Soft drinks booted from most Charleston schools
By Diette Courrégé
Charleston County School Board news
The Charleston County School Board also received the following information at its meeting Monday:
--The new Sea Island YouthBuild Charter School is progressing according to its charter with the district. The school is set to open this fall for 75 at-risk students. The school accepted 35 students as of July 11, and district staff will continue monitoring the school during the next three months.
--The district staff will bring a recommendation to the board at its Aug. 13 meeting on whether it should approve the charter for the proposed Charleston Charter School for Math and Science.
--As part of the district's budget this year, the board approved $2.4 million for maintenance and information technology projects. The board approved the projects that will receive the money.
--The school district has investigated the finances for Greg Mathis Charter High School and found them sound. The district will continue monitoring the school for the next three months and see how they fare with issues such as teacher certification, election of the governing board and enrollment.
--The school district had 72 vacancies in teaching positions as of Thursday. The district started last year with 90 teacher vacancies.
--The board approved the hiring of Sheryl Biss as principal of Schroder Middle School.
Students in Charleston County schools will choose from healthier vending machine drink options in the future.
The school board on Monday voted unanimously for the district to negotiate a new contract with the Pepsi Bottling Group to be the exclusive provider of beverage products. Pepsi's current five-year contract expires this year.
The healthier options are a result of an agreement Pepsi signed with the American Beverage Association to establish and follow school beverage guidelines. The products are based on those guidelines, and the district's School Health Advisory Committee accepted those products.
Vending machines in the district's middle and high schools currently limit soda selections to 50 percent, with bottled water, sports drinks and juices making up the other half.
The new contract will call for elementary and middle schools not to offer soda. Those schools will have bottled water and 100 percent juice drinks with no added sweeteners and at least 10 percent of the recommended daily value for three or more vitamins and minerals. Elementary schools can offer up to 8-ounce servings of milk or juice and middle schools up to 10-ounce servings.
High schools will be the only campuses allowed to offer soda, but those drinks must have 10 calories or less, such as diet sodas and green and white teas. Machines also will offer bottled water, juice and sports drinks and at least 50 percent of the non-milk beverages must be water and low-calorie drinks.
One of the reasons the district chose Pepsi over Coca-Cola, the only other company that submitted a bid, was because of its contract perks, said school Board Chairwoman Nancy Cook. A contract with Pepsi has substantial cost savings and would provide fewer sugared drinks, she said.
Pepsi will provide the district with new or like-new vending machines, and the machines' commission rate for schools will be 45 percent. Pepsi will give $10,000 to the district for scoreboard replacement, and each of the district's 11 high schools will receive $1,000 scholarships from the company.
Pepsi also will give $15,000 in its products to be provided at charitable functions. The district estimated a four-year contract would provide about $1 million in revenue, and the total cost of the contract has not yet been determined.
In other business, a vote to shrink the size of the new proposed Stall High School from 1,500 to 1,200 students failed. Stall enrolls about 930 students, but studies show that number could increase to 1,300.
The board approved the new school to be built at $50.9 million, but escalating construction costs mean the school only could be built for 1,000 students at that same cost. The district recommended reallocating money to increase the size to 1,200, but of the six board members who were present, three voted against the proposal. Those members were David Engelman, Ruth Jordan and Ray Toler. Board members agreed to reconsider the district's proposal at its August meeting.
Design for the new Stall is at a standstill until the board decides on a capacity, and delays could jeopardize the 2010 opening.
Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@post andcourier.com.
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majorjohnson (anonymous) says...
When I went to school we had water fountains. No soda machines, no snack machines. The only reason these machines are in these schools is to take students money. We're paying for some of these kids lunches and they're buying snacks and sodas? Get rid of em.
July 24, 2007 at 7:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hawneena (anonymous) says...
I sure hope that excludes those energy drinks too. Those things have enough caffeine and sugar in them to power up all the schools. Some of the schools sell bottled water. Another way to collect money? Go figure.
July 24, 2007 at 9:09 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hawneena (anonymous) says...
Sorry, I meant to say includes. LOL Heck, my daughter tells me that they mix Red Bull with alcohol. Does that make for a very alert drunk?
July 24, 2007 at 9:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
captivated (anonymous) says...
So I guess kids who stop at one of the numerous corner stores that always seem to pop up around schools to get the "high test" sodas and sweets, can now be accused of carrying contraband on school grounds. How about the kid in the bathroom selling "the real thing"? This descision may help the schools score much needed revenue for scholarships and such, but it won't stop kids getting what they want.
July 24, 2007 at 12:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
sapientia2 (anonymous) says...
First of all--Bottled water is the biggest hoax! The purifying standards are NO MORE stringent than what comes out of your tap. There are plenty of water fountains in schools. That's simply a waste of parent's money--excuse yourself from class and go to the fountain that's ALREADY PROVIDED AT NO COST. Lest I even delve into the environmental impact of bottling materials.
Secondly--Keep consumerism like this out of our schools. Kids are provided with lunch plans that encompass (hopefully) their dietary needs. Furthermore, these machines serve only to distract children and aggrivate an already escalating obesity epidemic in South Carolina, threatening the health of our children. Obesity is a lifelong, expensive condition that not only affects one physically but also psychologically. And unfortunately, kids are not capable of evaluating the consequences of their actions in the way most adults can--my mother always told me to eat my vegetables despite my complaints, which kept me healthy and mentally fit. You can't expect moderation out of children when it comes to sweets. This may sound coercive, but that's simply the truth of the matter. Kids are in school to learn, not to snack on high-octane sodas and "energy drinks".
And finally--Pepsi, and other corporations should provide scholarship monies out of a sense of social responsibility, not as a fringe benefit of a contract bid--Pepsi employees' kids go to school, too. Charleston schools, get your hands out of the honey-pots, please. It's not benefitting our children whatsoever.
July 24, 2007 at 2:34 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hawneena (anonymous) says...
To captivated: I'm sorry if you misunderstood. I was not implying that kids are bringing alcohol to school. I was just referring to how some of the energy drinks are mixed and sold in bars. But, yes, these drinks can be unsafe, especially for children that are taking medications for ADD or ADHD. Unfortunately, these drinks are sold to kids of any age at any store. The amount of caffeine combined with legal drugs that are basically amphetamines can cause dangerous side affects.
July 24, 2007 at 3:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
NN (anonymous) says...
I agree with majorjohnson....I bet all of the kids who buy the sodas and candy out of the machines are on FREE or REDUCED LUNCH!!! They cry they are too poor to afford full price lunch, yet they dump change in the coke machines everyday!!! Yes, get rid of the sugar machines!
July 24, 2007 at 4:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
rjcontego (anonymous) says...
i have to laugh each time one of our "intellectual" school boards makes a change in the vending machine options and includes "sports drinks"...haha...those sports drinks are sugar and water, just like cola and sodas without the fizz...the vending machine and beverage companies must laugh all the way to the bank!
July 24, 2007 at 7:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lillady (anonymous) says...
OK. Let's get this straight. They are approving diet drinks with nutrasweet, ect that many of us knows causes problems and reactions such as headaches ect. Let's encourage our teens that skinny is the only way to go. Gatorade (Pepsi product) has one of the highest salt content's on the market. Each bottle has 450 mg of salt and the Institute of Medicine suggested the body should only have 1500 mg PER DAY. Hmmm. Am I missing something here that one drink is 1/3 of the daily requirement? It's wonderfully artificially colored and flavored. Imagine what THAT does. Well. I think we are messing up once again across the board.
July 24, 2007 at 8:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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