ANTIGO — At a meeting Monday night, the Antigo School Board approved updated employee handbook contracts which largely prohibit teachers from wearing certain types of informal clothing.
In the previous version of the handbook, the section labeled “Professional Appearance” was just a sentence in length and relatively up for interpretation, requiring teachers to dress “professionally and appropriate for their positions.”
The revised Professional Appearance section, in comparison, names certain types of clothing that will no longer be allowed, stating, “Unless there are special circumstances (Phy. Ed., some Tech. Ed., art, etc.) or a special event, it is understood that jeans and ‘activewear’ (particularly yoga pants, leggings, jeggings, or other skin tight clothing that reveal excessive body composition) worn alone is not considered professional attire.”
The revised dress code will go into effect when classes begin and, according to District Administrator Glenda Oginski, was proposed following focus group meetings held throughout the city last year.
“It’s some messaging that I received from the community through focus groups that we did last year sharing concerns about some of the professional dress of some of our staff,” Oginski said at the meeting Monday night. “And in fact, I’ve also received communication from our community as well commending the changes because they feel too that we are professionals and it’s hard sometimes to be able to tell the difference between who is a staff member and who is one of our students. So it’s important, I feel — we are professionals.”
Oginski emphasized that the clothing articles specified in the handbook as being outside the definition of professional dress actually still can be worn on a certain small number of days.
“There were some people who took this information to be that jeans or leggings would never be allowed, and that simply is not the case,” she said. “They will be allowed on particular occasions. If it’s a Maroon Monday, they would be able to wear jeans on that day. Leggings can be worn every day as long as there’s appropriate coverage to go along with that.”
During the public comment portion of the Human Resources and Finance Committee meeting a week prior, one veteran teacher in the district recommended jeans continue to be allowed. Monday, however, no members of the public spoke out on the issue, and the only board members who spoke on the topic expressed agreement with the revision.
“I grew up in a teacher’s house, I was a teacher, and I was always told, ‘To be paid as a professional, you should dress as one,’” said Board Member Scot Peterson. “Even in shop, [the teacher] always had on a collared shirt and khaki pants — his whole staff did. So I guess I applaud it.”
Jill Mattek Nelson, another board member, said the change is meant to hone in on “the level of professionalism” among the teaching staff, and that members of the community had discussed it even prior to last year’s focus groups.
“Staff wardrobe has been brought to me as a community member several years ago now, so way before this was a discussion topic — again, not in all staff or even in the majority of staff — but it’s been noted by others and posed to me and I wasn’t even a board member at a time,” Mattek Nelson said. “When you walk into a school, that’s a business. You’re running a business. So when your community members or a parent or whomever walks into your building, it should present as a business as well.”
Administrators also created separate handbooks for teachers and support staff to make them more streamlined and digestible for employees, according to Oginski.
The board voted to pass Monday’s motion to update the employee handbooks by a 7-0 vote. Board President Danny Pyeatt abstained from the vote, while J.D. Schroeder was absent from the meeting.
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