THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504190420
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Seatack Elementary in September will join several local schools experimenting with uniforms for public school students.
The School Board on Tuesday night unanimously approved a proposal by a committee of Seatack teachers, parents and administrators for a program in which children will be asked - but not required - to wear uniforms four days a week beginning in September.
Fridays will continue to be ``spirit days,'' when students will be encouraged to wear their own clothing in the school's colors.
A group of Seatack students modeled the new uniforms for School Board members Tuesday.
``They're pretty, and they're all right,'' said Jerrica Washington, 7, a second-grader.
``I like the colors,'' said Latasha Cox, 9, a third-grader.
The uniform for girls will consist of navy blue plaid jumpers over white blouses. Boys will wear white shirts, navy blue slacks and matching ties.
``We're hoping that self-esteem will be raised and that discipline problems will be reduced,'' said Maisi Pearson, a fourth-grade teacher.
Seatack joins a growing number of schools considering or using uniforms.
At Bowling Park Elementary in Norfolk, students wear uniforms one day a week this year; the school plans to expand the program to three days a week in the fall.
Students at Douglass Park Elementary in Portsmouth wear casual uniforms. Norfolk's Ruffner Middle and Portsmouth's S.H. Clarke Community Academy plan to outfit students in uniforms beginning in the fall.
At Seatack, the idea received overwhelming support from parents and teachers, Principal Katherine R. Parker said. In a recent survey, about 70 percent of parents said they would approve of their children wearing uniforms to school, she said.
Follow-up calls to reluctant parents revealed that cost was the biggest concern, Parker said. About 85 percent of Seatack's students qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.
But Parker said the uniforms, supplied by J.C. Penney at Lynnhaven Mall, will be inexpensive.
A girl's outfit will cost about $30. A boy's will cost about $27. The boys' ties will be donated to the school.
Parker said her uniform committee is working to set up a fund, made up of grant money and donations, to help parents who cannot afford to buy uniforms.
The committee will send a packet home to parents in May with all the details, Parker said.
To evaluate the program, Seatack staff members will collect records of attendance, test scores, grades and discipline next year for some of the students who wear uniforms and compare them to those of students who choose not to wear them.
Robert G. Hicks, the school system's coordinator for student services, said that no one is sure whether discipline statistics or grades will be directly influenced by the new outfits.
Based on visits to other schools that use uniforms, Hicks said, the biggest change seems to be in students' attitudes.
``It's like when you go work in the yard and get all dirty, and then go inside and get cleaned up and go out to dinner,'' he said.
``That's the way one student described it.''
KEYWORDS: SCHOOL UNIFORMS by CNB