By By Kerry Whipple Bean – publisher
Students at the three W.S. Neal schools will soon be able to show their true colors.
A slight change in the dress code for the schools will allow students to wear royal blue, one of the East Brewton schools' colors.
Students, who currently wear navy or white golf shirts and khaki pants or skirts as part of their uniforms, will be able immediately to wear royal blue along with navy or white.
But to ease the transition for parents and vendors, principals decided to allow students to wear any of the three colors for the remainder of this year and all of next year. Royal blue will be the required color beginning with the 2009-2010 school year.
Neal Middle School Principal Dennis Hadaway said he and the other Neal principals wanted to make sure parents and stores had plenty of time to purchase the new shirts, so that it wouldn't be a hardship on anyone.
Letters went home to parents in recent days informing them of the uniform change. Nothing else about the dress code will change, Knott emphasized.
Knott and Hadaway said they met with Neal High School Principal Phillip Ellis earlier this year to discuss the change. All three principals wanted to promote unity and school spirit among the schools, Hadaway said.
The principals informed the school board of the change, but no action on the board's part was necessary. Students at other county schools, including Pollard McCall and Flomaton, already wear their own school colors.
Jennifer Howard of Nena's Place in East Brewton, which sells uniform shirts and pants, said the store has already marked down its navy jackets and will let the navy shirts in stock sell out as part of the transition to royal blue.
Howard said some parents have been confused about the transition timeframe, so she emphasized that students will be allowed to wear the navy and white through the rest of this year and next school year.