FREMONT — A school board member has suggested the time has come to consider asking students at Ellis School to wear a uniform as a way to improve student performance, boost school pride, reduce socioeconomic differences, and better prepare today’s youth for the working world.

“I think that we need to properly prepare kids for adulthood,” board member Andrew Kohlhofer told the board at a meeting Tuesday night.

Kohlhofer, the board’s vice chairman, first mentioned the idea during a discussion on the preschool go grade eight school’s dress code policy at a meeting last month.

He said he would like to see students wearing blue pants and blue skirts with white shirts and white blouses. They could wear shirts with short sleeves during warmer months and long sleeves during cold weather. The uniform would also include black closed-toe shoes.

The idea was met with mixed reaction from other school board members.

No vote was taken on the proposal, but some school board members said they felt it was important to survey the community before considering such a drastic change in the school’s dress code.

Chairman Ida Keane said the board didn’t have enough information to make a decision and that the issue would need further study and a community survey.

“I don’t know if there’s enough evidence in our community that we need it,” she said.

If nothing else, Keane said she would like to see the school establish “dress up” days where students would have to dress more formally to teach them that there are times when it’s important to “spiff up.”

If the board ever adopted a school uniform policy, Kohlhofer said that for legal reasons it would have to include a clause allowing a student to opt out.

Kohlhofer said the cost of a formal school uniform from a company could be expensive, so he suggested it might make more sense for parents to buy clothes that could meet the dress policy but also be worn outside of school.

He pointed to numerous studies showing the benefits of wearing school uniforms. Some said it increased attendance among girls, increased high school graduation rates, and improved student performance.

Among other things, Kohlhofer said uniforms would also make it easier for administrators, who would no longer have to “measure straps” to see how wide they are.

“It would make us less of a monitoring and clothing police,” he said.

But board member Greg Fraize opposed the idea from the beginning.

“I just don’t see it as a benefit whatsoever,” he said, adding that it would only create “morning battles” for many parents.

Fraize also expressed concern about students not being allowed to wear shorts in the warmer months, saying the school would have to install air conditioning throughout the building.

“You’ve got to provide comfort,” he said.

A uniform policy would also make it tough for parents who pass clothing down to siblings to save money. Board member Sharon Girardi said the community would have “buy” in to the idea first.

Deb Genthner, another board member, said she’s heard from parents on both sides of the debate. While she doesn’t believe the change would bother her daughter, Genthner said she thinks the issue “should go on the way back burner.”

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Jason Schreiber may be reached at jschreiber@newstote.com.