First reading of dress code received without concern

Carson City school trustees heard no complaints this week to a proposed change in the dress code for teachers and other employees.

"Our county education associations were present for the reading, and they helped to draft the policy," said Assistant Superintendent Mary Pierczynski.

The new dress code would replace a longtime policy that administrators say is vague and difficult to enforce. The next reading and a vote on the policy change will be Jan. 11.

The district first considered a policy change in October, and at that time brought in the district's teacher associations to discuss policy changes being considered.

The new policy reads that men should not wear shorts more than 4 inches above the knee, tank tops, muscle shirts, sweat suits or warmups, collarless T-shirts, Spandex/Lycra as on outer garment or similar tight fitting outfits.

For women, shorts or skirts more than 4 inches above the knee, provocative shirts, tank tops, crop tops which show the midriff area, muscle shirts, sweat suits, warmups, Spandex/Lycra as an outer garment or similar tight outfits should not be worn.

For shoes, both men and women cannot wear slippers, work boots, foot thongs, sandals with no hosiery (unless approved by the principal or supervisor in hot weather), and other casual foot apparel.

Trustee Jean Kvam said she was pleased with the code as presented.

Both trustees Julie Bulter and Stacie Wilkie agreed that it was important to ensure that those educators who were required to do specific duties were exempted when appropriate.

"The special education teachers and the teachers who deal with the little kids are behind it, too," said Wilkie. "They have to do a lot of work that requires them to bend and get down on the floor."

Vocational, physical education, and operations employees (custodian, transportation, maintenance, grounds) were included in a special section in the code.

"We think that we've gotten the employee input," Pierczynski said. "What I asked for from the board was to please let me know what they didn't like about the policy. There may be questions between now and January, but they didn't have direct questions the night of the presentation."