- May 5, 2024
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It’s been more than seven years since the Flagler County School Board voted 3-2 to approve a new uniform dress code for its schools. In that time, policymakers have stretched the fabric of the original code for a comfier fit, allowing an array of shirt options for high schoolers and more color options for elementary and middle schoolers’ required polo shirts.
How’s the policy faring now? And might the district outgrow it entirely in the future?
School administrators don’t believe so.
“I think overall, the policy works great,” said Ryan Andrews, a vice principal at Indian Trails Middle School. “They look professional every day, and they’re able to look like they’re going to school and ready for business.”
"We have excellent students, and I think they like to have expectations. ... And I think if you give students expectations, I think they will live up to those."
— JAMES TAGER, Flagler Schools superintendent
He acknowledged that there are pitfalls: Students may have to be pulled out of class and told to change, for example. And it can be tough for some parents to afford clothes that comply with the regulations. But the local Education Foundation helps provide dress-code-compliant clothing to students in need, he said.
“It does create an opportunity for a negative interaction if a student is out of dress code,” Andrews said. “Teachers who have to address it, or administrators who have to address it — the initial conversation could be perceived as negative.” But, he added, administrators do try to determine if a student is out of dress code for reasons outside the student’s control.
“Every situation is different, and we do a very good job of asking the student is anything is wrong,” he said.
Andrews had been at Flagler Palm Coast High School in 2012, when the district approved the dress code for the upcoming school year.
“I recall a lot of pushback, a lot of questions,” he said. But, over time, “It naturally kind of fell into place, and one day everybody was wearing the approved attire.”
Both schools, he said, keep stashes of dress code-compliant clothing to offer to students who show up at school wearing something they’re not supposed to. That way, they don’t have to miss much class.
But generally, he said, “On a given day we probably have 99% of our students in, or very close to, dress code.”
The type of violation varies with the seasons: Colder weather brings trouble with hats and jackets; summer temps tempt students to show too much skin.
Belle Terre Elementary Principal Terence Culver noted that the dress code is flexible: Students have options when it comes to shirt colors, for instance. And the school calendar includes “spirit days,” when students can wear school-related T-shirts rather than the usual polo-style ones.
“With the way society is right now, I think that just having a common dress is very beneficial, so we’re not bringing in outside political tension into the schools,” Culver said. “ There’s racial tension that’s out there right now, and our kids need to be focused on schools and not that nonsense that’s out there now in the political arena. ... I just don’t want to expose our kids here to that. I want our kids to come here and get along with everybody and see people as one.”
Overwhelmingly, he said, his students comply with dress code. When there are issues, he said, “It’s our upper grades, sixth graders who are right at that end of the school year, wanting to express themselves.”
When the school calls parents to tell them their child is out of dress code, he said, “A lot of the time it’s like, ‘Oh, I told him he couldn’t wear that.’ ... 99%, they comply.”
As to student complaints that the dress code is stifling, he said, “They certainly can express themselves, but they can do it in forms other than dress. ... We have to make sure that we are preparing them so that when they go to their jobs, and there are uniforms ... you need to be able to say, ‘Hey, I had to wear a uniform in school.’”
He noted that, as uniform policies go, Flagler’s is lax. “You really can’t complain about it, because there are so many options,” he said. “It’s much needed, and it works very well. We have a beautiful campus here, and our students look great walking around with their polo shirts.”
Although he doesn’t really want to, Ja’Corey Benjamin is almost always in compliance with the uniform policy at Flagler Palm Coast High School.
Except for one particular instance.
At the beginning of last school year, Benjamin, a sophomore at the time, was ordered out of the classroom because he was wearing a T-shirt.
“I didn’t really understand it,” he said in a phone interview with the Palm Coast Observer.
“I feel like if it’s not affecting the learning environment, then you should be able to wear it. I just think it’s more comfortable to wear what I want to class every day.”
— DEVON CONKRITE, student
Devon Conkrite, who is entering his senior year at FPC, experienced a similar scenario this past school year. He wore jeans to class — which, by itself, is acceptable under the current dress code. However, he said, there was a small rip in his pants by his ankles. School officials made him change.
For many of the students interviewed by the Observer, having to obey the dress code was an issue of comfort.
“I know for me, it’s a lot more comfortable not to wear a polo or a collared shirt,” Conkrite said. “It gets hot in class sometimes, especially if the air conditioning isn’t good. A Dri-FIT shirt is a lot more comfortable.”
He added: “I feel like if it’s not affecting the learning environment, then you should be able to wear it. I just think it’s more comfortable to wear what I want to class every day.”
However, some students admitted that they understood why there’s a dress code and weren’t necessarily for or against it.
Brianna Whitfield, an incoming junior at Matanzas, believes the school should either be all-in on enforcing the dress code or there shouldn’t be one at all.
She felt like the dress code at Matanzas wasn’t enforced and that whether you got in trouble for being out of dress code was dependent upon the teacher.
If she could change the dress code, she’d allow more leniency on what’s acceptable to wear. All of the students interviewed agreed.
“My style doesn’t always meet dress code standards,” Whitfield said. “By not having a dress code, it would allow kids to express themselves a little more.”
Her mother, Samantha Whitfield, believes that a uniform policy helps prevent bullying by “fighting the status quo of people wearing name brand items to school.”
She just wishes that students wouldn’t be pulled from class for not being in uniform.
“We should be a little more lenient on that and rely on the parents to make sure their kids are in uniform,” she said. “As parents, it should be more of our responsibility.”
However, her 7-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, who is going into the second grade at Belle Terre Elementary, shook her head at the thought of any kind of dress code.
“It’s not my style,” she said.
School Board member Andy Dance is one of three current board members who was also on the board in 2012, when it voted to require uniforms for students. But, along with board member Trevor Tucker, Dance voted against the policy.
At the time, he thought the code was too strict, and that it was the wrong time to implement it: The community was still recovering from the recession.
“We made it more lenient over the years. ... There is flexibility written within it,” he said.
He said he’s always wanted the focus to be more on school spirit. Still, he said, there is a benefit to acclimating students to the sort of requirements they’ll encounter in workplaces.
To the extent that there’s a downside to the current code, he said, it’s about enforcement.
Flagler Schools Superintendent wasn’t working with the district in 2012, when the uniform policy was passed.
But, he said, “I certainly think that in today’s society, we are very much concerned about school safety. Certainly schools are about learning — and earning an A as a district is certainly an impressive thing for Flagler Schools — but to have a school system that is effective ... having a dress code policy in place makes the whole place a little more organized, allows us to know exactly who’s in our building. ... I think the wearing of the ID (cards) is a big key for school safety.”
It’s probably human nature for students to try to push the limits of the dress code a bit, he said, but enforcing the code consistently from the beginning of the school year onward can reduce students’ urge to test those boundaries.
“I think it’s just a matter of enforcing your policy so they understand that what you say is what you mean,” he said.
For John Fanelli, the district’s coordinator of student and behavior supports, and former principal of Buddy Taylor Middle School, the dress code encourages a good learning environment.
And, he said, “It encourages them to express their individuality through their personality and their achievements instead of just their outward appearance.”
Fanelli was principal at Buddy Taylor when the board approved uniforms in 2012, he said, and, “Actually, it went pretty well. ... It was honestly a pretty smooth transition.”
“The majority of our students, I think, are in dress code everyday,” he said. “And if they’re not, most of our families are very supportive in helping to get our students into dress code.”
