Dressing up is worth extra credit

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, Sept. 27, 2004 | 11:03 a.m.

At Green Valley High School, mascara, lipstick and blush are no longer earning extra credit for business students.

Business students until last week had been required to dress in business attire in exchange for "participation points." That meant collared shirts for men, no jeans, miniskirts, flip-flops or shorts. For extra credit students could add ties, jackets, dress shoes, makeup and nylons, according to a handout circulated to students.

The handout doesn't say whether male students would also get extra credit for makeup and nylons.

Principal Jeffrey Horn said he immediately struck makeup from the list of "extra credit" options when he found out about it late last week.

"Makeup was just one of a laundry list of suggestions," Horn said. "The rest of the attire recommendations are appropriate."

Unlike controversial "standard school attire" or "Dress for Success" programs, under which schools require students to follow a stricter dress code than the regular district regulation, the business department's program at Green Valley is optional, Horn said.

School administration does, however, strongly enforce the district's dress code regulation, which prohibits skimpy mini-skirts, spaghetti-strapped shirts and low-riding pants. Students also have been ordered to remove facial piercings.

Green Valley's program is a new wrinkle in an ongoing debate in the Clark County School District over dress code. Some parents have voiced concerns that honors students -- including a Liberty High School junior -- have been disciplined and even suspended for not complying with stricter dress code enforced at some schools. Other parents and students praise the policy, saying it reduces competition and returns the focus to education.

The Clark County School Board is set to discuss the issue at a work session Oct. 14. The School Board is expected to consider several options, including revising the existing regulation to no longer allow principals alone to determine the severity of the campus dress code policy.

At Advanced Technologies Academy, students in the business and finance magnet program are expected to don professional attire one day a week, said teacher Bonnie Harmon. At the beginning of the year parents are given a list of recommended guidelines and are asked to sign a contract stating that their child will participate. Parents may also request that their child be exempted from any of the requirements, Harmon said.

The guidelines were devised after talking to business professionals, Harmon said.

"We based this on industry standards," Harmon said. "The banks in town may be the most conservative. (For women) they prefer very little makeup, if any."

Student participation hovers near 100 percent, she said.

"It's very successful -- it adds a professional touch," Harmon said. "In fairness to the children and the parents, we can't ask them to do this more than one day a week. Most teenagers just don't have that extensive of a business wardrobe."

Lauren Kohut-Rost, superintendent of the district's southeast region, said she would be comfortable with requiring schools to conduct parental surveys prior to implementing "Dress for Success" or "standard school attire" policies. There are nine elementary schools in the southeast region that require students to wear uniforms as part of a pilot study. Those schools were required to have at least 51 percent of parents return surveys with a 70 percent approval rate.

"Anytime you're providing more information, you're educating the community," Kohut-Rost said.