Good afternoon!  It's hard to believe school starts back in 13 days.  This is a reminder of our "DRESSED FOR SUCCESS" Initiative for our students.  Florida begins the back-to-school sales tax holiday on Friday, August 1st.  This runs through August 31st.  Please review the initiative below and keep in mind as you purchase school clothes.  Let's step it up in LC and work together to have our students and your children, "DRESSED FOR SUCCESS".
 D R E S S E D    F O R    S U C C E S S
 
 
LIBERTY COUNTY DISTRICT SCHOOLS   25-26 School Year
Kyle Peddie, Superintendent of Schools
 
The Liberty County School District has existing policy in place that governs the dress code of staff and students.  The schools have further guidance in their respective student handbooks.  This school year I would like to remind you of our “Dressed for Success” initiative.  Our job as a school district is to prepare our students for future success in the workplace.  Students need to be prepared both in academics as well as in professionalism; and part of that professionalism is the way they dress.  We prepare for that time now.  There are 3 areas of focus for the “DRESSED FOR SUCCESS” initiative:
 
1.  Wear clothes that are APPROPRIATE – Just as athletic teams wear uniforms that are appropriate for their respective roles, the workplace demands the same.  Clothes that have holes, suggestive or offensive language, or dirty clothing are usually not accepted in the workplace whether in state government and/or the private sector.  Each employer wants their employee to properly represent their companies.  The first impression of anybody usually is based on the appropriateness of their clothes.  We want our students to wear clothes that are APPROPRIATE.

2.  Wear clothes that are MODEST - Appropriate clothing also must be modest clothing.  The revealing of our bodies (chest, torso, and buttocks) can easily become a distraction in the classroom.  High School students are continuing to mature physically on different timelines. We want our students to be proud of their bodies, but also be modest in their clothing choices as most jobs require.  Extremely tight clothing and sometimes extremely loose clothing can reveal genitalia and/or underwear which ALWAYS distracts the learning process and is extremely unacceptable.   Modest clothing covers up everything properly.  Again, we want our students to be proud of their bodies but wear clothes that are MODEST.
 
3.  Wear clothes that are ACCEPTABLE – We need our students to follow the dress code.  It clearly states what clothes are acceptable and what clothing is not acceptable.  These are the rules of the schools.  Just as each business in the world of work has a dress code policy, the school does as well.  It is great preparation for the work world to follow policy now.  Dress Code policies differ from job to job, but the dress code for our schools is simple and easy to understand.  We need to drastically reduce time lost in the classrooms due to students being sent home to change into clothes that are acceptable.  We humbly ask for all our students to follow the rules and come to school wearing clothes that are ACCEPTABLE.
 
Many times, throughout the day, we have visitors to our schools.  Over the years we have received visits from Governor DeSantis (twice), former Senator Marco Rubio (now Secretary of State), Rep. Jason Shoaf, Sen. Corey Simon, and many other important people who came to see about all the wonderful things going on in the Liberty County School District.  The most important folks that visit our schools are PARENTS.  Parents are expecting us to help aid in the development of their children in many areas with education being the primary focus.  We feel our appearance to each other and to others is an important part of that preparation for real life.  We humbly ask all parents to be very involved in the lives of their children (our students) to make sure they wear clothes that are APPROPRIATE, MODEST, AND ACCEPTABLE.  We want ALL our students to be SUCCESSFUL and that starts at home as we work together to accomplish this goal.  

Please help us by making sure YOUR KIDS leave home “DRESSED FOR SUCCESS”. 
 
Go Panthers and Go DAWGS!
 
Sincerely,
Kyle Peddie
Liberty County Superintendent of Schools