Schools moving to go light on snacks

Thursday, March 18, 2004 | 8:52 a.m.

Sugary soft drinks, candy bars and potato chips could soon be harder to find at Clark County School District campuses as administrators consider stricter limits on what kinds of food can be sold to students.

Agustin Orci, deputy superintendent of curriculum for the district, said he has been meeting with school superintendents to discuss new regulations for vending machines, school stores and campus fund-raisers.

With the rising rate of obesity both in Nevada and nationwide, the district takes its responsibilities seriously, Orci said.

"We all recognize something needs to be done," Orci said. "We need to have appropriate choices for kids available in school without so many temptations."

State Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, a member of a legislative subcommittee studying the effects of obesity, said she was pleased the district was taking an aggressive tack in looking at its vending machine and school store policies.

Cegavske, along with state Sen. Valerie Wiener, D-Las Vegas, made an impassioned presentation to district officials in January urging renewed emphasis on student nutritional concerns.

"We've been hounding them to make changes on their own," Cegavske said. "We don't want to have to legislate them."

Schools from Massachusetts to California have been banning junk food on campuses and Clark County has been studying how those districts carried out their plans, Orci said.

Wiener said she was looking forward to hearing an update on the district's plans and hoped it would include more than just an outright ban on junk food.

"If all you do is take the junk out of the schools the kids are just going to get it at the 7-Eleven store on the corner," Weiner said.