LOWELL School uniforms will be optional in the middle and elementary schools again this year after the School Committee last night voted to ignore its own subcommittee recommendation and allow parents to apply for waivers.

Frustration over the number of students who were ignoring or opting out of the mandatory uniform policy led the subcommittee to recommend earlier this month that the waivers be eliminated for the coming school year.

Last night, however, the full School Committee voted to retain the waiver rule, arguing that with school starting next week eliminating waivers would be unfair to those parents who were planning to opt out of the requirement and had already purchased other clothing for their children.

"I'm not in favor of an opt-out policy," said Mayor Rita Mercier. "However, I feel it would be unfair to change it at the 11th hour."

The dress code policy, in place for four years, requires elementary and middle school students to wear blue and white or khaki clothing. It does not apply to high school students.

A district study in July found that 16 percent of the 5,600 middle school students and 9 percent of the 6,300 elementary students sought waivers last year.

The policy has proven difficult to enforce, with many students opting out of the program on their own, without bothering to obtain waivers. By the end of the last school year, 32 percent of the elementary students and 89 percent of the middle school students weren't wearing uniforms to school, according to the study.

Joanne Diez, mother of three Lowell students, is one of the many parents opposed to a mandatory uniform policy.

"I just think it's ridiculous," she said. "When I was in school we didn't have the dress code. I went to public school. I thought the dress code was for private schools."

Diez, 32, signed a waiver so her children are not required to wear the uniforms. Her oldest child, a boy, is in fifth-grade at the Daley School.

"He doesn't want to wear the uniform. What are they going to do, suspend the kids from school for not wearing it?" she said. "Then they'd be taking away from their education."

Diez is also concerned about the cost of buying clothes specifically for school and clothes for after school.

"My husband's the only one working," she said. "I'm a housewife because I can't afford to pay day care for three kids. I can't afford to buy the uniform and the regular clothes for three kids ... I know there are a lot of parents out there that are worse off than me. They have to be struggling also."

But the majority of the school board appears to still support the uniform policy, which was put in place in the hopes of instilling discipline and improving the learning environment. Hoping to put more teeth into the policy, the subcommittee, comprised of Kevin McHugh, Regina Faticanti and John Leahy, voted 2-1, with Leahy casting the dissenting vote, to eliminate the waiver effective Nov. 4.

"Either we have a policy or we don't," said McHugh, the subcommittee's chairman.

But Superintendent of Schools Karla Brooks Baehr recommended the full committee leave the policy alone for now.

Brooks Baehr and the committee intend to study the issue and make a determination by next spring about what changes, if any, to make for the 2003-2004 school year.

In other business last night, the committee learned that preparations are being made for the construction of the Stoklosa Middle School in the Acre, which is a key part of the city's $55 million, 20-year plan to rehabilitate the city's oldest neighborhood.

Design and construction plans have been approved, and all land takings have been completed by the city. Construction should begin in January 2003, with completion scheduled for September 2004.

Christopher Scott's email address is cscott@...