The Dallas County Board of Education decided in a meeting Tuesday that its schools would keep the existing dress code policy in place for the new school year.

Discussion of a district-wide school uniform policy had been discussed in previous months.

School board president Carolyn Bates said the board thought it was time to take action.

“This decision should go over very well because most of the school district preferred not to wear uniforms. It has been a half and half situation. It’s going well the way it is,” Bates said.

The current policy gives principals of each school in the system the liberty to make final decisions on whether their students will wear uniforms or not after they speak with parents.

Bates said although the board decided to stick with the current policy next year, there are future plans on revisiting the district-wide uniform policy.

“We will keep the policy we have for the 2016-17 school year and until we feel like we have to change it, “ Bates said.

Board member William Minor represents the southern part of Dallas County. He has expressed his desire for a district-wide uniform policy in the past, but said he believes that the recent board decision would be manageable for the time being.

“If the northern and western zone don’t want uniforms, let’s let them do what they want. I feel like we should just leave it the way it is because it has been pretty good as far as I am concerned,” Minor said.

Although board member Leroy Miles was not present at the meeting Tuesday, he has previously suggested that the current policy remain in place and agrees with the board’s decision.

“It’s been a good policy. It lets the community have their voice in it, and I have no objections to that,” Miles said.

Shelton said the board decision came in time so that parents could have their children prepared with back-to-school clothes in August.

“Because we had not adopted a new policy for the upcoming school year, at this point we thought it would be short notice to let the parents know after school had ended,” Shelton said.

Shelton said believes the decision to go into the new school year with the same policy will be effective and foresees no problem with students or parents following the rules.