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No standardized dress for Commerce ISD

By Kevin Jefferies

Commerce – There will be no standardized dress code for the Commerce ISD. A motion to accept a standardized dress policy failed when the vote was tied 3-3, as one board member was absent from last night's regularly scheduled meeting.

Interim Superintendent Buddy Echols said the policy that had been created in committee was the one the school likely should use, if the board implemented a standardized code at all. He said at this point, the matter was a philosophical one for the board to make.

Board members sat silent at first, with no discussion. After some questions of the dress code infractions at the high school, Donna Tavener voiced her support for standardized dress.

Board member Willie Blow said the survey showing disapproval by parents for the dress code prevented him from supporting the policy.

Eventually, Tavener made a motion to accept the drafted dress code. In a 3-3 tie vote, Tavener, Russell Armstrong, and Bob McLeroy voted in favor of standardized dress, while Medley Wilson, Willie Blow, and Board President Debbie Akin voted against the measure. Frank Ashley was not in attendance, and with a tie vote, the motion failed.

In other action, the board heard a report on the qualities a search firm would look for in a new superintendent. After surveying CISD teachers and staff and community members, the firm found that just about everyone's priorities for superintendent matched the original list given by the school board.

The board also received a report on delinquent taxes, with over $100,000 tied up in the bankruptcy of two apartment complexes in Commerce. The board also approved the repairs for the chiller system at the middle school and the cooling tower at the high school, as well as replacing a grease trap at the middle school.