Dress Code Dilemma -- Smith Wants New Policy
From The Euclid Sun Journal Ð page A1
February 8, 2007
By Susan Ketchum
New school board president Kent Smith wants to have a new dress code policy ready for a vote by the end of the month.
The board has discussed the issue for about a year, but has yet to decide on whether to go to a uniform dress code or enforce the old one more strictly.
The board has until March 1 to implement a new policy and give parents the six months notice required by the state.
"What the components of the dress code will look like is something we will have to figure out over the next (three) weeks," Smith said.
A new dress code is only one of SmithÕs goals after being elected president last month. Donna Sudar remains as vice president.
Other goals include keeping the district in "continuous improvement" status or better, finding a way to "get more positive PR out" about the continuous improvement and deciding the fate of the old Russell Erwine School, off East 250th Street, and the bus garage on Babbitt Road.
He said the two properties were a hot topic during the school board campaign in fall of 2005, when Smith, Angela Lisy and Donna Sudar ran for the board, but the properties were not on last year's agenda.
"Clearly those properties could be utilized better," Smith said. "The Russell Erwine property could be housing, and the bus garage could be either housing or retail, or a combination."
Both properties are used by the mechanical and maintenance staff. Other activities now held in the school would have to be moved, he said, but he suggested that the properties could be sold to developers, which would bring money to the district and improve the city.
"We, the school district, need to be a partner with the city for redevelopment, when we can be," Smith said.
Smith, who is in his second term on the board, was disappointed at not being elected president last year. Now he says, heÕs ready for the task.
"ThereÕs two different forms of school leadership. ThereÕs levy year leadership, and there is non-levy year leadership. In years when you do not have a levy on the ballot, it is important to make some progress," Smith said.
