Dressing by the numbers

By Emily Richmond

Thursday, May 24, 2007 | 6:51 a.m.

When the principal's office suggested a more strict dress code at the 484-student Quannah McCall Elementary School, 13 families agreed. So now it's a done deal.

The decision shows how easily a school's dress code - guidelines that affect hundreds, or thousands, of students on a campus - can be changed by a handful of parents.

It's up to individual schools to adopt dress codes that are more strict than the Clark County School District's guidelines. If a principal wants to buckle down , his proposal - in the form of a ballot - is mailed home so parents can weigh in, voting yes or no.

The Clark County School District's central office oversees the surveys, mailing them to parents with prepaid return envelopes. But it appears not everyone pays attention to the mail, or feels strongly enough about the issue to vote.

By district rule, the change can be adopted if support comes from at least 55 percent of the returned ballots - not all ballots that are sent , mind you, but just the ones that are returned.

In the case of McCall, ballots were sent to the 220 families that send children to the school. Of that, only 16 ballots were returned.

The vote was 13 -3 in favor of the stricter dress code.

That means that, come August, students at the North Las Vegas campus will have to wear solid-colored red, white or blue shirts with khaki or navy pants or skirts, as opposed to a rainbow of outfits they have been wearing.

Principal Maria Chairez acknowledges that McCall had "a horrible response" from parents. The problem, she said, could be because many of the school's families have limited language skills and didn't understand the ballot .

The move toward stricter dress codes - and, in some cases, actual uniforms - is a national trend, led by schools in California and New York.

School officials say a stricter dress code makes it easier to spot trespassers, leads to improved classroom behavior and helps blur the distinction between more and less affluent students. Opponents, however, say there's no long-term research demonstrating a tangible link between uniforms in schools and student achievement.

The School District already bans items such as spaghetti straps, navel-baring shirts, skimpy skirts and baseball caps. Under the "Standard Student Attire" policy, schools may further limit clothing choices by color and fabric. However, all schools must allow students to wear navy and white shirts with khaki pants or skirts.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada has a lawsuit pending against the district, arguing the dress code violates students' civil rights.

Several parents helping serve breakfast at McCall this week said they had either forgotten to mail their ballots or overlooked them . But all said they supported the switch to a stricter dress code.

At schools that have adopted "standard student attire," students are limited in choices of fabrics, colors and styles of clothing. Jeans are allowed at elementary and middle schools but banned at high schools.

Of the 18 schools that surveyed parents this spring about adopting the stricter dress codes, parents - well, at least those who returned ballots - supported the new policy at 14 of the schools.

Parents who don't like how the vote went can ask to send their children to another school, but there's no guarantee there will be available seats.

At eight of the schools taking part in the survey, the total number of votes did not exceed double digits.

Larger campuses didn't have much better representation. Francis Cortney Junior High School, which has about 1,800 students, will switch to the tougher dress code after only 8 percent of parents weighed in (voting 100 -45 in favor). And at Desert Pines High School more than 3,000 students will have to follow the stricter dress code, thanks to a parental vote of 154 -110.

The principal's request to adopt standard attire at 2,000-student Chaparral High School was rejected after 256 ballots were returned. Fewer than half supported the idea.

Why? Principal Kevin McPartlin said families were unwilling to give up the tradition of athletes and cheerleaders wearing their uniforms to school on game days. He plans to keep an eye on how things go next year at Eldorado High School, which has a similar population to Chaparral and will be switching to the dress code. "I'll be interested to see if they notice any substantial differences," McPartlin said.