ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / November 24, 1999

RESERVE – Band members in the St. John Parish School System are onestep closer to getting new uniforms.

The school board voted Thursday to adopt a band uniform policy and seek out bids for band uniforms.

Ever since board member C.J. Watkins brought up the issue several monthsago, the school board has been trying to get new uniforms for school band members. Most of the present uniforms are in very poor shape or too smallfor the present band members. Some bands, like East St. John High, areforced to march in their school uniforms because there are not enough decent band uniforms to go around.

At Thursday night’s meeting, Director of Finance Nathan Stein presented the board with a school board policy on purchasing band uniforms.

The policy states that the school board will purchase band uniforms for all high and junior high schools that have a band. Each school is entitled toa set of uniforms equal to the number of students in the band plus an additional 10 percent to allow for growth and sizing. The maximumnumber of uniforms for one school will be 110.

The initial purchase of the uniforms will be paid in total by the St. JohnParish School Board. However, after that, the school board will only fund$300 per uniform set and each individual school will have to come up with the rest of the money.

Sets of band uniforms will be purchased in a 10-year revolving cycle, and the schools will be totally responsible for the upkeep and perpetual inventory of the uniforms between purchases.

The purchase of the uniforms will start with East St. John high in 1999,West St. John High in 2000, Glade School in 2001 and Leon Godchaux JuniorHigh in 2002.

The board voted in favor of the new band uniform policy unanimously with Leroy Mitchell and James Madere absent.

The school board also agreed to solicit for bids on the band uniforms, stipulating that no uniform shall exceed $300 in cost. The board will coverthe initial cost for East St. John High and West St. John High. which willtotal up to $49,500. The money is to come out of the Capital ImprovementFund, and a total of 165 uniforms will be bought for both schools.

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