NORTH COLLEGE HILL — Public school students here will know this week whether they will be wearing uniforms next fall.

        The outcome of votes cast by parents at North College Hill's four public schools could be known as early as today.

        Uniforms are a step more public schools are taking across the Tristate and the nation.

        Superintendent Gary Gellert believes the district's extracurriculars can combine with the uniform policy to achieve the type of connectedness that educators say is needed to reduce disciplinary problems and increase achievement.

        "We're a small district — about 1,500 students total — and about 70 percent of our high school students are in some type of co-curricular activity," Mr. Gellert said. "That's very important to making students feel connected to school."

        Mary Senter, principal of North College Hill's Becker Elementary, said uniforms would have a positive impact.

        "The discipline issues will be lessened if we don't have to worry about the clothes (students) are wearing, and more energy can be directed into the learning process," she said.

        In 1994, the Long Beach, Calif., Unified School District became the first public school district in the United States to require its students to wear uniforms.

        In Middletown, Vail Middle School Principal Kathy DiBlasi said the mandatory uniform policy implemented this year has gone "very, very well."

        "We're seeing an increase in attendance, a decrease in discipline problems and from a safety standpoint it's great because it's easy to spot our kids in a crowd," said Ms. DiBlasi.

        Keith King, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor who has researched the effects of school uniforms, said they are not a magic pill that's going to solve all of a school's problems.

        "It's one of many vehicles in a comprehensive program that schools must implement to address such issues as violence and involvement in unhealthy activities," Mr. King said.

        Kristen Blust, 12, a seventh-grader at North College Hill's junior-senior high, favors uniforms.

        "I think that we should have them because of people making fun of people," she said. "I also think it would be easier on families because you wouldn't have to worry about what you're going to wear in the morning and if it's in style and looks right."

        North College Hill's board of education in December adopted a policy to allow the three elementary schools and the junior-senior high school to determine if their students would wear uniforms.

        All four schools held information meetings for parents, students and staff, before asking each family to vote on the issue.

        Each school tailored their own ballots and mailed them out in February.

        For the issue to pass, 51 percent of the families from each school must vote for the uniforms.

        "We've gotten an awful lot of positives, but I don't think I'm going to have the number I need to get it passed," said Steven Sorrell, principal of North College Hill Junior-Senior High. "So far, we're running 5 to 2 in favor."

        The junior-senior high has about 750 students from about 645 families. That means the school would need about 323 yes votes to get the uniform issue passed, Mr. Sorrell said.

        Judy Blust, Kristen's mother, said she thinks uniforms at the junior-senior high school would pose less problems than the current dress code.

        "The dress code has some gray areas," Mrs. Blust said. Mr. Sorrell has similar thoughts about the current dress code.

        "In our building, if we enforce our dress code, clothing is not an issue. It's when we fail to enforce our dress code that we have to look at other measures," he said.

        "A uniform is easier to enforce because it doesn't have as much flexibility as a dress code."

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