Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Emmet School Board Decides Against School Uniforms

There will be no uniforms at the Emmet schools for students.

The district's uniform committee met with the Emmet School Board Monday, May 1, and recommended uniforms not be required for students.

Board member Jack Faulkner said the committee and district took a long time to make the decision, but it's one he agrees with.

Faulkner said requiring uniforms would take away from the student's individuality and Emmet has no gang problems to worry with so colors are no trouble. "We have good kids here. I can see where this would be a problem in bigger schools."

Emmet Superintendent Dr. Gene Ross told the board the voters could petition to get this measure on the ballot, and it would only take 5 percent of the voters to do it. But, this is only if the parents want the students to wear uniforms.

Faulkner said going to uniforms would require the parents to buy twice as many clothes and do more laundry but it wouldn't make the children any smarter.

Another clothing issue discussed by the board was the length of shorts worn to school.

Faulkner's opinion was if the shorts looked decent they should be allowed, but shouldn't be too revealing.

Two elementary school students were sent home to change because the shorts were more than five inches above the knee.

Frank Henson, Emmet High School principal, said more leeway is allowed on the high school level, but two students were sent home from EHS recently because their shorts were too short.

Henson said the problem tends to be with girls wearing shorts too short, because the boys tend to prefer the long, baggy shorts.

Faulkner said the shorts should be in the area of four inches above the knee.

The district has a rule it can fall back on and enforce if students try to push the limits too much.

Complaints were also lodged against the food in the cafeteria.

Faulkner said students have told him the food is bad, but hasn't tried it himself.

There are three lunch periods for students at Emmet.

Ross said there are some problems in this area, with one being the cafeteria workers not getting an accurate count for how many will be eating lunch.

There are times when the cafeteria runs out of food, or some items because of inaccurate counts.

Each day students are asked if they will be eating in the lunchroom or not. Sometimes the students change their minds and this leads to problems.

Ross said the lunches meet state guidelines with a meat, two vegetables and bread, with the district trying to add a dessert.

The district also received $10,000 in commodities, he said, and must take what is sent. The menu follows the commodities received

Students, though, will get their chance to design a menu to suit their taste to see if this will help.

Floyd Pollock, primary school principal, said there are 182 students enrolled in the elementary side.

Henson said there were 115 in EHS.

He added the seniors will be honoring Alana Block, who died in a recent fire. Block's basketball jersey, No. 23, will be retired, and a memorial table will be set up at graduation Friday, May 19 in her honor.

In addition, a chair will be reserved for her in the senior line, with a member of the family to receive her diploma.

Kindergarten students will graduate from Emmet May 30 at 8 p.m. in the Emmet gym.

Ross said the district received a grant for $34,503 to equip its vocational home economics classroom.

This, he said, is more than expected, even though the grant request was for $39,000.

The money will be used to buy appliances, along with a vacuum cleaner, bread maker, coffee maker, a refrigerator with an ice maker, two sinks, a computerized iron, four computers, two ranges and two microwave ovens.

It will also be used to purchase silverware and other kitchen needs.