It took me awhile to put my thoughts together on this issue after the July 24th meeting of the Flagler School Board that I attended. I believe that this matter really goes so much deeper than just what our kid wear, into how our schools are being run and why they are being run the way that they are.
At this point it is becoming increasingly obvious to me that this move towards uniforms is about politics, and nothing more than that. I feel like my child is being used as a pawn in the economics and politics of Flagler County and there is nothing I can do about it unless I want to sue the school board. There are no recall or ballot procedures for school board members or school board issues. These people are dictators once they are elected - and they are making full use of that power to do whatever they want regardless of what the residents of this district, and the parents of this district, want.
Consider the following information and see what conclusion you reach.
The school board had, at the urging of board member Evie Shellenberger, been investigating implementing uniforms in the district for some time. A "town hall" meeting had been scheduled for July 11th to hear public opinion on the desirability of a uniform policy. The board had scheduled a final vote on implementing a policy for its July 24th meeting, after the town hall meeting.
On June 29th, the Florida School Accountability Grades were released by the Florida Department of Education, grading several Flagler schools poorly, including a "C" for Matanzas High School and a "D" grade for Flagler-Palm Coast High School.
The evening of June 29th, at their regularly scheduled meeting, the Flagler School Board suddenly changed the publicly announced schedule for the uniform process and voted to implement uniforms for the 2008-2009 school year and to change to purpose of the July 11th town hall meeting to be to get input on what the actual uniforms should be. This vote took place despite the fact that a newly appointed member of the board was being sworn in that night, effectively leaving 20% of the school district without a representative during that vote.
Newspaper stories from the Flagler education beat the following day focused on the uniform issue, not on the abysmal Florida School Accountability grades received by the two high schools in the district.
At the town hall meeting the school board touted the endorsement of their uniform plan by the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce.
No one I have talked to has any knowledge that the teacher's union (who presumably are more relevant to this issue than the Chamber of Commerce?) has been even consulted about uniforms, let alone endorsed the policy - including a teacher who is a building rep. for the union.
After the members of the public spoke at the town hall meeting, more than half of them against uniforms, the response they received was a very dour attitude of "well, the decision is already made, too bad."
Members of the school board have repeatedly pointed to the examples of other districts in the implementing of uniforms.
When it was pointed out to the board on July 24th by the ACLU that the examples of methods that other districts have used to implement uniform policies include parent polling on the issue, all but one board member chose to ignore that statement completely. The only board member who responded to that fact was Ms. Shellenberger, who has been the most ardent supporter of uniforms, and even she dismissed those examples by saying that it wasn't practical because she felt the whole district would have to be polled because "all residents are taxpayers and have a stake in our schools."
To me, that quote from Ms. Shellenberger sums up what this is all about. This uniform effort is not about a genuine effort to make our schools better. It is about propping up property values in this town by making the schools look better than they are, and about attracting business by making the schools look better than they are. It is about using uniforms to whitewash over our growing gang problem. That is why the Chamber of Commerce cares about uniforms, because this policy is about economic growth, not about educational quality. This is about jobs, not about students.
Taxpayers have a right to voice their opinion on school matters that they will pay for. Everyone in this community does not have a right to voice an opinion on whether my child should have to wear a uniform every day, unless they are going to shop for and pay for those uniforms, do battle with my child everyday to enforce the wearing of them, and do the resulting extra laundry from them. That affects my family, not the retired lady next door, or the single guys down the street. Since I will be the one that has to live with it, I should get a say in it. And only me.
It's really easy to have an opinion on something when you don't have to live with the consequences. Let the parents decide. They are the ones that have to live with it.
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