- April 28, 2024
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Usually, when student board members speak at School Board meetings, it’s to give a brief, cheery update on what’s happening at their high school, not to ask for policy changes. But at a Nov. 18 board meeting, Matanzas High School student School Board member Michael Manning boldly bucked that trend, asking the board to consider a revision to the district’s uniform policy.
“What I’m asking for is that the board will have a conversation about a very small change — I’m not asking you to go back to three years ago — just a very small change,” he said. “On Fridays, students can either wear a polo shirt or an already approved spirit wear shirt. … I’m asking that we expand the Friday spirit wear so that students can wear the already approved spirit shirts any day during the week.”
District policy currently requires high school students to wear solid-color polos or button-up shirts Monday to Thursday, and allows “spirit shirts” — T-shirts with the logo of the school or school clubs and teams — on Fridays. The money from the T-shirts' sale often finances school-related activities, and Matanzas also recently opened a school store that sells the shirts, Manning said.
“This is going to help students, and it’s going to help the schools,” he said. “That (Matanzas) store sells, I’d say, about nine or 10 different shirt designs. Now, if the board allows students to wear school spirit shirts every single day, those sales are going to go up, and it’s going to make more money for the schools.”
Manning said he liked wearing the school uniform polos, but knew that many other students didn’t and would prefer to wear spirit shirts. He asked the board to place the change on an upcoming agenda that would be open to public comment.
“Whoa! Here come the high schools,” board member Sue Dickinson interjected. She suggested placing the issue on a workshop agenda.
School Board Chairwoman Colleen Conklin agreed. “It probably is about time, to be honest, that the board as whole a look at, basically, a check-in, with student discipline, dress code violations — you know, a data report. … and one of the items for that possible workshop could be this discussion," she said.
The downside, she said, would be that having the discussion in a workshop instead of a regular board meeting would mean that there would be no public comment. But, she told Manning, “You can participate in the board workshop as a board member, and be the voice for the students.”
Conklin suggested that Manning coordinate with the student School Board member from Flagler Palm Coast High School, and thanked him for raising the issue. “I think if we are honest and we stay true to the intent of why we have a student board member, it is for exactly these reasons,” she said.
The board agreed by consensus to discuss the proposed uniform policy modification during a workshop to be held at 5 p.m. Dec. 16.
