The newly rebranded Cottonwood Community School is adding a new dress code for students in the coming school year.
Under the new rules, students will be expected to wear solid-color collared shirts to school, banning shirts with logos or text and creating a sense of unity among the student body.
According to CCS principal Matt Schumacher, the dress code regulation is aimed at fostering a sense of formality and community among students.
As an administrative rule, the dress code change was approvable by the school administration without needing a vote from the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District Governing Board. But Schumacher nevertheless sought a public vote in the hopes of making the change more acceptable with public input.
“We felt it was important to be open with the community,” Schumacher said.
On July 10, members of the community spoke before the COCSD board and made their feelings on the dress code heard. The parents who spoke up at the board meeting were not happy.
“I think this dress code is a little bit out of line,” COCSD parent Jim Montgomery said. “Little girls, they like wearing dresses. They don’t like wearing collared shirts.”
Montgomery worried that requiring this level of formality among students would make CCS more similar to a Christian or military school than the public school it is.
“They should have a little expression to share with their friends,” Montgomery said.
“If I wanted a dress code I would put my kid in a charter school or private school,” said Danielle Lyons, another parent who spoke up in opposition. Lyons complained that forcing her son to wear formal clothes often leads to an argument with him, something she does not look forward to doing every day.
“Kids express themselves with what they wear,” Lyons said.
“I think that a lot of clothes that people wear make them their own person,” parent Anthony Lozano said. Lozano also brought up the issue of parents having to buy new clothes, which would cost money. “I know a lot of families in this town are working paycheck to paycheck. They don’t have the income that some of us parents do.”
Despite the objections, the COCSD Governing Board passed the new dress code policy in a 4-1 vote.
Board member Eric Marcus, the lone dissenting vote, expressed misgivings about the potential dress code stifling students, and wanted to find a solution that would be less onerous.
“There’s a balance that you’re striking between order and expression,” Marcus said. “I want to encourage as much expression as is reasonable.”
Marcus sought to find a middle ground where a dress code could be implemented with lax enforcement.
“I would like to change this from a dress code to dress guidance,” Marcus said. “Where we’re not going to send your child home because she wore a pink dress.”
Other members of the board sympathized with Marcus’ view but did not see a way to find the compromise he sought.
“Guidelines wouldn’t give teeth to actual dress code,” COCSD Governing Board President Joanne Cook said.
The vote approving the policy was met with yells of dissent from the parents who had come to the meeting to oppose the change. “Ask the kids!” one yelled out.
Also at the board meeting, the COCSD board approved the proposed budget for the coming school year. The budget limit for 2018-19 approved by the COCSD board stands at $12,214,425, an increase of 6 percent from last year’s budget limit of $11,518,720.
Included in the approved budget was an increase in teacher salaries, through funds allocated by the Arizona state legislature in the wake of statewide Red for Ed protests in April. The average COCSD teacher salary in the coming school year will be $46,383, a 9.5 percent increase from last year’s $42,346.
Jon Hecht can be reached at 634-8551, or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
