A mother has expressed outrage that she will have to pay some $2,400 to outfit her two daughters for CedarBridge Academy.

According to Hannah Maryam, the summer and gym uniform required for the senior secondary school will cost her $509.75 per child.

And she calculated that the winter uniform will cost another $385 per child.

Providing The Royal Gazette a breakdown of the items and their prices, Mrs.

Maryam said this did not include other essential supplies, including a backpack for some $30, a $38 bus pass, and stationery items which she estimated to cost at least $70.

"We now have a total of $1,032.25,'' she noted. "Add to this the optional items such as the lycra shorts and top to be worn under the gym clothes at $45 and new underwear as well as other accessories, such as scrunchies and bubbles for the hair etc., and you can see that this is indeed a very expensive venture totalling at approximately $1,200 (per child).'' The concerned mother also noted that English Sports Shop, exclusive suppliers for CedarBridge female students' items, did not have skirts to fit her full-figured daughters.

"They have a special order available for $65 per skirt which is almost double the listed cost,'' Mrs. Maryam claimed.

Therefore, she said, she had to have their skirts made.

"The restructuring of the school system has been and will continue to be a very stressful situation for both students and parents,'' she added.

"We are finding this situation to be very frustrating, not to mention the inconvenience we are experiencing running around town, trying to find what is needed.'' But both English Sports Shop and CedarBridge deputy chairperson Sandra Bain called Mrs. Maryam's accusations unfair.

English Sports Shop's director of operations Ronald Moughan said the store carried skirts up to size 34 which cost $37.

It also makes skirts for $65, which included the cost of the material, he pointed out.

And Mr. Moughan noted that the store sold ladies' socks from size seven to 11 and men's size ten to 13 which retailed at $5.95.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Bain stressed that the cost of CedarBridge's summer and winter uniforms was the same or less expensive than other school uniforms. And she said she did everything she could to keep the prices down.

"The prices of the skirts, the shorts, and the pants (required in the summer) are the same as other school uniforms,'' she said. "They just have been done in our fabric and our colours.

"Our polo shirts at $15 are cheaper than any other polo shirt on the Island, including the private schools and the middle schools.

"With the winter uniform, we don't have blazers which parents complained about. And our winter jacket and our sweaters are still cheaper than the blazer would have been.

"The vests are also definitely cheaper. So they have some options within that framework. The shirts are the same price as you would have paid for school shirts. And both our ties and crests are cheaper.'' Mrs. Bain added that she brought in school bags for CedarBridge which were selling for almost half the price of the same bags downtown.

"I brought in 1,000 school bags for CedarBridge, retailing for less than $25,'' she said. "The same school bags, which are in the shops, are almost $40.

"I don't have any control over what she's spending her money on and how many items she's buying.

"But I have a son, who I've taken out of Berkeley and put in CedarBridge, and I haven't spent anymore on him this year with the new uniform than I would have had to have spend anyway at the beginning of the new school year.

"I think because I am a parent and I am putting a child in CedarBridge, I was doubly conscious of the price.'' Mrs. Bain pointed out that parents could expect to spend more for school clothing and supplies in any transition year.

"You end up spending more initially because you're buying things for the first time,'' she explained. "They are all going into CedarBridge with a whole new uniform, you have to buy a whole new uniform.'' Noting that many of CedarBridge's students were "oversized'', Mrs. Bain said parents had two options.

"English Sports Shop will fit, measure, and make for a price which is above our school price or they can go to Gibbons Company and buy the fabric that we have chosen,'' she said, adding that some items were not in stock and needed to be reordered because of the unexpected increased enrolment at CedarBridge.

Sandra Bain