The Wake County school system's first two single-gender schools are also unique in having strict dress codes, including school uniforms.

The Wake Young Men's Leadership Academy's dress code requires students to wear ties with a school uniform being optional. The Wake Young Women's Leadership Academy goes further in its uniform policy, requiring students to wear uniforms with the school's logo.

The men's academy has a link off its homepage to a YouTube video showing students how to tie a Windsor knot. During Thursday's open house, media specialist Chris Howell gave students lessons on how to tie a tie.

Wake County school board members Chris Malone, Deborah Prickett and John Tedesco are distancing themselves from vice chairwoman Debra Goldman's concerns about unprofessional attire being worn by some teachers.

As noted in today's article, Malone, Prickett and Tedesco are pointing out that they had nothing to do with the recent policy committee discussion on employee dress. They say that there's no need to tighten up the current code for teachers.

“I don’t think we need to be codifying what they are wearing,” Malone said. “There are already some professional standards for how they are supposed to dress.”

Are some Wake County teachers dressing so unprofessionally that they need a reminder of what they should be wearing?

As noted in today's article, Superintendent Tony Tata will remind school employees, particularly teachers, about the need to dress professionally. School board members, particularly Debra Goldman, raised concerns during Wednesday's policy committee meeting that some teachers were crossing the line of what's appropriate attire.

The issue initially came up Wednesday when staff presented the student and employee dress codes for review. Staff didn't make any recommendations for changes but said they wanted board input.

Here's a very abbreviated recap of today's Wake County school board policy committee meeting with more details to come later.

Teachers will be reminded of the need to dress professionally following concerns raised by school board member Debra Goldman. The student dress code will be revised to meet some legal concerns from board attorney Ann Majestic about potential violations of First Amendment free speech rights.

Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens will meet with high school principals about the possibility of setting up waivers so that students who miss class because of a doctor's orders won't be penalized when it comes to counting absences for exam exemptions.

Is it time for the Wake County school board to revise its dress code for students and teachers?

It's one of the discussion items on the agenda of today's policy committee meeting. They'll review the dress codes to determine if revisions are needed.

The student dress code dates back to 2002. It focuses on what students should not wear, including sagging pants, excessively short garments and bare midriffs. Principals can add additional restrictions.