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Fashion under fire at schools

- By Molly Walsh -- Free Press Staff Writer

WINOOSKI -- Rachel Perras and Ljiljana Rakovic slink through the halls of Winooski High School wearing clingy tops, hip huggers and the confidence of teenagers who know they are in style.

And why not? Their form-fitting fashions are the unofficial uniform for teens and pre-teen girls across the country. There's just one problem. The school dress code wants them to cover up.

Because of the rules the two school chums have been asked to cover their midriffs, even, they say, when itsy-bitsy stretches of abdomen are exposed for nanoseconds.

Rakovic tells of the day she was innocently bending over to put her books in her locker and in the process bared a flash of contraband skin at her waist -- but not for long. "I got sent home," explained the 17-year-old. "I changed my shirt."

The injustice of the rules doesn't stop with school's ban on midriff tops, the teens say. What they find most unfair is the prohibition against spaghetti strap tops on school premises. For girls who have drawers full of the shoulder-baring shirts this edict is the equivalent of being denied a major food group.

"My biggest issue with the dress code is -- just allow spaghetti straps," pleaded 18-year-old Perras.

That's not likely to happen at Winooski High School, where Principal Brian Hoover faces a dilemma common to school administrators everywhere: How to enforce a G-rated school dress code in a world where R-rated fashions won't seem to go out of style.

Though some administrators say skimpy clothing on girls is a phenomenon year-round -- even in wind-whipped, wintry Vermont -- warm weather tends to bring out more skin in the schools. That means principals, assistant principals and teachers find themselves reluctantly cast as fashion police.

Many administrators say scantily clad girls and teens present the number one dress code violation. That is, girls and their exposed navels, love handles, cleavage, bra straps and other categories of garments and flesh that school administrators would rather not see on display in classes and cafeteria lines.

Student handbooks all over Chittenden County use similar verbiage to remind students that they are dressing for school and not the set of a Christina Aguilera music video. The rules vary somewhat, but there are common themes. No exposed undergarments, no see-through materials, and no! no! no! to cropped tops and short shorts. These rules, administrators say, aren't easy to enforce in a culture where pop stars, actresses and all the stores at the mall seem to popularize clothing that looks as if it's been shot apart by heat-seeking missiles.

Armando Vilaseca, principal of Essex High School, has a stash of T-shirts he hands out to students who need to cover up. Calls to parents sometimes reveal that the student has shed layers between home and the school entrance.

"I've called parents and I've said 'I'm sending your daughter home or giving her clothes because she has a fairly provocative outfit on,'" said Vilaseca. "And they say, 'She left this morning with a big, baggy sweatshirt on.'"

Vilaseca reminds students that certain clothing isn't right for school or work settings. He also tells them dressing appropriately helps make a good impression.

"People make an impression of you based on how you are dressed," he said. "That's the reality."

At Champlain Valley Union High School in Hinesburg, Principal Val Gardner enlisted the student council last year to resolve an escalating problem: bare midriffs. They're not allowed under the rules of the student handbook.

"The guidelines basically say you've got to be covered -- the tops and bottoms need to meet," Gardner said.

Engaging students in the dialogue was helpful, she said, but it didn't bring all the tops and bottoms together. Gardner still has to enforce the rules and occasionally faces criticism of the "don't be such a prude" variety from dress code scofflaws.

"Even in the dead of winter you have to do it," she said, "because it's a style. If one looks at what's being sold to kids, especially young women, it's the style now, the low-slung pants and the midriff being shown."

Of course there are plenty of students who don't need rules to tell them not to bare their belly buttons. Elizabeth Thibault, a 16-year-old at Winooski High School, doesn't like skimpy fashions.

Granted, Thibault is not immune from style and likes to cultivate an image -- as evident in the black Ramones sweatshirt, jeans, pink sneakers, pink braces, pink lipstick and generous application of eye makeup she wore to school one day last week. But she's not a fan of midriff tops.

"I don't like wearing stuff like that," she said. Nor is she seduced by the images of celebrities and singers strutting around in tiny clothes. "I don't like how artists have to sell their bodies to sell their records," Thibault said.

She thinks the dress code is a good thing for the school. "It's supposed to be a place of learning, not a place of showing off your body."

Other students agree, sort of. April Arnold, a Winooski High School senior, is critical of students who dress in revealing outfits, or as she put it -- "like a hootchie." With the warm weather arriving, Arnold wouldn't mind if the school's prohibition on spaghetti strap tops graduated early and never returned.

"As long as there's no cleavage I think it's all right," Arnold said.

Others complain that the dress code is not fairly enforced and that there is profiling, if you will, of female midriffs. "It seems like the guys get away with a lot more," said Perras.

Along with hip huggers, she was wearing a tank top with a colored bra strap showing on each shoulder, a small gold nose stud, a navel ring, and around her neck two reminders of her Catholic faith, one medallion for St. Christopher and another for the Virgin Mary.

The clothes were snug, but in her eyes no more suggestive than a male student in a muscle shirt. "If that's not a distraction or considered provocative, I don't see why tight hip huggers would be," she said.

Hoover and other administrators say it's not easy to keep up with dress code no-no's at school. "It's hard to enforce but we do it as much as we can," Hoover said. "We want an educational environment that is conducive to learning."

Furthermore, Winooski's rules do apply to boys. For example, the school asks students not to wear head attire in the building. As a result boys are sometimes asked to remove baseball caps or "do-rags" -- the Puff Daddy meets "Lawrence of Arabia" look in which a swath of fabric is stretched over the hair and secured in back.

The rule on headwear at Winooski reflects etiquette rules that say wearing hats inside is impolite, Hoover said.

He also spends a far amount of time asking boys to hoist up their pants and cover their underwear.

D.J. Desautels, a junior at Winooski High, was wearing his jeans last week around his waist -- but he likes the saggy pants look and occasionally has to be reminded by teachers to pull up his jeans.

"I just do it because it's comfortable," he said of the look. "It's not really that big a deal to me. Where my pants land is where they are staying."

He's not keen on the school rules governing attire and said he doesn't find the outfits girls wear at school to be distracting, with a few exceptions. Some of the exposed midriffs that sneak past the rules are just too much -- literally, from his perspective. "They're big girls and their stomachs hang out. That's very disturbing. I don't like to see that. It's just disturbing to me."

Contact Molly Walsh at 660-1874 or mwalsh@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com

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Promise of free car has students geared up

- By Molly Walsh -- Free Press Staff Writer

The assistant principal played game show host Wednesday and more than 600 students roared for a chance to "come on down" to the stage at Burlington High School to compete to win a free car.

Never mind that the object of desire parked up on the auditorium stage could generously be described as past its prime -- odometers don't lie and this one read 110,958 miles. And never mind that the vehicle -- a black 1995 Chevrolet Lumina with a thin orange racing stripe -- was snappy but probably not the make or model that teens rev up North Avenue in their dreams.

Just the chance to win wheels and turn the ignition on stage before an audience of cheering peers was excitement enough at the BHS annual event known as Renaissance Day.

Kids wanted the car, even kids who already have one. "I could sell it," explained sophomore Chris Duncan, who already has the use of a 1996 Saturn but still hoped to take home the Lumina (estimated value: $3,000.)

Duncan was in a fairly good position. He estimated he had at least 20 tickets in the raffle bin with his name on them. He didn't buy them; he earned them -- with A's and good attendance on his report card.

The car give-away is essentially a "Let's Make A Deal" between administrators and students. Students receive raffle tickets for academic success, good attendance and in some cases, good behavior. They are automatically disqualified from the deal if they are suspended during the school year.

The idea is to recognize student effort and achievement as well as build school spirit, said BHS principal Amy Mellencamp. "It's part of our incentive program to reward kids for doing well."

As assistant principal D.J. Weaver played emcee on stage and classic party tunes boomed out of the speakers, 20 names were drawn from what looked like hundreds, possibly thousands of tickets in a mesh cylinder.

Mayor Peter Clavelle was on hand to help with the drawings, as were representatives of Saturn of South Burlington, which donated the car. The judges drew 20 names, among them freshman Molly Hart, a freshman without a driver's license whose selection prompted much arm-waving and soprano shrieking.

But that noise was small compared to the roar that followed the drawing of senior Pascal Losambe's name. The BHS track star grew up in South Africa and hoped to drive the Lumina to his next destination, Middlebury College, where he starts his studies in the fall.

Then it was time for the big moment. One by one the student contenders picked keys off a table, got into the Lumina and tried to start the ignition without luck.

Who would be the winner? Not Pascal, crowd favorite, who expressed gracious disappointment ("Yeah, it would have been useful") after his defeat. And not young contender Molly.

Finally, with just a few contenders left, a school employee who was standing in for a Burlington Technical Center student took key No. 8 and gave it a try. Paydirt! The windshield wipers swished, the crowd whooped and bolted outside for a school barbecue.

The lucky winner: Milton High School senior Mandy Labrie. Labrie, who is taking an architecture and design course at Burlington Technical Center, couldn't be reached Wednesday. Teachers said Labrie plans to attend the University of Vermont in the fall.

"She'll be very excited," said Sandy Simonds, a Burlington guidance coordinator. "She's a very deserving student."
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Schools start composting

- By Molly Walsh -- Free Press Staff Writer

Thursday is pizza day at the cafeteria that serves Edmunds Elementary and Middle schools in Burlington. This week lunch was different: After downing their triangles of cheese and crust, students didn't simply scrape the remaining contents of their lunch trays into a trash bin.

Instead, they took part in an effort expected to divert tons of waste from landfills to the Burlington Intervale where it can be composted and used to fertilize gardens.

To that end, students carefully emptied food scraps and napkins into one bin, poured leftover milk and juice into another, put recyclable bottles into another and plastic utensils and plates into another.

Bright-colored posters helped youngsters navigate the sorting process and teachers and parent volunteers offered tips. Bianca Melloni, a first-grader on the school's compost squad, explained why the start-up program is a good thing.

"Because if you didn't compost then the world would be all trash," she said.

Edmunds Middle School students supported the effort, as well. "I think it's like, a really, really good idea and they should do it at all the schools," said Gabrielle Celeste, a sixth-grader.

"It really helps the kids notice how much they waste," said Cora Groves, also in sixth grade.

Students who are weighing and charting the waste discovered that in just one day this week, middle school eaters put 130 pounds of food, napkins and liquids into the compost bins. The early numbers suggest that 80 percent to 90 percent of the lunch waste the schools formerly sent to the landfill can be composted.

Keeping the waste out of the landfill is a big victory, said Holly Taylor, compost maven at the Intervale Compost facility. She's helping Edmunds and wants to see more schools get with the program. "We're optimistic. To see it happen here is really encouraging," Taylor said.

The Edmunds schools, which sit side by side on Main Street, join several others in Chittenden County that are turning lunch leftovers into garden fertilizer. Williston's Allen Brook School composted more than 3,000 pounds of food last year and this year the effort spread to the town's Central School.

Several other schools have tried composting but have for various reasons stopped, said Michael Kellogg, waste reduction specialist at The Chittenden Solid Waste District in Williston.

The sorting takes effort, and so does lining up a hauler. Some schools try composting on-site, which provides another learning opportunity for students and eliminates the energy and expense of hauling. But on-site composting requires someone to do the work.

"In any school environment there's so much stuff going on that in order to implement something of this nature requires a tremendous amount of effort," Kellogg said.

Edmunds parents, teachers and students have spent months planning the program that began this week. They persuaded All Cycle to pick up the scraps and take them to the Intervale free for the remainder of the school year. The benefits of composting were extolled in classrooms, assemblies and artwork.

Allen Brook students visited Edmunds to talk compost a few months ago. "We just shared stories and answered questions," said David Bolger, a third- and fourth-grade teacher at the Williston school. "Don't be afraid. Just jump into it," he advised any school considering composting.

Volunteers at Edmunds are hoping the composting program will do more than recycle waste. Bonnie Acker, mother of a seventh-grader, is noting what's thrown out and what's eaten. She wants to see more whole grains, fresh produce and Vermont food on the school menu. Many parents want to see a more varied menu, Acker said.

Compost cheerleaders hope the effort will spread to the entire Burlington district and reduce the $50,000 spent annually on trash pickup at city schools. Burlington Superintendent Lyman Amsden is receptive, but cautions that the effort needs champions at each school. "I think it's like anything else; if people buy into those things anything can happen."

Contact Molly Walsh at 660-1874 or mwalsh@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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Teacher pay cuts sought

- By Molly Walsh --- Free Press Staff Writer

In a year of record school budget defeats and heated debate about legislative efforts to alter the state education funding formula in Montpelier, some taxpayers are looking closer to home for cost controls: They're asking local teachers unions to renegotiate promised raises downward.

Requests to reopen contracts that guarantee fixed pay increases have surfaced this year in communities such as Essex, Burlington and Colchester. Many teachers oppose the idea, and so do some school board members.

Education observers say requests to reopen contracts occur around the state periodically and contracts are occasionally renegotiated to alter certain details -- but almost never to reduce teacher pay or benefits.

Nonetheless, as communities face difficult choices such as trimming sports and foreign language programs and teaching positions, talk about contracts is heating up. At least 49 school budgets were defeated on the first try this year in Vermont and some school boards are hearing "no" on the second try. Colchester voters defeated the local school budget last week for the second time, amid criticism that cuts in planned spending were insufficient.

"Our concern was taxes are really high," said Maureen Lewis, a Colchester resident who voted against the revised budget. "I think they should tighten their belts at the school."

Colchester Superintendent Pamela Carnahan said that along with general complaints about the level of school taxes, voters expressed "some anger on the recent teachers contract."

Some residents want the board to look for additional savings by reopening a three-year teacher contract that was approved last fall after 11 months of difficult negotiations.

Between base pay raises and raises for longevity, the contract is projected to increase teachers pay 5.75 percent the first year, 6 percent the second and 6 percent the third. Average teacher pay in Colchester is $46,250 annually.

Colchester School Board Chairwoman Mira Shea said that thus far the board has not sought to reopen negotiations. "I just don't know if it's realistic to expect that can be done or not," Shea said. "But it's probably a question that more school boards will be asking."

In Burlington, former school board member Michael McGarghan opposes the four-year teacher contract that the board approved last fall. The contract raised salaries this year 4 percent, and calls for subsequent raises of 4.52 percent, 5.9 percent and 4.3 percent in the final year, 2005-2006. Current teacher pay in the district runs from $30,483 to about $59,162.

The contract is too generous given the times, McGarghan said.

"It's hard for some people, including myself, to look at giving people increases well above the rate of inflation when the rest of us are feeling the pinch," said McGarghan.

The Burlington school board has not responded to McGarghan's request to push for renegotiations. People are frustrated with the school board, he said. "They don't have much faith and optimism that the board would do something as courageous as this."

Renegotiation

Reopening a contract requires agreement of both a board and union, and it's doubtful any union would agree to give back promised raises, said Lyman Amsden, Burlington schools superintendent.

Looking back over a decades-long career in Vermont public education, Amsden can't think of an example when a union agreed to reopen a contract to discuss reducing compensation, even when teacher job cuts were a possibility.

"I just haven't seen that kind of motivation where teachers say 'I'm willing to give up some of my money to protect somebody else's job," Amsden said. "We're not like the airline industry that's going to go bankrupt."

Terry Buehner, president of the Burlington Education Association, said the union has not been asked to renegotiate and is not interested in doing so.

"We are in the middle of the compensation range in the county. We teach the longest day in the county," she said. "And we feel that a possibility of opening the contract with the intent of lowering that compensation would not be appropriate."

In Essex, teachers are due a 5 percent raise next year that will bring their salary range from $33,484 to $66,968 annually -- among the highest in the state. The school board asked the local union to reopen negotiations last December in an effort to save money in a district, like many in Chittenden County, where the property tax equalization formula under Act 60 has contributed to big tax increases. The union declined.

"The Association wasn't about to reopen that," said Laurie LaPlant, a special education teacher in Essex. The contract came after long and difficult negotiations and teachers deserve the compensation it guarantees, she said. Teaching is a demanding profession that requires skill development on par with doctors and engineers, she said.

The public should not expect teachers to work for the low wages paid to previous generations of educators who relied on charity to get by, LaPlant said. "It is a calling," she said. "But it's not a calling like you're a nun."

Contact Molly Walsh at 660-1874 or mwalsh@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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Winooski voters face school budget of $7.38M

- By John Briggs -- Free Press Staff Writer

Schools, like coffee -- like everything -- cost more year after year, and that's as true in Winooski as it is across the state.

March 4, Winooski voters will give a thumbs up or down to a proposed budget of $7.38 million, up 11 percent from current spending of $6.63 million.

Residents will face a bigger tax bite with an increase from the current $1.43 to an estimated $1.67 per $100 valuation.

School Superintendent Ned Caron said the district, which has pledged to continue existing programs, has to contend with higher costs across the board, from special education needs to more expensive health insurance and rising wages.

Caron said that when the School Board began its budget deliberations, the first calculations added up to a 20 percent increase in spending.

"We reduced that to 11 percent," he said.

Winooski voters approved last year's budget on the first go-round, and Caron is hopeful they will do it again. "I'm optimistic," he said, "because a lot of people are understanding Act 60 much better."

In a mailing to Winooski voters, the school district reminded residents that Act 60, the state's education-funding law, benefits the small, blue-collar city. "All taxes raised by both the statewide and local share tax rate remain in Winooski," it said.

The mailing also noted that last year, "87 percent of all homeowners received an average school tax prebate of $418.67."

"It's not an extravagant budget," Caron said. "We are right in line with what it costs to run a system effectively. Just as parents have seen cost increases, it's unreasonable for a community to expect us to hold down costs when they're outside our control."
Municipal budget

Finding the dollars to do what needs to be done is as hard for the city as it is for the schools.

"We're strapped," City Manager Gerry Myers said.

As with the schools, increases in insurance costs and wages have been the chief cause of increased costs, Meyers said.

"We've paid $15,000 more each year over the last two years to insure our public buildings," he said, "and health insurance is up 35 percent over that time.

"The city has a smaller work force than it did 10 years ago," he added, "but the people-cost far exceeds the cost of 10 years ago."

The proposed budget of $3.9 million (with approximately $2.85 million raised through property taxes) is approximately $196,000 higher than last year's budget of $3.7 million.

The increased costs will be met with a 9 percent tax increase -- a 10 cent jump from $1.08 to $1.18 per $100 valuation.

Meyers said Winooski, which he described as generally "medium and low income and the most densely populated city in the state," faces difficulties as it tries to attract new business and residents, deal with policing issues and improve its housing stock.

"The actual dollar increases needed this year in Winooski are not any different than what other communities are facing," Meyers said, "and in some cases much lower. The difference is that other communities are seeing substantial growth to offset the increases.

"There's little space to be developed," he added. "How do we grow? There's only one way: up."

But high-rise buildings, Meyers said, could change the face of the old city and increase the population density.

"We would have to become more urban," he said, "and that's not acceptable to many people."

Contact John Briggs at 660-1863 or jbriggs@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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