The Cherokee Public School's board of education met Tuesday evening, Oct. 12. Eden Penoyer was waiting to address the board as the first order of business, after calling the meeting to order and taking roll.
During the Public Comment period, Penyor read aloud the second of two letters she's written to the school's administration recently, expressing concern that the school's dress code unfairly restricts girls, sexualizes them inappropriately, and promotes rape culture.
The letter read, in part, “From the bright and early age of 11, my teachers had decided for me and every other girl what was and was not appropriate for school.” Examples she cited included not allowing bra straps to show and shorts that must be “fingertip length” – which, given all bodies aren't identical, means different lengths on different bodies.
The reason given for many dress codes that are specific to girls is that girls' bodies distract boys from learning, she wrote.
“Why are females' shoulders, midriffs, legs and arms seen as being distracting when males' are not?” she asked. “The 'it will distract the boys' approach is misogynistic junk.”
Both genders are there to learn, but “while learning about long division and the three states of matter, girls are also learning the false importance put on their appearance,” she read. “This is just adding to the ever-present problem of undermining female education in favor of educating the males. It also perpetuates rape culture by implying that boys shouldn't have to learn to control their urges and that it's a girl's responsibility to watch what she wears; otherwise it's her fault.”
And, finally, Penoyer said the way the dress codes are enforced inappropriately sexualizes girls, because it requires teachers to look the female students up and down “trying to make a determination if they look sexual enough to be a problem. This sexualization of children and teens by these adults is disgusting, and it causes teens to constantly worry instead of focusing on their work,” Penoyer wrote.
The board didn't respond to the comments at the time, per meeting rules, but a couple items farther down the agenda, the issue was raised again.
Superintendent Bryce Schanbacher told the board he had been holding meetings with the student council before making changes to the dress code policy. “Some concerns were brought to me in September,” he said of his reasons for looking into the matter. Schools across the state are revising their dress codes, he said, and added that he had spoken with several other schools in the past month to see what other schools are doing. He also sent the school's dress code policy to the school's legal team for review.
“Bottom line, there is no perfect policy when it comes to dress code,” he said. “But it's up to us to set some boundaries, and there need to be some boundaries.”
The legal review found a few items that needed to be corrected (such as not referring to female students' “cleavage”), and those changes have been made.
Other changes included using the phrase “mid-thigh” in place of the previous “fingertip length,” and stating that t-shirts must be long enough to reach the wearer's waist while the person is standing with their arms down by their sides. Pants (like jeans) can't have holes in them above mid-thigh. Tight-fitting pants (like leggings) must be worn with tops that extend past the hips and “are not transparent.”
“The way things are worded now gives our administration and teachers more room to use judgment and make decisions,” Schanbacher said. “We will also be addressing how these situations come up and how they are dealt with. That has to be addressed. It's something we can get better at, so it's not embarrassing for the students.”
Schanbacher said he plans to continue holding monthly meetings with student council “to get communication going between administration and student body.”
The board approved the amended dress code policy.
School Activities and Changes; Tax Protest Frustration
Lane Pruett presented the annual dropout and student college remediation report. This year's report, he said, is based on 2019-20 data. During that period, the school had 2.6 dropouts, he said. There are various reasons a student might have left the school and gone on to another without Cherokee ever being notified, he noted.
As far as the college remediation portion of the report, of the 11 first-time degree-seeking college freshmen from Cherokee Public Schools in 2019, two needed remediation with something like English or math.
In other school news, fifth and sixth graders have begun “life-wise” lessons in which the students discuss social and emotional topics. Individual career activity plans, which begin in eighth grade, are being developed. A scholarships basics workshop was held. The student council held a blood drive, bringing in 24 donations in a four-hour period. Seniors attended the career fair at Northwest Technology Center, and several attended the health career fair. The school was holding a financial aid meeting the night of the board meeting.
In other school news, Pruett said that the school's one-act competition team won Regionals, and will perform at state. Also, the Wright family has donated $1,000 for students with various needs.
Schanbacher reported that he is working on improving teacher appreciation efforts at the school and warned that the tax protests that are holding so much of the schools' budget in thrall will continue to be a problem. “A little over $5 million is being protested again,” he said. “It's becoming very serious for our district and community. It's frustrating I can't say all the things I want to say about it, but there has to be some things addressed at the state level to take care of these problems because there's nothing to prevent these companies from doing this as long as they want. There's about $800,000 in escrow that should be paid to us. That could do a lot for our school, but we can't get it. There was supposed to be a hearing tomorrow, but that's been pushed back.”
Schanbacher also noted that the school has had 8 cases of Covid in the school this year so far, and as of that night no one with the school had the virus.
Other Board Business
The board approved the annual school board election resolution and approved closing precinct 760005 in Woods County and precinct 020110 in Alfalfa County, as there are 100 or fewer registered voters in those precincts.
The board also approved the consent agenda, consisting of minutes from prior meetings; activity fund and treasurer's reports; and encumbrances, purchase orders and warrants for the general, child nutrition and bond funds.
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