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By MARILYN BROWN
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - Hillsborough County School Board members quietly backed away Wednesday from adding exercise to and subtracting sugar and fat from student life.
They said they need another year to study recommendations from a 31-member district committee of educators and parents. That group had met since September to come up with a district wellness policy, recommending daily recess for elementary school students and an end to candy-sale fundraisers and sugary sodas in schools.
Instead, Superintendent MaryEllen Elia said at a board workshop she will ask members to approve a half-page wellness policy that encourages health programs but leaves out details or a timeline.
Policies should be general guidelines, Elia said, and the committee left out key considerations. “They didn’t deal with the reality of all the ramifications of their suggestions or the cost.”
That could include losing money from soda and a la carte food sales, losing classroom time to recess and physical education and hiring more physical education teachers.
The board will vote on the policy Tuesday.
A major obstacle to banning sugared, carbonated beverages is the district’s 12-year, $50 million exclusive contract with Pepsi Bottling Group, signed in 2003. Schools receive millions of dollars from that, as does the district, which started off with $4 million in upfront money.
Changing that contract could mean giving some money back, but the district hasn’t asked for specifics, said Willie Campbell, Hillsborough’s general manager of purchasing.
“I made contact with them a couple weeks ago; they’re ready, but what are we really changing?” he asked.
Other Districts Acting
Campbell said that while he is waiting for direction from the school board, he is talking to a few schools about piloting programs with fewer or no carbonated beverages.
In response to a dramatic increase in childhood obesity, school districts across the nation, including Miami-Dade County, banned soda and added more physical activity in wellness policies federally mandated to be adopted by July 1. The law doesn’t require implementation details or consequences.
Last month, schools nationwide learned they are free to alter some soda company contracts and ban sugared sodas after an agreement brokered by the William J. Clinton Foundation and American Heart Association with PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Cadbury Schweppes. It stops sales of sugared soft drinks to 75 percent of schools by 2008-09 and to all of them a year later.
School Board Chairwoman Carolyn Bricklemyer said she was surprised no one mentioned the Pepsi contract Wednesday and said she did not bring it up because she is a wellness committee member.
“I felt myself getting defensive and wanting to defend the work of the committee,” Bricklemyer said after the meeting, although she said she can’t endorse suggestions because “we don’t know the costs.”
Other board members gave little reason for not adopting committee recommendations other than saying changes will require community and parent support.
“I don’t think we can move any faster,” board member Carol Kurdell said.
Panel Recommendations
The committee produced several drafts of recommendations. Among those:
•Stop rewarding students with food for good grades or behavior.
•Eliminate fryers from all school kitchens by the 2007-08 school year.
•Require high school to take a semester of physical education each year.
•Assign a health coordinator at each school to coordinate a total plan for physical and mental fitness.
Committee member June Fillion, also chairwoman of the School Health Advisory Committee, said Wednesday she was just glad the policy includes encouraging a coordinated school health program, even with details to come.
“They’re scared to death to put in details they don’t know if the budget will support,” Fillion said. “The pieces are there. We just need to build on them.”
Elizabeth Marquis, another committee member and parent from Chiles Elementary, said it’s frustrating to have general guidelines, but she plans to keep working on the committee. A registered dietitian and certified Pilates instructor, she said she also is willing to help schools try physical education options.
Physical education and other health issues got more attention from the committee’s work than they have in years, said Steven Vanoer, a committee member and the district’s physical education supervisor.
“I was originally disappointed,” Vanoer said of the shift to such a general policy for the coming year. “I felt today leaving the board and Mrs. Elia like we left in a position with the door not shut - the door was left open.”
Contact Marilyn Brown at (813) 259-8069 or mbrown@tampa
NEW HEALTH POLICY
The Hillsborough County School Board will encourage coordinated health programs at all sites. The programs may include:
•A coordinated school health program that provides integrated health and nutrition education and appropriate staff development.
•A comprehensive physical education and physical activity program including communication with parents.
•An integrated student nutrition program that provides for the availability of healthful food and beverages.
•A systemwide staff wellness education program to improve employee health and productivity.
Source: Hillsborough County School District
I agree with what several people have already said: It is not the fault of the schools, the soft drink machines, or the pizza companies...This is simply what happens when parents are remiss in their responsibility to RAISE THEIR OWN CHILD, and instead expect the government/schools to do it for them.
All you people out there screaming for the soft drink machines to be removed, and the pizza to be removed as a lunch option, need to get your priorities straight. If the parents kicked their little obese darlings out of the house to get some exercise, and taught them how to make good dietary choices, this would not be an issue. There is nothing wrong with eating a slice of pizza and having a soda for lunch, as long as you don’t eat it every day, and get some exercise.
Lazy, fat, irresponsible parents spawn lazy, fat, irresponsible children. It’s not the school’s responsibility to make your child exercise or eat right.
I don’t live there now, but I grew up there and read the Tampa news daily.I hear so much about these problems with kids health and the junk food in schools. I want to offer a suggestion about the Pepsi contract. Pepsi offers a wide variety of beverages, yet only a few are usually the ones that are normally available in restaraunt and vending machines (usually not their better ones).How about stocking those vending machines with Tropicana, Sobe, and Aquafina products(all Pepsi products - and the kids will probably like them).
What?!? They need another year to decide if sugar is bad and exercize is good 
What they really don’t want is to deal with the repercussions of backing out of the HUGE contract they made with Pepsi.
Turn off the T.V. and make your kids go outside and play after school. Better yet, go outside and play with them. As for the food at the schools, unfortunately they base thier lunch plans on the food pyramid which is grossly inadequate. The snacks and sodas well, if the parents didn’t give them the money to purchase these extras, I suppose they wouldn’t.
Shouldn’t it be the parents who monitor the kids eating, not the schools. How much money is made off soft drink machines that goes directly to the schools? Maybe we should look at the profit given to the schools by soft drink companies and the snack machine companies, before we make any rash decision about taking snacks and drinks out of the schools. Maybe the government should go in people’s houses to make sure parents are feeding their kids properly. Sounds like another government ploy to exploit the people once again.
Be a PARENT...teach your kids to make intelligent choices. Quit expecting the government and school system to raise your children for you, you lazy @&#%s!!
It’s not the school’s fault that you let your kids veg on the couch all day long playing video games!
If your kids are fat, it is YOUR fault, not the fault of the Pepsi machines or pizza companies.
YOU conceived your child. Quit expecting others to do the job you are too lazy/busy/unwilling to do.
most kids that live in florida are getting overweight because they are eating so much food from there schools.and schools are supposed to make kids smarter, so why don’t schools start giving kids good brain food instead of mystery meat, cookies,they start serving uncooked carrots with no dressing , or more healthy er food.
(cont’d)
Take responsibility for your own actions....Teach your children that they should not drink Coke and eat pizza every day. Keep it available for the well-adjusted students. Do we really need to establish laws to make this happen? If so, I pity all of us for what the future holds.
I choose to have a little more optimism, and to get to the root of the problem, instead of pushing more dumb, unnecessary legislation that would be obsolete if parents simply did their jobs. QUIT EXPECTING THE GOVERNMENT TO RAISE YOUR CHILDREN~~~
If you can’t handle the responsibilities yourself, please buy some condoms and save us ALL the trouble.
Mr. Holley:
People like you are quick to point at the soft drink machines and the pizza delivery companies and blame them for child obesity. People like you are quick to implore our “our ELECTED officials...(to) save our children from themselves.”
PLEASE stop expecting the government to play the role of parent. It is no one’s responsibility but the parent’s to teach their children about healthy eating habits and the importance of exercise. (cont’d)
Snack food, soda pop, and video games were all part of my HEALTHY, well-adjusted childhood. This is no doubt due to my parents raising me properly, and to understand the concept of moderation.
To establish laws limiting the availabilty of soft drinks and pizza in schools would simply be succumbing to the parents who lack the ability/desire to to assume their parental responsibility: choosing instead to make it the school’s job to, effectively, raise their child for them. I see more and more examples of this every day.
Have you seen a menu? Why exactly are we putting powdered sugar on “baked” fried french toast sticks? Who specifically picked corn dogs stuffed with sausage as a breakfast food? Better yet, why serve supersized cinnabons? Wake up. Have you seen the children in line buying food? There are many, many overweight children in our schools that obviously do not have the education or training to select proper breakfasts/lunches themselves. They are CHILDREN. They will pick junk food if it is offered. The school board needs to get off their padded chairs and start making some real decisions for our kids and our schools.
All i can say is that everytime my child is sick at school i get a phone call to pick them up.response to Marilyn. As for p.e. it should be everyday, when I went to school we had 60 minute class not 90, 60 minute lunch not 45, and P.E. everyday. I do think the shift went from educating to getting ready for the FCAT all year long.
Ms. Stewart I disagree with your comments! You need to go back to wherever you came from and allow those of us who belive in the Public School system to fix these problems.
The first thing we need to do is improve our School Board by voting them out of office and replacing them with someone who is not afraid of making the right choices.
You still need to go back where you came from because YOU are what is wrong with Public Education… taking YOUR child out of the mix fixes NOTHING!
As a teacher, I can tell you that as long as the students are offered Pizza Hut pizza and do not have to go to P. E. class daily, they are going to be unhealthy for life! The research is there and it has been documented and re-tested. WHY DON’T YOU LISTEN?!?!?!?
Garbage in - Garbage out! You are what you eat! Too much fat will kill you!
How many of these have you heard in your life? They are all true. What we need to emphasize to our kids is that they need to begin taking care of themselves now and continue to do so throughout their lives… otherwise we will have a society full of fat slobs who sit around and do nothing but watch T. V., eat snack foods, drink soda pop and play video games! WAIT A MINUTE!!! That’s what we already have… somebody stop the madness, please.
Our ELECTED officials need to stop sleeping at the wheel and save our children from themselves. Who gives a rip if a PEPSI contract has to be cancelled? Should have thought about that sooner…
I was told my daughters teacher at Brooker Elementary last year that I should send her to school sick so that she doesn’t miss any FCAT practice time. What kind of wellness policy is this county pushing? She was sick all the time last year and I believe it was because of other kids coming to school sick. That is the kind of “wellness policy” that really needs to be addressed here.
I’ve had it with this county and the public education system here and sending her to private school last year. There is nothing here that meets MY standards.
It’s nice to know in this ever changing world there is still some consistency. The school board has just proven they are the same inept, sit on their hands, do-nothing bunch that they have been for years. How expensive could it be to reinstitute a mandatory P.E. class, even 3 times a week? Or why not let Pepsi foot the bill. Wake us up when you’re ready to actually do the job we elected you to do.
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Posted by Elyse Silver, Tampa on 06/08 at 11:06 AM
As a physical education teacher, I would love to see more recess and or PE everday for our students. Diet and exercise also has to happen at home. Think how often we go to Publix then get in our car and drive to the bank in the same shopping plaza. Try to walk. Park your car away from front door so your walk in is a little longer. Let’s ALL try to set examples and help everyone become healthier and more active.