Creating a more uniform Lawrence

With more than half of the surveys returned out of the 2,000 sent out, the response to Lawrence students from kindergarten through eighth grade wearing school uniforms was overwhelmingly positive, district officials said during a town hall-style meeting on June 22.
Along with implementing the Princeton Plan, where students will be grouped by grade level at three schools: the Number Two, Number Four and middle school; the children will be donning shirts, pants and skorts in Lawrence’s representative blue and gold colors, when school reopens in September. The Number Five School is being leased to the Shulamith School, a yeshiva for girls that will use the Cedarhurst building for their first to eighth grade school and their new high school.
The Number Four School will be known as the Early Childhood Center and will be home to the pre-k and kindergarten students. Along with the first- and second-graders at the Number Two School, which is now the Primary School, the kindergarteners will wear uniform shirts or shirts with school graphics.
Grades three, four and five that will comprise the Elementary School at the Broadway Campus (in the middle school building) will wear yellow or gold collared three-button long or short sleeve polo shirts with navy bottoms. Options include the skort — a pair of shorts with a flap across the front, back or both to give the appearance of a skirt — Bermuda shorts, capris or pants.
Students at the Middle School at the Broadway Campus, grades six, seven and eight, will wear light blue tops with navy bottoms with the skort, Bermuda shorts, capris or pants option. A vest or sweater can also be worn to enhance the outfit district officials said. For all students jeans are not part of the uniform. Specific shoes and belts are not mandated.

“This was something that needed to be decided by the parents,” said Superintendent Gary Schall, adding that the response to having the uniforms was 3-1 in favor in three out of the four schools, and at the Number Four School, where 75 percent of the surveys were returned, it was 4-1.
District officials said that the items can be purchased at such stores as Target, JCPenney and Walmart, and they are negotiating with a vendor that will make a visit to the Broadway Campus.
Dr. Ann Pedersen, the district’s deputy superintendent, who oversees instruction and curriculum and principal of the Early Childhood Center, said that in the future the district will set up uniform swaps to help parents cut down on the cost of buying new uniforms. “We think that having a uniform will make students feel part of the school family and school community,” she said.
Schall did say that based on state education law, the district cannot compel students to wear the uniform, but from the substantial positive response it appears that won’t be an issue.
“I love it,” said Inwood resident Wendy Mendoza, the mother of two boys, a third- and a fifth-grader. “It will much to dress the kids for school.”
Daniel Vasquez, another Inwood resident, thinks having the students wear uniforms will help with keeping the kids safe. “It’s good, we can see who belongs at the school,” said the father of two girls, one 10 and the other 13.
Fourth-grader to be Celvin Fuentes, 9, who will attend the Elementary School at the Broadway Campus, said he looks forward to wearing the gold shirt. “It’s good, he said, it’s the school colors. I like the gold.”