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CLIFTON PARK
School introduces first-ever dress code
BY PAM ALLEN Gazette Reporter

   Students at Shenendehowa should be prepared to cover up their tube tops, halters and racy T-shirts if they plan to step foot in the classroom come September.
   The large suburban district of 9,300 students is set to impose the first dress code in its 57-year history.
   Among the items considered offlimits inside school buildings are tube tops, net tops, spaghetti straps, see-through garments, vulgar or obscene apparel and anything that promotes violent or illegal activities.
   School officials said the tighter code wasn’t prompted by a rash of inappropriate clothing, but rather by a need to spell out exactly which clothing the district deems as “inappropriate.”
   Shenendehowa’s current Student Code of Conduct prohibits items that are obscene, vulgar, libelous or denigrate others, and those that promote alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs or other illegal or violent activities.
   The code defines “appropriate dress” as “that which is safe and does not disrupt or interfere with the educational process.”
   A policy review committee thought the code needed more teeth in its dress rules, and an additional section that specifically addressed bullying.
   “Nothing’s gone to the level of us feeling were stepping on anybody’s rights. It’s a tricky issue and everybody’s judgment is different. But there are certain things you know are inappropriate,” said Laraine Longhurst, assistant to the superintendent.
   According to the high school’s four assistant principals, when the weather warms up, a couple of kids a day get warnings for their attire, she said.
   “I don’t think this is going to be a huge thing,” Longhurst said.
   Similar policies are also in place in other schools across the region.
   In February, Albany City Schools beefed up security after a wave of violence hit the 9,300-student district.
   One of the measures included uniformed hall monitors who enforced the district’s dress code banning gang colors or skimpy clothing.
   School officials noticed an overall improvement in student conduct as part of a process that also included random searches and a shift in hallway traffic patterns.
   “We had only one incident of note since then, when a food fi ght got out of hand,” school spokesman Ron Lesko said.
   Albany administrators are shoring-up the dress code even more, with plans to include a ban on hoodies, overcoats, masks, muscle shirts and tank tops, and limiting the length of T-shirts. Staff will work together to ensure uniform enforcement at all 19 of the district’s buildings, he said.
   Student attire tends to be less of a problem in suburban schools than it is in urban locations, said James Hoffman, superintendent of the Fonda-Fultonville Central School District, a suburban district of only about 1,600 students.
   Before coming to Fonda-Fultonville, Hoffman was assistant superintendent in the 4,000-student Greater Amsterdam School District.
   Fonda-Fultonville has had a dress code similar to the one being considered by Shenendehowa in place for several years. For the most part, students comply without testing the waters, Hoffman said.
   “It’s really not an issue here. Urban schools tend to push the edge of the envelope more,” he said.
   In September 2006, students at Amsterdam’s Lynch Middle School began adhering to a voluntary dress policy calling for polo shirts and khaki pants.
   Although the policy is not mandatory, parents have embraced the change, according to published reports.  

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CLIFTON PARK
Shen finishes year with $3.7M surplus
BY PAM ALLEN Gazette Reporter

   The Shenendehowa Central School District finished out the year with a surplus of $3.7 million, leaving it with a comfortable cushion for emergencies or to offset assessment challenges, officials say.
   The surplus is 2.7 percent of the $138 million 2006-07 budget. New York state this year increased the maximum allowable surplus for school districts to 3 percent of the budget, up from its previous 2 percent.
   Superintendent L. Oliver Robinson recommended that the surplus be held for emergencies rather than used to lower the 3.9 percent tax increase. In years past, the Board of Education authorized using a portion of the surplus to lower taxes.
   “Given that the district appropriated an all-time high amount of almost $3.7 million of fund balance to lower the tax increase for 2007-08, having the ability to hold a similar amount for emergencies and to use against next year’s budget will keep the district in a good financial position,” Robinson said.
   Expenditures for the year were $1.84 million less than budgeted, or about 1.4 percent of the total budget. Revenues came in about $2.9 million higher than initially budgeted, $701,000 of which came in the form of increased interest earnings.
   Much of the savings occurred in the areas of salaries and benefi ts, where costs were $906,000 and $614,000 less, respectively.  

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CLIFTON PARK
Shen to take second look at dress code plan
Students raise questions about impact on learning
BY PAM ALLEN Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Pam Allen at 383-4451 or pallen@dailygazette.net.

   A dress code proposed for students at the Shenendehowa Central School District will get a second look after some of the new guidelines were questioned during Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting.
   Several students and at least one parent wondered how a dress code would impact overall student learning, and urged the board to ease up on its description of “inappropriate” clothing.
   The proposed guidelines, which define parts of the district’s Student Code of Conduct, describe inappropriate attire as “brief garments such as tube tops, net tops, halter tops, spaghetti straps, plunging necklines (front and back), or other tops that expose one’s midriff, extremely short shirts or shorts, and see-through garments.”
   The guidelines also prohibit attire that is vulgar or promotes sexual or illegal behavior, is gangrelated, or does not cover underwear. Accessories that are unsafe or interfere with the educational process are also banned.
   “The most consistent message was that we need to have more dialogue on this,” board President Bill Casey said.
   The policy committee meets again on Sept. 21, when the issues will be discussed, he said.
   Staff and students will also be asked for their input.
   “We will try to reach a better understanding. It’s not a matter of if they agree or disagree, but whether they understand the meaning and intent,” Casey said.
   Some judgment will be involved in enforcing the guidelines because of the human element, he conceded, but the objective is to have them imposed as uniformly as possible, he said.
   The board unanimously approved a general Student Code of Conduct, some of which relies on the definitions outlined in the guidelines. The code also lists penalties for infractions.
   District spokeswoman Kelly De-Feciani said the school received emails from parents who wanted to comment on the dress code. Most supported the measure, she said.
   A few student athletes outside the meeting complained that they wouldn’t be able to wear bra tops when training cross-country, or that male runners couldn’t go without shirts on hot days, DeFeciani said.
   The guidelines are meant to apply to clothing during school hours, she said, noting also that students are still representing the school when they’re participating in after-school sports or other school activities.
   Casey said Tuesday’s meeting was also attended by a class of high school students required to attend a school board meeting as part of a class on politics. A few of them also commented about the guidelines, he said.
   A portion of the Code of Conduct now deals with “bullying,” which is defined in the code as “harassment, aggressive behavior or other overt action, whether it be verbal or physical” and is intended to harm someone else. The section also addresses cyber bullying, which, until a few years ago, hadn’t been a problem, Casey said.
   A dress code would be the district’s first such edict in its 57-year history.  

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The proposed guidelines, which define parts of the district’s Student Code of Conduct, describe inappropriate attire as “brief garments such as tube tops, net tops, halter tops, spaghetti straps, plunging necklines (front and back), or other tops that expose one’s midriff, extremely short shirts or shorts, and see-through garments.”
   The guidelines also prohibit attire that is vulgar or promotes sexual or illegal behavior, is gangrelated, or does not cover underwear. Accessories that are unsafe or interfere with the educational process are also banned.

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Shen gets it right with dress code

   Shenendehowa isn’t a school district with a lot of problems, at least compared to other districts. But student dress was becoming one — with too many girls looking like hookers and boys like thugs — and the Board of Education had the right idea last month when it adopted the district’s first-ever dress code, complete with references to specific attire.
   Even better, the students themselves supported these changes after they were challenged by a handful of students and their parents, and temporarily removed from the new code. Not only are Shen’s students willing to obey the restrictions on attire — things like tube tops, halters, see-through garments and plunging necklines for girls, and knee-length T-shirts and bandanas for boys — they want them.
   The district’s policy is hardly radical. It is far from the uniforms that some inner-city schools have adopted in recent years, but the basic goal is the same: to avoid distractions and disruptions and promote a safe, serious atmosphere that is conducive to learning. Other benefits of the code are that it sets necessary standards of appropriateness and allows students — especially girls — to act like kids, rather than stereotypes or sex objects.
   We don’t know whether the district would have eventually stuck to its guns even if most students had opposed the changes, but they wound up asking for them. And that’s the ideal. As any educator will tell you, motivation and discipline work best when they aren’t imposed by others, but come from within.