The News Tribune

The push to ban soda pop from the school day is causing student-activity fundraising to fall flat at schools throughout the South Sound.

Schools that depend on vending-machine and student-store profits to buy basketball uniforms, pay for club trips, and support other activities report revenue has declined by thousands of dollars after they replaced pop with drinks they say are more healthful, such as bottled water and juice.

The switch doesn’t suit teens like Wilson High School senior Kevin Reese. He used to buy a Coke or Mountain Dew nearly every day at Wilson before it started phasing out sodas last year.

“I have to bring my pop from home now,” he said.

Kids’ preference is borne out in the numbers. Among the examples:

 • Curtis High School in University Place estimates beverage vending commissions will come in at $7,200 this school year. That’s a 65 percent drop from 2004-05, when soft drinks helped push profits to $20,400.

 • North Tapps Middle School in Dieringer expects to net $1,000 or so this year in beverage machine profits. In past years, pop helped fuel commissions to more than $5,000.

 • Foss High School in Tacoma has seen a 79 percent plunge so far in beverage machine commissions, from $25,600 last school year to $5,500 this year when comparing September through February revenues.

The story is the same at most Tacoma middle and high schools, where beverage revenues are down 75 percent or more, according to a preliminary analysis of beverage commissions by the Tacoma School District.

Jennifer Kubista, Tacoma’s athletic and activities director, expects beverage machine revenues districtwide to be a fraction of last year’s $250,000.

“I’ll be ecstatic if we make $100,000.” Kubista said.

Schools across the country have been reducing or eliminating junk food offerings in recent years amid concerns about the rising rate of childhood obesity. And while students and staff lament the loss of income, they support efforts to encourage better nutrition.

“Everyone’s accepted it as a necessary evil,” said Stephanie Skaggs, a Wilson senior and treasurer of the school Associated Student Body (ASB), the student organization that disperses funds. “We need to start promoting healthier habits.”

Rather than wiping out entire programs, schools are trimming sports and activity expenses and encouraging more fundraising to offset revenue declines. Many schools are still using carryover funds from last school year or dipping into reserves built up over the years.

They still have what’s typically their major source of funding, annual ASB card fees.

BIG HIT COMING

It’s the future that worries some.

“The year that will hit us the hardest is two years from now,” said Tracey Meyer, Wilson office coordinator. She estimates revenue from vending machines and student store sales will be down $25,000 this school year from last year, when Tacoma still allowed the sale of pop and candy .

“It’s about the kids and giving them opportunities to do things in high school that they might not experience somewhere else,” she said.

District general funds typically cover coaching salaries and major athletic expenses, like football helmet certification and wrestling mats. But each school’s ASB funds a gamut of extracurricular activities, including student clubs, dances, assemblies and a healthy chunk of sports program. The Mount Tahoma High School athletic program, for instance, runs $50,000 for team transportation, equipment, referees and the like, says ASB adviser Ruth Beckwith.

In Washington state, school districts began passing policies requiring more changes in food and drink offerings about two years ago, prompted by a state law mandating creation of nutrition policies by Aug. 1, 2005.

Policies vary by district.

Puyallup allows diet soda, but not sugar-sweetened pop. Bethel allows carbonated drinks, including pop, to make up 20 percent of beverage machine offerings.

Some districts, including Tacoma, prohibit the sale of pop and high-sugar sports drinks such as Powerade during school hours, but allow some machines, equipped with timers, to dispense those drinks outside class hours.

District officials say some of the revenue slide stems from the lower commission rate for juice compared with soda. Plus, schools are adjusting to new vending machines and drink pricing. Tacoma, for instance, recently dropped the price of bottled water from $1.25 to $1 to see if it would spur sales.

Many policies also limit traditional moneymakers such as cookies and certain candy, further biting into kids’ ability to raise funds.

Bethel School District allows the sale of sweets if buyers are offered nutritious alternatives, said Darlene McMakin, the bookkeeper who oversees ASB accounts at Spanaway Lake High School. But it’s impractical for kids to lug around an assortment of fruit and candy bars.

Spanaway Lake students are finding alternative fundraisers, such as merchant discount cards, a tough sell.

“They just don’t profit as much as they used to,” McMakin said.

To make up for lower revenues, Yelm Community Schools raised the fee for an ASB card to $30 last school year, a $5 increase, and sports “pay-to-play” fees to $30, a $10 jump.

Curtis High School plans to hike ASB cards to $40 next fall, a $10 increase.

Tacoma officials hope a new snack vending machine contract, calling for a 30 percent sales commission on pretzels, jerky and other foods deemed to be nutritious, will generate more income.

NEW APPROACHES

The district is also considering a novel approach to help support athletics: hiring a marketing firm to be paid on commission to sell ads at school athletic events. District officials envision ads on temporary signs that would only be visible on scoring tables or gym walls during athletic events.

Meanwhile, students are learning to live with less.

Some teams are reducing participation in out-of-town invitational tournaments to cut transportation costs.

Mount Tahoma will cut two of its casual dances next year and postpone purchasing new uniforms for the football team, Beckwith said.

Wilson’s performing and visual arts programs can no longer count on the annual “revenue sharing” that ASB used to provide as recently as fall 2005.

Without the $6,000 the choir program once received, parents and students are shouldering more of the costs for out-of-town performances, said choir director Wendy Shepherd. The Concert Choir can no longer afford to participate in a University of Washington choral festival or a clinic.

Concert Choir members Reese and Kaitlin Blair said an ASB-supported clinic two years ago strengthened the group as a team and helped the teens grow as singers.

“He made me sing on my own,” Reese said of the clinician. “After that it was a lot easier to sing in front of people.”

Though the revenue drop is painful, school officials say there are signs the nutrition changes might be affecting student choices for the better.

Anticipating the pop revenue decline, Wilson reduced the number of beverage machines to steer more kids to the student-run store, which yields the ASB a higher profit than the vending machines.

On a recent lunch hour, a steady pulse of thirsty teens laid down a dollar apiece for Dasani fruit-flavored water.

Wilson treasurer Skaggs said she’s noticed that more students buy water and eat nutritious foods thanks to the new pop policy and changes in the cafeteria menu.

Sam Ring, Wilson’s ASB adviser and track and cross-country coach, has concerns about coaches devoting even more time to fundraising. But he said he welcomes the move toward more nutritious food and drinks.

“We became complacent with pop machines. You could draw $30,000 for doing nothing,” he said. “In due time we’ll come up with new fundraising ideas. At a time of change, things are rugged.”

The numbers

Banning pop and junk food sales from the school day typically means less cash for student activities. Here’s a sampling of South Sound schools:

Bethel School District allows carbonated drinks to make up 20 percent of beverage machine offerings. Even so, district beverage machine commissions are projected to total $71,000 this school year – a nearly 60 percent drop from last year’s $123,000. At Spanaway Lake High School, beverage machine revenues are down $9,000 over the past two years.

North Tapps Middle School in Dieringer will hold the “Bulldog Olympics” on May 15 to raise funds to offset declining beverage revenues of some $4,000. Students will collect cash pledges for each math problem they solve and share proceeds with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Yelm Community Schools has seen revenues fall from $34,000 two years ago to $15,000 last school year, when it rid middle and high school machines of soda. To help offset the loss, schools have dipped into ASB reserves and raised pay-to-play and ASB card fees.

Curtis High School in University Place estimates beverage earnings will reach $7,200 this school year, a 65 percent drop from 2004-05 when soda helped profits hit $20,411. The school expects to earn about $6,100 this year from snack machines, just under half as much as it earned two years ago before it switched to foods deemed more nutritious. Curtis will raise the cost of ASB cards by $10.

Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor estimates beverage machine profits are dropping about $2,500 a year without soft drinks. The student store, which once sold pop and candy bars, is losing even more: about $15,000 so far this year.

Tacoma’s middle and high schools have seen beverage machine earnings plummet more than 75 percent when comparing this year’s and last year’s September through February totals. The district total for those months was nearly $21,700 – a decline of close to $77,800, according to a preliminary analysis.