Sto-Rox High School students could have a few more options at their disposal when contemplating what to wear to class next fall.
The Sto-Rox School District Board of Trustees last week expressed support for a plan to eliminate uniforms for high school students starting with the 2026-27 school year.
A formal vote will be taken at the board’s June 24 meeting. Trustees also are scheduled to formally approve the district’s 2026-27 budget at that same meeting.
While the dress code would be eliminated for students in grades 9 through 12, younger students – those from kindergarten through grade 8 – would remain in uniforms, but several updates are being proposed, including the option to wear gray bottoms.
The current dress code only allows for solid black, navy, green or khaki bottoms.
District Superintendent Sonya Crues Coleman said the desire among high school students to have “greater freedom of expression in their attire” is the primary reason for the proposed dress code change for that age group.
A new set of dress rules addresses four major areas – headwear, lower garments, upper garments and footwear & accessories.
Beanies and religious or cultural coverings would be permitted inside the building, and hoodies also would be permitted as long as they are worn down. Bandanas are strictly prohibited, as are any messages pertaining to drugs, alcohol, weapons, gang affiliation or other offensive references.
Jeans with no revealing holes, shorts and skirts of reasonable length would be permitted, as would leggings accompanied by a top that covers the buttocks. Pajama pants and sleepwear are prohibited and form-fitting pants would require appropriate coverage.
Tops must fully cover the stomach and midsection, and sleeveless tops must have straps wide enough to cover undergarments. Garments also must “appropriately cover the chest area,” according to a district document. Undergarments should not be visible.
In terms of footwear, sneakers, boots, Crocs, slides and flip-flops would be permitted, but no bedroom shoes or slippers would be allowed.
Blankets, sunglasses and accessories “utilizable as weapons” would be prohibited,” according to the district document.
As for Sto-Rox’s proposed budget, the district is planning to spend just under $42 million, with about 40% of that going toward salaries and benefits and another 30 percent or so going toward charter school tuition.
Property owners in the district would see their taxes increase by about $25 per year if that property has an assessed value of $50,000. For those with property assessed at $100,000, the increase would amount to $50 and for those with property assessed at $150,000, the increase would be about $75. That’s if the board approves the .5-mill increase as proposed.
Coleman said the increase equates to about the same amount of money needed to cover one payroll cycle.
The jump from the current millage rate of 31.7837 to the proposed 32.2837 amounts to about 1.57%, according to material on the district’s website.
Other scenarios that received consideration were a 3.1% increase or a 5.5% increase, but the half-mill increase is what’s being proposed.
Coleman said the district did all it could to keep the tax increase to a minimum.
“We did a lot of system alignments to ensure we could go the lowest possible, which is .5 mills,” she said. “We needed to do everything we could to take the burden off the taxpayer.”
Coleman, who came to the district last July 1, said the district went without a tax increase for many years and then was forced to implement a large increase several years ago.
“That hit families hard because it was a substantial amount,” she said. “We wanted to ensure we would not do that to families. We went as low as we could possibly go (in terms of a millage increase) that would still allow us to balance a budget and not have a substantial shortfall.
“We are balanced.”
The district was placed on what is known as moderate financial recovery status by the state in July 2021 after experiencing multiple years of operating deficits that depleted its financial reserves. The district is operating under a state-approved plan to work its way out of that status, but it likely will take several years to do so.
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