Sangamon Sun

The Springfield School District 186 Board discussed possible changes in policy for the coming school year, focusing on the schools' dress code, during its regular meeting on March 7.

Superintendent Jennifer Gill addressed the district dress code and the interest within the district in potentially changing it. Currently, the district employs an "enhanced dress code," a mix of school uniforms and no dress code, which requires black or khaki pants with polo, button-up or T-shirts, often in specific colors that reflect the school colors. Currently, Harvard Park, Matheny Withrow, Franklin Middle School, Grant Middle School, Jefferson Middle School and Washington Middle School have enhanced dress codes, while all other schools operate under a generic dress code that restricts things like coverage and profanity on clothing items. 

The district has partnered with Panorama, a data service, to send a survey on the dress code to all students, parents, teachers, administrators and staff from schools with enhanced dress codes. The survey will seek feedback on the dress code with a variety of questions and categories. The board will look at the feedback and make any potential changes to the dress codes at each school or overall at its March 29 meeting.

"We wanted to get the true voice of the teachers and the staff that work in the schools and the voice of the families," Gill said. "And then we'll get the administrators viewpoint to hear from there. So we did the administrative set for discipline away from the teachers in case there is a discrepancy there."

The board also approved a proposal to push back their immunization and physical deadline for the coming year. Gill explained that, with the pandemic, multiple deadlines regarding physicals and immunizations were pushed back, and the board intends to make the policy change so students would be excluded after the 30th day rather than the 10th day if they weren't vaccinated. That would push the deadline closer to the end of September and allow the district to get more information and resources to families, and to host some events or clinics before the deadline.

It would also prevent the deadline from being too close to the end of the first quarter in October, which might lead to students missing out on important tests or events.