Middle and high schools in Lake Havasu City will join schools across the nation in becoming a ... NO SODA ZONE

The Lake Havasu City Unified School District appears to be ahead of the curve when it comes to plans to stop selling sodas to students.

A deal announced Wednesday called for leading beverage distributors to stop selling non-diet sodas in the majority of public schools nationwide. Former President Clinton's William J. Clinton Foundation assisted in brokering the deal.

Members of the American Beverage Association, including Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc., have agreed to the changes.

“We will have no carbonated beverages on campus next year,” said Lake Havasu High School Assistant Principal Dale Gerner. “We are going to make the switch now, so kids get used to non-carbonation on campus.” He said the high school has a wellness committee, which influenced the decision, as well as a contract with Pepsi that they will be ending.

“We have already gotten kids used to the water only machine in the P.E. area,” Gerner said. He said this change was do to stickiness that could result from leaks in the machinery.

Future steps will follow once the Pepsi contract expires.

“We will be going out to bid for a new contract on campus,” Gerner said, “We are trying to get it in place right now.”

Gerner said the school's decision to follow suit is to the benefit of students on campus.

“The kids will buy what's available,” he said, “Schools across the country are going that way. They are going where the need and want is, while still making profits.”

While Lake Havasu High School is on their way to making adjustments, Dayton and Thunderbolt middle schools already have eliminated soft drink sales. In guidelines released in January, the Department of Education required all elementary and middle schools to end soda sales by fall 2006.

“We have Gatorade and water. That's all we offer,” said Daytona Administrative Assistant Dee Erhart. The machine has a timer that only allows students to use it before or after school hours. There is another water machine on campus that students can use anytime, adding that soda sales were halted two years ago.

“If a student brings a can of soda in their lunch, they can still do that,” she said.

Erhart said the school stopped serving soda because of state regulations they knew were approaching. Daytona Middle School has an Aramark contract that serves Hi-C and lemonade at lunch instead of soda.

“I think there is a lot of healthy choices for them outside of soda,” Erhart said of the students.

Principal Paul Olson offered similar news at Thunderbolt.

“We are also following the new state mandates,” Olson said. He said the middle school offers no sodas, just juices and water.

“I think we've done it since the start of the school year,” he said of starting the new policies. He said the change is a good thing.

“I limit my own kids intake on soda,” Olson said.

Another local high school, Desert Technology High School, also has yet to phase out soda sales, but will soon.

“Primarily, we serve ice tea, bottled water, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Mountain Dew,” Administrator Leon Buttler said. “We won't serve them anymore.” He also said that Pepsi delivers drinks to the school frequently, but that they now will be working with Aramark for school lunches.

“We should be out of the non-diet stuff by next week,” Buttler said of the sodas, “Even if they were willing to deliver it (Pepsi), we would not take it. I think we could get by with Gatorade and bottled water.” He said Gatorade is a big seller at the school. Dole juices are a little pricier, leading them to be out of some student budgets.

“Creating better nutritional habits for our students should be a high priority,” he said, adding that when Pepsi and Coke sign a deal, it makes it easier for him to delegate this.

“I don't have any problems with it at all,” Buttler said.