Survey on Uniforms Gets Low Priority : Ventura: Despite schools chief’s request for parent poll, some principals say they are waiting for legal questions to be resolved.

Nearly half of the principals in Ventura’s 17 elementary schools have largely ignored a plea from the city’s schools chief to gauge parents’ support of mandatory student uniforms.

More than three weeks after Supt. Joseph Spirito urged principals to test opinion about the issue in their schools, only one principal has started to do so.

Eight other elementary principals said they have discussed the issue with parents and teachers in passing, but have no plans to formally gather opinions. Another eight principals could not be reached Thursday for comment.

Many principals said they have taken no action on Spirito’s proposal because they are preoccupied with other matters. A statewide academic achievement test administered to fourth-graders is scheduled to be given in coming weeks. Meanwhile, others said they are busy drawing up budgets and planning curriculum for next year.

“There would have to be a lot more interest from the community before I would start getting excited about uniforms,” said Jose Montano, principal at Will Rogers School. “Not one parent has come and asked me about it.”

Some school leaders said they are reluctant to spend time on the issue until they know whether a student uniform requirement could withstand a legal challenge.

The state Senate last week passed legislation that would give public school officials the power to require students to wear uniforms. Under the bill, uniform policies would be agreed upon by principals and parents on a school-by-school basis.

Uniforms for poor students would be provided by private sources, such as civic groups or parent-teacher organizations, according to the bill.

The bill, which has been touted as an anti-gang measure, now goes to the Assembly floor, where it is expected to face a stiffer challenge from the Assembly’s Democratic majority.

Other elementary principals said they are waiting for the results of a back-to-basics school committee, which is also investigating the legality of requiring school uniforms.

“Why make any conclusions right now when there are so many unanswered questions out there,” Lincoln School Principal Paul Jablonowski said. “As far as I know, most of the principals are looking at it on a wait-and-see basis.”

Montalvo School’s Marie Atmore is one who is not waiting.

Atmore said she has talked to her parent-teacher association and the Montalvo school site council about whether they want school uniforms.

“They’re not for a uniform, per se,” Atmore said. “They’re for restrictions on what’s worn to school.”

Already, Montalvo, like all Ventura schools, forbids students from wearing gang-like attire and baseball caps. As part of its restriction against gang attire, the school has forbidden children from wearing a variety of clothing styles, including overalls with one strap up and one strap hanging down.

Atmore is considering even stricter standards for the next school year, but first she plans to convene a committee of parents in August to see if she has support.

“It has to come from the grass roots up,” Atmore said. “Otherwise, you get a lot of resistance.”

Spirito, who has not received reports from any elementary school, said he is not disappointed by the principals’ apparent lack of interest in the issue. His call was not a mandate, but merely a suggestion that principals gauge opinion on the matter and report back, he said.

“I think they are waiting to see what happens with the back-to-basics committee before they do anything,” he said. “And they are looking to Sacramento for guidance.”

Spirito appointed a back-to-basics committee--made up of parents, teachers, students and administrators--to examine the idea of forming a single elementary school that would employ academic discipline, parental involvement and, possibly, uniforms.

The superintendent said he has repeatedly been asked why such tough standards could not be applied to all of the city’s schools. In response, he asked principals to gauge opinion about mandatory student uniforms.

A Times survey conducted earlier this month showed parents split over the issue. Fifty-six parents favored uniforms as a way to blur the distinction between rich and poor students and enhance discipline.

But 44 parents didn’t like the idea, saying that gang problems occur mainly at middle and high schools and that uniforms squelched individuality.

Dan Munday, principal at Poinsettia School, said the uniform issue may be dormant for now, but it has not been forgotten.

“There’s no rush,” he said. “We will get to it when we get to it.”

Correspondent Maia Davis contributed to this story.