Representing the voices of a number of parents who opposed the separate school board’s decision was Sharmila Kulkarni of the Parent Coalition for Reasonable Uniform Policy. Kulkarni addressed trustees at last Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting, outlining her concerns to board officials on the policy’s unfairness.

The decision to amend the 2004 elementary school uniform policy would require parents to purchase uniform pieces from board-approved suppliers as these suppliers would have the exclusive rights to the school’s logo, which would then need to be embroidered on uniform tops.

Members of the Parent Coalition for Reasonable Uniform Policy believe that cresting should be optional. “The evidence shows that mandatory cresting restricts choice, limits uniform reuse and perhaps most significantly, embroidered shirts purchased from uniform suppliers cost up to three times the price of comparable shirts at other retailers,” said Kulkarni.

Currently, each elementary school across the board has its own uniform cresting policy, which was implemented following discussions with the school’s principal, parent council and the school community. Some elementary schools, including Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Carlisle, require students to sport the school’s crest, whether the logo is embroidered or patched on. However, at St. Joseph’s in Hamilton, the issue of uniform cresting is left up to the parents.

“Some parents prefer crests, some parents prefer no crests,” noted Kulkarni. “This range of preferences can be accommodated by a universal, optional cresting policy that respects parents’ rights to choose where they acquire their children’s uniforms.”

Revoking a parent’s right to chose where they shop for their children’s clothes has one Carlisle mom seeing red. The local resident, who wished to remain anonymous, sends her two daughters to OLMC, where uniform cresting is mandatory.

“I buy my kids’ shirts at Old Navy and The Children’s Place for a quarter of the price,” she explained, adding that she sews the school crest onto each of her daughters’ shirts. When their outfits are worn and tattered, the mother of two reuses the sewn-on crest patches by fastening them onto new pieces of clothing.

“I do buy stuff from the supplier,” she confessed. “But I want it to be my choice...I don’t like being told what I can and can’t do when it comes to my money.”

According to PCRUP, short-sleeved golf shirts that adhere to the board’s uniform policy can be purchased at various retail locations, including The Gap, Old Navy, The Children’s Place and Giant Tiger, which charge $19.50, $10.50, $14.50 and $5.97 respectively for white tops. Board-approved suppliers, including RJ McCarthy and Bombardieri, charge $16.

“If in fact you can purchase a similar product at a lesser amount, I’ve never had a problem with that because it made sense,” said trustee Raymond Bartolotti.

Noting the benefits of uniforms, the trustee for Wards 9-11 stressed his beliefs that uniforms save parents money and have provided a sense of equity between “individuals who had and individuals who did not have.”

However, Bartolotti questioned the basis of the trustee’s discussions over mandatory embroidered cresting and the confusion that reigned around the board table at last Tuesday’s meeting.

“How we got into this bloody mess over a friggen crest, I cannot believe it. We are all aggravated, we are arguing against each other over what, a lousy crest? It doesn’t make sense. We’ve closed schools without this much aggravation,” he said.

When trustees were presented with a staff recommendation to implement a new uniform policy last June, “We thought in good faith we were doing the right thing,” said Bartolotti.

To allow for further discussion with elementary school principals, parent councils and HWCDSB families, trustee Ralph Agostino suggested that no school implement the June motion that would make embroidered cresting mandatory as of September 2010. Following further discussion, it was approved that the board’s administration come back to trustees by January 2011 with at minimum an interim report on the issue.

Until then, elementary schools will continue to operate under their respective uniform code, of which roughly 30 elementary schools across the board have mandatory cresting.

Following last Tuesday’s meeting, members of PCRUP who weren’t able to make it out to the committee of the whole meeting were updated via email, which described the open-to-the-public meeting as a “confusing and embarrassing fiasco.” The email further explained that board trustees voted to maintain the status quo until at least January 2011.

While the Carlisle mom is pleased to see the June motion rescinded, she expects the HWCDSB will “push” for the implementation of mandatory embroidered crests, an issue that PCRUP will continue to lobby against.

For information on the HWCDSB’s uniform policy, visit www.hwcdsb.ca/parents/uniforms or www.justuniforms.org for information about PCRUP.