The Commerce Independent School District will now be joining other local school districts in adopting a standardized dress code throughout their schools.
The Board of Trustees held an open meeting Monday night at Commerce Middle School and voted to proceed with plans to implement standardized dress.
One of the deciding factors in the creation of the policy was the constant struggle with students at the high school level to adhere to the current dress code.
Administrators are hopeful that this change will reduce the high number of repeated violations resulting in discipline referrals.
“I think enforcing standardized dress will be just as challenging as enforcing the old dress code policy. I think it will be easier in the sense that standardized dress tells you want you can wear, where as the old dress code tells you what you can’t wear,” Boles said.
The board is now forming a committee to draft a more in-depth policy, to be presented at the March 26 meeting.
Commerce ISD officials will now visit school districts with standardized dress, such as Greenville, Terrell, Mesquite and Wylie to begin forming a policy unique to the district.
They will present a first draft at the next board meeting in March, and the final draft will be submitted for approval on April 16.
After approval of the policy in April, the board will then decide whether standardized dress will be a definite for the district.
“At any point in the process it can be stopped,” Boles said.
Once the Board decides definitively on standardized dress, they will then make the decision as to whether the policy will apply to the secondary level only, or the entire district.
When the final decision is made in April, letters will be sent to parents notifying them and will also include a copy of the policy.
Several reminder letters will be sent in the months that follow so that parents are prepared for the adoption of standardized dress at the start of the school year.
After the official decision to adopt the policy is made, a style show will be scheduled for parents as well as the community. At that time, each campus will showcase parents’ options in regards to the style of dress as well as color choices.
Vendors for the new standardized dress code will include Wal-Mart and Dollar Store(s) in Commerce, as well as the Wal-Mart in Greenville and the Lion’s Lair located in the Greenville Mall.
The idea of standardized dress was brought up in January 2005 with the board presenting an informational presentation on the issue.
At that time board members felt there was more work to be done, and so they left the issue until November 2006, when they requested it be brought back for consideration.
Another informational presentation was presented to the board in December, followed in January by a projected timeline for implementation, which was adopted by the Board of Trustees.
The first item the timeline called for was parental and community opinions on the issue.
The process began with a postcard survey that was sent out on Feb. 1, consisting of 2400 surveys – (1200 for parents and 1200 for community members.) Participants were given until Feb. 9 to return the survey.
Out of 2400 surveys, 702 were returned, giving the survey a return rate of 29 percent. Of the surveys returned, 354 were from parents and 358 were from the community.
Among the parents surveyed, 42 percent strongly supported the policy for standardized dress and 31 percent were strongly opposed. The surveyed community strongly supported the policy by 70 percent, with only 13 percent being strongly opposed.
Community meetings were held prior to the mailing of the surveys, six in all, so that parents and local citizens would be able to make an informed decision regarding their support of standardized dress.
Anyone wanting to get a “rough” idea of the kinds of dress option available are encouraged to go to the Commerce ISD Web site, http://commerce.ednet10.net/, where there is a posted picture that closely resembles the dress Commerce is proposing to adopt.