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What to wear won’t wear on minds of many Collier students
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The battle over clothes is over.
Students at 26 Collier County elementary, middle and high schools won’t have to worry about what to wear to school Monday morning, because school officials already have chosen for them.
More than half of the Collier County School District’s 48 schools have instituted stricter dress code policies. Some call it a uniform, while others call it a dress code. But no matter what it’s called, the goal is the same.
“We want to create a better atmosphere,” Corkscrew Middle School Principal Dennis Snider said. “(We’re) trying to develop a community of learners any way we can.”
At Corkscrew Middle, creating a community of learners meant restricting the number of buttons on a polo shirt, among other things.
This will be the first year Corkscrew Middle students will be asked to conform to a modified dress code. Students will be able to wear any solid-color, three-button polo shirt. They also can wear black, khaki and navy blue pants, shorts or skirts. Jeans, Snider said, aren’t an option.
Corkscrew Middle is one of the few schools that specifies how many buttons a student’s shirt can have. Snider said the button regulation came after he heard from other principals that students were unbuttoning their shirts, showing off more skin than he thought was appropriate.
“It really defeats our purpose of being modest,” Snider said.
While modesty may be a concern at Golden Gate High School, Bob Spano, the school’s principal, said he wanted to create a professional environment for his students.
Golden Gate High is the first high school in Collier County to institute a professional dress code policy.
Students will be required to wear collared or polo shirts that must be tucked in. The shirts will be in a solid color of white, gray, green, pink or khaki, and must be three inches below the waist, Spano said. When it comes to bottoms, students will be allowed to wear long pants, walking shorts, skirts or dresses in black, khaki or denim fabric.
“I like wearing jeans,” school Principal Bob Spano said. “Everyone has a pair of blue jeans. We’re not trying to eliminate what they like. It’s more of a matter of dressing with respect.”
The idea of having a dress code at the high school has been tossed around since it opened four years ago. Spano said parents, teachers and students were polled every year, never getting enough support until last year.
“We had more support in our third year,” he said. “We decided it was time to move forward.”
The idea to move to a modified dress code came easy for Snider and Corkscrew Middle School parents.
Both of the school’s feeder schools, Corkscrew Elementary and Estates Elementary, have dress code policies, and Snider said he thinks having a similar policy at his school will ease the transition.
Parents at the high school and at Corkscrew Middle were supportive of the new policy, both principals said.
While about 87 percent of parents at Tommie Barfield Elementary on Marco Island responded to queries about a dress code policy, some parents remain leery of the new policy as the first day creeps closer.
“I’m not thrilled,” said Cathy Cleary, a Tommy Barfield parent. “But I do support it; it should simplify things.”
This is the first year students at the Marco Island school will be asked to adhere to a modified dress code. The school’s dress code will allow students to wear long- or short-sleeve collared shirts in any shades of yellow, orange, red, green, gray or brown. Students can wear pants, shorts or skirts in white, tan, navy blue and black. Students won’t have the option of wearing blue or white shirts, according to the school’s policy.
Cleary said she was having doubts about the policy because of the limitations it puts on students.
“The kids have so few choices as it is,” she said.
Tommy Barfield’s policy is lenient compared to some Collier schools’ policies.
At Lely Elementary, which instituted a uniform policy last year, students can wear blue, yellow or white polo shirts with khaki or navy pants, skirts, jumpers, shorts or capris.
Manatee Middle School’s policy is even stricter, with students only allowed to wear white and khaki.
Lely Elementary Principal Karey Stewart said the policy has been very successful at her school.
“I have seen a difference in the way kids act. They are a lot calmer. For spring photos, I let everyone wear their regular clothes. Oh my goodness, there was such a difference,” she said. “I think even the kids saw it.”
Spano said reducing disciplinary action would be a bonus to the policy, but the real reason was to make students even safer.
“I don’t think we had any more problems than any other schools,” he said. “We just wanted to do this for the safety of this kids. (The policy) will help us identify people who don’t belong. We’re going to know immediately that they aren’t our kids.”
Snider said he didn’t expect there to be many dress code violations during the first week of school.
Stewart said she didn’t have many problems last year when the policy was first implemented.
“Everyone came to school the first day in uniform,” she said. “We expect that to happen this year, too.”
At Golden Gate High, students will be expected to be in full uniform by week’s end.
“We have things in place to get the word out,” Spano said. “We meet with all of the kids during the first week of school, and dress code will obviously be hit real hard. By Thursday, everyone is expected to be in compliance.”
Staff writer Katherine Lewis contributed to this report.
Want to see if your child’s school has instituted a dress code? Information regarding the 26 schools with dress code policies can be found is available on the Collier County School’s District Web site - www.collier.k12.fl.us - in the “Looking For?” area of the home page
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