School Uniform Proposal Draws Lackluster Backing : Education: Only three of the 17 elementary campuses in the Ventura district show enough interest among parents to pursue the idea.

Six months after the Ventura Unified School District proposed that elementary schools require students to wear uniforms, the overwhelming majority of schools have given their answer.

No thanks.

Informal school surveys and reports from principals show only lackluster support for uniforms among parents at 14 of the district’s 17 elementary schools.

“The interest was not there,” Oak View School Principal Shelley Pratt said. “We’re satisfied with what we have.”

Only three of the district’s elementary schools--Poinsettia, Mound and Arnaz--found enough parent interest to explore the issue further, officials said.

With the lack of enthusiasm at most elementary schools, officials have now begun an effort to enlist parental support for uniforms at middle schools. Cabrillo Middle School plans to send out written surveys next month, and Anacapa Middle School has already begun calling its 1,000 parents.

But so far the people conducting the surveys are avoiding using the word uniform in their dealings with parents.

“The word uniform just makes people gasp,” Anacapa Principal Charlotte McElroy said. So callers from the Anacapa Parent-Teachers’ Organization are asking parents if they would like to choose from a designated color scheme, McElroy said.

Asked if she thinks surveying parents on school uniforms without specifically mentioning uniforms might be misleading, McElroy said no.

Later this month, principals from all four middle schools, including DeAnza and Balboa, will meet to consider mandating that all students in grades six through eight trade in their shorts and leggings for dark slacks and plaid skirts. School officials said they would establish such a rule only with parents’ support.

Supt. Joseph Spirito likewise said elementary schools should only require uniforms if parents want it. “Although I personally would like to see it . . . I’m not going to push it,” he said.

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When Spirito first proposed school uniforms last spring, he said he wanted to begin at elementary schools. Parents of middle school students would more readily accept uniforms, he said at the time, if their children had worn them in lower grades.

But on Wednesday, the superintendent said he is open to middle schools adopting uniforms ahead of elementary schools if there is enough parental support.

Regardless of what individual schools decide, Spirito said he still hopes there will be at least one Ventura school whose students wear uniforms next year: a planned “back-to-basics” school to be established somewhere within the district.

Conceived as a magnet school that would draw students from around the district, the back-to-basics school would combine uniforms for students with required volunteer work from parents.

Parents, students and teachers would sign contracts agreeing to the school’s strict standards for dress and behavior.

A district committee is now trying to find a school to convert to the back-to-basics format, but has so far been unable to find any school where parents clearly want the proposed change. Some committee members have said they are leaning toward Will Rogers School, although Spirito did not include that school among the three where there is any significant parental support for uniforms.

Instead of converting the entire school to a back-to-basics concept, the committee has been discussing the possibility of launching a scaled-down version of the proposed school in a bank of empty classrooms at an old campus next to Will Rogers currently being used by the Ventura Adult School.

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Although Will Rogers has been singled out by some as a possible site, Spirito said Wednesday that the district still plans to approach a handful of schools in Ventura with the idea of converting to the back-to-basics format. He expressed hope that parents who have rejected the idea of uniforms might change their minds after considering the dress issue as just one part of a package.

“Although they would not support uniforms for the traditional school, they might if it converted to a new outlook,” Spirito said.

Meanwhile, the district’s main approach to the uniform issue is centering on the middle schools.

Anacapa’s Principal McElroy said Wednesday she maintains her long-held belief that uniforms would work.

“I really feel that that would give us a community feeling, that kids would know parents care, that we care,” she said.

The Anacapa Parent-Teachers’ Organization is surveying the school’s 1,054 parents by phone.

Of the 186 parents contacted so far by the school group, 72% have said they support a required color scheme, 22% were against the idea and 6% were undecided, McElroy said.

McElroy said she would not want all students dressing the same. Rather, the school is proposing only that children wear clothes of certain colors, such as blue and white.

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“We’re saying the girls can look at walking shorts, pants and a skirt, and the boys can look at the walking shorts and the pants,” McElroy said. Blue jeans may also be acceptable if they were clean and hemmed, she said.

Cabrillo Middle School Principal Kris Bergstrom, another advocate of uniforms, said some parents have asked for uniforms as a way to save money. “Parents have come to us and said, ‘Boy it would be a lot easier if you had a uniform. Then I wouldn’t have to spend $80 on skater shorts.’ ”

At back-to-school night this fall, Bergstrom asked 400 parents to stand if they supported high standards of behavior and dress. Everyone rose to their feet. But the school has not yet begun to ask parents specifically about uniforms.