Dothan City School Board unanimously approves uniform plan

The Dothan City School Board spoke with one voice on the issue of school uniforms Monday night.

The board voted to back Superintendent Sam Nichols’ decision to appoint a committee to draft a school uniforms policy.

School Board Chairman Steve Stokes said he supports school uniforms because he feels the policy will improve discipline and school pride and reduce time currently wasted by school officials on interpreting the current dress code.

“We want to stay away from any type of urban wear that can be construed as gang-related,” he said.

The Dothan City Schools last flirted with the idea of school uniforms in the late ‘90s, adopting a voluntary uniforms policy that ultimately got the cold shoulder from the public.

Stokes said that he’s hoping for a mandatory policy this time.

Stokes declined to name the members of the committee. The Dothan Eagle will obtain and publish a list of the committee members as soon as it becomes available.

According to Stokes, public input into the issue is wanted and any policy decision will take financially stressed families into account.

The committee will likely return a recommendation within a month and the school board will vote on the matter later this year.

The board also heard the public presentation of the school system’s yearly audit Monday night.

Accountant David Parsons gave the city schools a clean bill of financial health, but showed that school system expenditures had overrun incomes for the past two years.

Mike Manuel, chief financial officer, said the system was making cutbacks to address this matter, including leaving open some positions left vacant by resignations and retirements.