Making a Uniform Appearance Affordable

If the Long Beach schools’ mandatory uniform policy succeeds, it will be partly because of people like Dr. Charles Durnin.

The school board recently voted to require all 57,500 kindergarten through eighth-grade students to wear uniforms beginning next school year, without providing funds to help underprivileged families pay for them.

Enter Durnin, one of almost 350 “business partners” adopted by the district three years ago to offer funding and other help to specific schools.

“Now we have businesses across the community that identify with a specific school,” said Karin Polacheck, school board president. “It’s the type of personal relationship that brings in money for uniforms.”

Durnin, an orthopedic surgeon whose son attends private school, donated $2,000 to Rogers Middle School.

“I haven’t been happy with the school system,” Durnin said. “The reason my son is in private school is that he’s an excellent student and there are a lot of kids in public school who don’t want to learn. Anything I can do to change the environment, I’d like to do.”

Officials at Rogers were grateful.

“That was all we needed,” said Principal Pat Lawrence.

Bob Carney, dean of students, said: “We do have a problem with poverty. We have kids who can’t afford more than one uniform and they’re hard to keep clean. But now I can sit in my window and spot a stranger on campus and be on him. And kids don’t have to sweat the gangs.”

Uniforms in Long Beach will be different at every school. Most consist of pants, shorts or a skirt and a polo-type shirt or blouse in school colors.

“The uniforms we’re discussing are not elaborate, where you would have to buy expensive shoes or jackets,” said Dick Van Der Laan, a district spokesman. “The uniforms cost less than regular school clothing, so parents will save money.”

Two sets of clothing should cost less than $75, Van Der Laan said. In the 10 Long Beach test schools where voluntary uniform policies were enacted last year, Van Der Laan said cost was not a problem.

The district is relying on business partners, PTAs and churches for funding, Van Der Laan said. Although specifics are not yet worked out, one of the goals is to equip schools with loaner uniforms that students might use if they arrive in street clothes. And while many officials in Long Beach don’t expect problems with costs, some districts already in uniform have found it difficult.

“My community is quite needy economically; 98% of the families are well below the poverty level,” said Judith Magsaysay, principal of Pio Pico Elementary School in Santa Ana, where a voluntary policy was adopted in 1991 at the request of parents.

Still, the policy has worked well, she said. About 75% of the students own a uniform and about 50% wear them.

“Those who can’t afford it can usually keep up with the colors,” she said.