Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Teacher Dress Code Approved

By JOHN MILLER

Teachers in the Gurdon School System will have a dress code they must follow this year.

In the regular monthly meeting of the Gurdon School Board, Tuesday, Aug. 19, the board voted to follow the policy set forth by the district's personnel policy committee.

The PPC's president, Freddie Horne, informed the board the committee had put the issue to a vote of the teachers, with the majority approving of the dress code.

Under the PPC guidelines, instructors in each school will select, by ballot, one day each week as "casual dress day." The policy states long walking shorts or blue jeans can only be worn by teachers on the designated day.

In addition, female teachers cannot wear t-shirts or tops longer than skirts or walking shorts.

Male athletic personnel will have to wear long pants when in any academic area of the schools, whereas female members of the athletic staff can choose between wearing long pants or a dress in academic areas.

However, under the new policy, exceptions to the dress code will be made for faculty members on field trips or decorating for school functions.

Horne said the PPC didn't address each individual article of clothing, but the policy presented is a working dress code.

In other business, the board heard about construction on the new Gurdon Middle School.

Superintendent Bobby Smithson said the bid packages have been finalized and plans were to open the bids on Sept. 4. However, there were some problems which set these plans back a week, so the bids will be opened Sept. 11.

Smithson said he's talked with the subcontractors who worked on the Gurdon High School project about bidding on the GMS job, but all of them are currently involved in other jobs.

This, he told the board, could be bad for the district. The more work there is available for the contractors, he said, the more they can charge for their services. Labor costs can blow the budget for the GMS project.

"There's a lot of work going on now," he said, "and they're busy. That's not good news."

However, the plans for the new school are completed, he said.

In talking about the GHS parking lot, Smithson suggested the board go ahead and make the necessary repairs instead of waiting for the lawsuit against the general contractor to be settled.

He said an engineer looked at the lot and said the base wasn't up to specifications. The specs called for 12 inches of gravel, and the gravel base just isn't there.

Smithson said the engineer suggested the district dig a food below the asphalt and put good clay gravel back, or use SB-2 for a better base; then go back with the asphalt overlay.

To maintain the lot, a concrete area for buses to turn around is needed. As it is, when the buses make their turns, their weight digs into the asphalt further damaging it.

Smithson said a French drain need to be installed in front to keep water from getting under the asphalt.

The district's attorney's, he said, suggested the district do the necessary repairs and try to recoup the money from the suit.

One of the final orders of business was to adopt a budget for 1997-98. Gurdon will be operating from a budget of $4.5 million for the current fiscal year, while anticipated expenditures total $3,950,514.

He said the district should have an ending balance of $645,058 at the end of the year -- if all goes well.