Galt school decides uniforms a thing of the past

Fairsite Elementary School student Darcie Perez, 4, right, combines the old with the new by wearing uniform pants and a favorite shirt to school Wednesday in Galt. Perez is talking to Bilingual Aid Debbie Castellon. (Casey Freeman/News-Sentinel)

Galt school decides uniforms a thing of the past

By Sara Cardine
News-Sentinel Staff Writer

Thursday, November 11, 2004 7:46 AM PST

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Seven years ago, if you were to walk onto the campus of Fairsite Elementary School in Galt, you might have seen students clad in khakis, complemented with tasteful shirts in muted shades of blue. Perhaps a few students, feeling spunky, would have chosen to spice up their ensemble with a navy skirt and white dress shirt.

But walking on campus today, the student body would appear to resemble a rainbow in a blender, a mish-mash of patterned shirts, bright blue jackets and jeans -- lots of jeans.

Tastes have changed at Fairsite, though the change hasn't stopped there.

Fairsite Elementary has declared its uniform policy to be outdated, unstylish and a thing of the past -- and schools in other districts may be following suit.

Nearly 10 years ago, parents and teachers in school districts from Stockton to Galt claimed uniforms might help keep kids centered on school instead of style. The hope was that, in the long run, a strictly enforced dress code could lead to better academic performance and an increased sense of self esteem in students.

But years into the adoption, some schools noticed that parents and students appeared to be disinterested in following the policy.

"It eventually got to the point where you were lucky to find two students in a room that had a uniform on," said Mike Scully, principal of Fairsite.

School administrators brought the matter to the school board for a vote because enforcement of a policy that nobody followed was becoming too time-consuming. The office had to schedule an appointment with the parents seeking waivers, hear their reasons for waiving and try to talk them out of it, he said.

About two years ago, Scully said, the school decided to be more lax on those who came to school in street clothes without a waiver. One parent, who was waiting for her son outside the school on Wednesday, said neither of her two children, in first and second grades, have ever worn a uniform or had a waiver.

As parents ignored the rule, or submitted waivers en masse, administrators found it harder to bend the rules for some and not for others.

The board voted Oct. 27 to rescind the Fairsite's uniform policy. Their decision will take effect next school year.

Sylvia Ferreira, a first-grade teacher in her 10th year at Fairsite, said that the waivers were the death knell for the policy. More waivers came over the years from parents who simply wished to allow their children more freedom of expression, and when students who wore uniforms saw their friends in street clothes, they wanted to choose their own wardrobe, too, she said.

"The parents didn't want to struggle in the morning to get (their kids) into uniform," Ferreira said.

Among the two dozen Fairside Elementary School students on bus E-4, Israel Borajas, 7, right, and Luis Carlos, 7, were the only ones wearing school uniforms on Wednesday in Galt. (Casey Freeman/News-Sentinel)

Before the board's decision, Fairsite was the only school in the Galt Joint Union Elementary School District to still have uniforms.

Lodi Unified School District, on the other hand, still has 14 of its 44 schools with a uniform policy. In the district, individual sites decide to adopt it when 75 percent of parents vote in favor of a uniform policy.

Catherine Pennington, LUSD assistant superintendent of elementary education, said that lately more parents are wishing to see school uniforms removed from the schools.

But the sites that do participate in the policy tend to follow it whole-heartedly, she said.

"Many schools are committed to it and the parents are committed to it because it's part of the (school's) culture," Pennington said.

Clairmont Elementary School has had a policy in place for about nine years, said Sandy Catario, a secretary for Principal Susan Hitchcock.

Catario said that the dress code is strictly enforced and that very few of its 660 students currently have waivers.

To keep kids dressing uniformly, the school has extra items of clothing on hand to distribute to kids who come to school without their uniforms, as well as to students whose parents can't afford them.

In the Stockton Unified School District, all but three of the 38 elementary schools have a uniform policy in place, said Dianne Barth, community relations officer for the district. Barth said that wearing uniforms eliminates conversation among students about what others are wearing and helps them concentrate on the more important aspects of school.

"We're hoping our students are focused on their academic studies and the job they're supposed to do," Barth said.

But Fairsite student Aimee Chavira, 9, said she didn't notice any difference in her performance since she stopped wearing a uniform at the beginning of the year. She said she liked being able to choose her own style.

"I saw almost nobody at school wearing uniforms, and I just asked my mom if I could wear what I wanted," she said, hugging a stylish black suede jacket to her small frame.

Contact reporter Sara Cardine at sarac@lodinews.com.

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