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Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green asked the Guilford County Board of Education not to give him a raise this year.

Although his contract requires a 3 percent raise in July, Green said the troubled economy would make his raise a hardship for the schools system. His salary is $250,000 a year, and a 3 percent raise would be $7,500.

“I don’t believe I should be eligible for that given this point,” Green said.

The school board unanimously approved his request.

Green got thank yous from several board members, including Darlene Garrett who voted for another candidate for the superintendent position last year.

“I obviously voted for the wrong person,” Garrett said.

In other business Thursday night, school board members expressed concerns about giving the superintendent the ability to impose a uniform dress code on any school and sent the policy revisions back to committee after weeks of work.

School board members voted 6-5 to send the revisions back to the governance committee. The vote came after nearly an hour of debate on whether the superintendent could impose a uniform dress code on a school if he saw the need for it.

School board attorney Jill Wilson said the formation of a new school could be included in those circumstances.

“I think the board needs to be the fall guy on making that decision,” Garrett said. She later voted against sending the policy back to committee.

Board member Amos Quick, who once supported uniform dress codes, adamantly opposed the policy, saying he had seen no data showing it led to academic improvement.

“I think (the uniform dress code) is implemented to make adults feel better,” Quick said.

Board member Deena Hayes echoed those concerns and noted schools with a dress code tend to have large populations of minority and impoverished

students. She said it’s hard for kids to see a uniform dress code as anything other than punitive.

Hayes and Quick voted against sending the policy back to committee. Sandra Alexander also voted no.

Board member Garth Hébert, who sits on the governance committee, said another major concern is the lack of consistent enforcement of the uniform dress code where it is used already. Hebert also voted against sending the policy back to committee.

The revision giving the superintendent the authority to order a uniform dress code is only one paragraph in the policy. The bulk of the policy and procedure revisions outline how school principals must go about implementing the uniform policy. The policy revisions would require principals get at least 50 percent of parents to respond to a poll asking if they would support a uniform dress code at the school and at least 75 percent of those polled must support it.

Board member Sandra Alexander, who was the fifth no vote, asked if schools staff could present the board with data showing such a policy could improve academic performance.

No deadline was set for when the policy needed to be resubmitted for a vote.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com