With the consolidation of Cathedral Preparatory School and Villa Maria Academy comes changes. One of the changes the administration has decided upon is in regards to the school uniforms.
For the 2021-2022 year, the seniors will have the option to either finish out their Prep or Villa year in the current uniform or try out the new one. Next year’s juniors and seniors will be permitted to wear their current uniforms for the 2021-22 school year but will be required to wear the new uniforms beginning in the 2022-23 school year.
The new uniforms for boys adds the option of a black or white polo shirt during the first and fourth quarter of the school year. These shirts are accompanied by grey dress pants, and khakis will no longer be allowed. For the first and and fourth quarters of the year, there will be an optional choice to wear a Prep cardigan or quarter-zip with the uniform. However, on in the second and third quarter as well as designated dress uniform days, the cardigan or quarter-zip will be a mandatory part of the uniform. On dress uniform days students will also be required to wear the classic Prep uniform with a button-down shirt, tie, grey pants.
For girls, the uniform doesn’t change that much except for the logos on their polo shirts. The Villa Maria logo will be replaced with the Cathedral Prep logo because when the schools consolidate it has been decided the school will use the name Cathedral Prep. For the shirts, girls will have two options, either a black or a white polo shirt with the school seal on the chest for first and fourth uarters. For quarters two and three, the girls will be required to wear a cardigan with the seal on the left chest over the black or white polo shirt. The bottoms for the girls will only be changing a little bit with the option of wearing a grey skort or pants. On designated dress uniform days, girls wearing the grey skort will be required to wear black tights with the skort.
With the uniforms just being announced less than a week ago most students are still processing what’s happening. However, it will have little effect on the upperclassmen in the building at the moment. The sophomore class, on the other hand, will have to wear these new uniforms next school year at both campuses.
“I’m not exactly excited to wear new uniforms, but if I look at the bright side it is kinda cool to think my class is the first ones in Prep history to wear the new uniforms,” said sophomore Ryan Lucarotti.
“I’m glad I got to somewhat experience the traditional uniforms of Prep, but I’m actually looking forward to these new ones,” said freshman Noah Handzel.
Another freshman, Kwame Anim-Somuah, said, “It’s obviously going to be different, but I think once we get used to it, we’ll never even look back at wearing a dress shirt and tie every single day.”
The new uniforms have caused quite the spark in recent conversations about the merger between Prep and Villa, but these are conversations that must be had. In order to make two schools into one, it will take some time and imagination. Other schools similar to what Prep and Villa are becoming also have very similar dress codes to what will be enforced next year. If people don’t like the new uniforms now, there isn’t much they can do about it because these plans likely will not be changing again any time soon.
