IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN: SCHOOL UNIFORMS FLY OUT OF STORE; LAST-MINUTE SHOPPERS RUSH TO OUTFIT KIDS.

Byline: Mary Schubert / Daily News Staff Writer

Labor Day has come and gone, signaling the end of summer break, but any kids determined to deny the inevitable needed only to see the long lines Tuesday at the school uniform store.

The annual ritual of buying back-to-school clothes has been a one-stop shopping trip the past few years for parents of seventh- and eighth-graders at La Mesa, Placerita and Sierra Vista junior high schools.

La Mesa Junior High has had a mandatory uniform policy since its inaugural school year began in fall 1994. The district's newest junior high blazed the trail that Sierra Vista and Placerita soon followed; only at Arroyo Seco Junior High are students allowed to wear street clothes.

T-shirts, solid-color pants and shorts, sweat shirts and short-sleeved polo shirts, many emblazoned with each school's mascot logo, sold by the armful at Santa Clarita School Uniforms. School will begin Thursday at all campuses in the William S. Hart Union High School District.

``Everybody waits until the last week or so. I'd say probably 60 percent of our business has been done the past week,'' said Kelly Springs, manager of the shop on Soledad Canyon Road. ``They wait until now to come in, and we're running short on a few styles.''

Springs said elementary school principals sent notes to parents about advance uniform sales, and store clerks took merchandise to the junior highs for several days each during June, but there were few takers for the early-bird uniform sales.

``I've probably done four times the business in August as I have in June,'' she said. ``I understand that some of the people have to wait, for financial reasons. They don't have enough saved up to buy in advance, and so many of them are afraid that (their) kids are going to grow, so (they) want to wait'' until school starts.

La Mesa's enrollment is expected to be 1,200. Springs said only about 150 parents bought uniforms for those students during the June advance sales.

The situation was similar at Sierra Vista and Placerita, where forecasts call for 900 and 1,180 students, respectively, but a combined 265 parents bought their children's uniforms ahead of time, Springs said.

Despite the procrastination tendencies of most students and parents, Springs said she and her staff pretty accurately anticipated the amount of stock and sizes to order from the uniform manufacturers, and the supply is keeping up with the demand. They are running low on boys' shorts in sizes 32 and 34, she noted.

Standing in line with three T-shirts, two sweat shirts, a lightweight jacket, two pairs of shorts and a pair of pants, Thiago Mendonca, 12, and his mother, Marli, gave the black, white and teal La Mesa uniforms their seal of approval.

``They're cool. I like them,'' Thiago said. School uniforms are a good idea, the seventh-grader added, ``because you don't have to pick out your clothes in the morning.''

James Grayot, a seventh-grader at Placerita, said even when he could wear his own clothes to elementary school, he never relished the annual back-to-school shopping trip because it meant his summer vacation was winding down.

``I picked out (school clothes) myself, but I didn't look forward to getting them,'' James said. ``I'd rather not have (uniforms), but I don't mind.''

His mother, Sue, didn't think the uniforms would represent a savings in her son's clothing budget. ``These (cost) a little bit more than you would spend if you went to Mervyn's,'' she said.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1--color) Nicholas Palare, right, shops with his mother, Julia, and baby brother Tuesday at Santa Clarita School Uniforms in Canyon Country.

(2--color) Last-minute shoppers crowd into the store to outfit their kids for school, which will start Thursday.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News