Expect a Hot Debate on Dress Code at Troy Board Meeting

Amy Modzelewski has been a middle school teacher for 16 years. She has been a mother for 11 years. And she brings a unique perspective to the dress code issue that once again will come up for discussion at the June 19 meeting of the Troy School Board.

Modzelewski, 41, who teaches Spanish and P.E. at Hill Middle School in the Indian Prairie School District, grew up in Joliet. She attended Holy Family School and Joliet Catholic Academy.

“I wore a uniform my whole life,” she said.

She wanted her own children to be able to express themselves and have the freedom to dress as they wished for school—all within reason, of course. She enrolled them in public schools, then was incensed when she learned earlier this spring the Troy School Board had adopted a new standardized dress code for the 2013-14 school year.

The dress code calls for all children in grades 5-8 to be outfitted in khaki pants and a solid color shirt for school each day. The shirt can have a logo—but no bigger than a pocket-size logo. Students also will be allowed to dress in Troy Spirit wear.

No blue jeans will be allowed.

Modzelewski plans to attend the June 19 board meeting with her husband, Kevin, 44, who works as a salesman for Orgill, a hardware distributor out of Memphis, Tenn. The two live in Shorewood. Their boys, Andrew, 11, and Matthew, 8, attend Troy schools.

Andrew will be a sixth-grader at William B. Orenic Intermediate School in the fall and will be directly impacted by the dress code if board members refuse to backpedal after hearing renewed discussion on the topic. No action is expected to come from the June 19 meeting.

“What I would hope would happen is the board gives the opportunity for the public to speak and that they take their comments seriously and give me some direction as to whether they intend to stay with the current policy,” Troy School District superintendent Don White said.

“I’ve seen both perspectives—coming from a parent and coming from a teacher,” Amy Modzelewski said. “I’m at a school with 900 kids and probably one that has more diversity than Troy. We rarely have issues with dress. When we do, we pull the kids from the classroom and send them down to the administrators and let them handle it.

“They’ll call the parents or come up with appropriate consequences so it doesn’t happen again.”

Modzelewski feels strongly the actions of a few students who do not dress appropriately for school should not affect so many others who regularly are in compliance with common-sense standards. And she does not see a need for a dress code, not without the board providing logical reasoning instead of pushing forth what she believes is an agenda.

Her husband, Kevin, said for every piece of research that White or board members produce to show how a dress code can positively impact the learning environment and the education of students in a given school building there is an equal and opposite number of documents out there to contradict that argument. He cited one article written by sociologist David L. Brunsma subtitled, “The school uniform movement continues to grow despite research indicating that it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.”

“Let the kids be kids,” Modzelewski said. “If you put them in uniforms—it’s hard to put into words—but I think that gives you a vanilla flavor of education. I’d like my kids to get a complete education—not a vanilla one. I don’t see a reason for adding a dress code. I don’t think it’s a big problem now.

“They’re estimating about 5 percent of the kids are causing problems. Why penalize the other 95 percent? You’re not going to get a better education if you throw a uniform on the kids. You can’t put a new coat of paint on an old house and expect it to be a new house.”

Modzelewski met with White and school board president Mark Griglione two weeks ago and the three men talked for a couple hours. One revelation came out of the meeting: Modzelewski learned the Troy district will be responsible for paying for uniforms for at least some of the impoverished children who qualify for the district’s free lunch program.

White said between 32 and 40 percent of students in the district meet requirements for the free or reduced cost lunch program. He estimated the cost to outfit those students—with two pairs of Khaki pants and two shirts each—would be about $40,000 a year.

Amy Modzelewski guessed the figure would be much higher and deemed the act of buying uniforms for some students a waste of taxpayer money.

“I don’t think there is any way two pairs of pants and two shirts would last the entire school year,” she said. “So, I think the cost could be double or triple that. And that’s a big factor here. I don’t think the school board let the public know about the money it would cost to do this. That’s money that could be spent in the classroom.”

White said money to pay for student uniforms would come from the school district’s general fund.

“It’s not necessarily an issue of having the money,” he said. “It’s the principle that some people are struggling with here. I’m going to do my best to budget and comply with the board’s wishes. But, would I rather the money go elsewhere? Sure.”

White said he senses some Troy school board members are open to a new discussion on the dress code issue. He said others want to put the issue behind them and move forward.

The June 19 meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Troy district office, 5800 W. Theodore, Plainfield, Ill.

The Modzelewskis are urging parents to attend the meeting and to raise their voices.

“There’s power in numbers,” Kevin said.

“My hope is they reverse their policy and bo back to what was in place,” Amy said. “Use next year to collect data, talk to other school districts and look at possible solutions.”