipline issues (regarding the dress code),” Gildea said. “Administering the dress code is an issue that has been taking time away from teachers educating students.”
Dress code issues most often happened at Derby High School, Gildea said. They included clothes that were potentially too revealing and shirts with inappropriate phrases.
“A goal is to make the dress code more cut and dry, so it would eliminate any grey areas,” he said. Gildea also said schools are preparing for students to eventually enter the workforce, where people have to dress appropriately.
The move to school uniforms is still early in the process. It was talked about Sept. 10 during a Derby Board of Education subcommittee meeting. Click here to read the minutes.
The minutes show there was talk of implementing the policy as early as January. However, it was pointed out that could create a hardship for families that just purchased clothes for the school year, which started Sept. 3 in Derby.
There’s no draft policy available for review. Things such as colors, styles and other specifics haven’t been hammered out yet, Gildea said.
But the school board chairman said Derby has been looking closely at the uniform policy in place in neighboring Ansonia, along with the uniform policy of Bridgeport Public Schools. Gildea said the Derby uniform policy might borrow heavily from Ansonia with a smidge of Bridgeport thrown in.
A discussion of school uniforms could take place at a Derby school board meeting in October. Gildea said that whenever the school board wants to change or create an official policy, two public “readings” of the policy are required.
He said parents and students will have an opportunity to weigh-in during those meetings.
Derby talked about school uniforms some 20 years ago but the idea apparently didn’t move forward.
Just under 19 percent of public schools in the U.S. have uniforms, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
The Valley Indy left messages for Derby Public Schools Superintendent Matthew Conway and Derby High School Principal Jenifer Olson but did not hear back by deadline. Update: Olson emailed a replied shortly after this story was published, click here to read it in its entirety.
