DeKalb High School’s Pepsi contract generates $1,000 a month in revenue but may be threatened by a recent House bill that would ban soda and candy vending machines in K-12 schools.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and House Republican Leader Tom Cross of Oswego proposed a bill last month to remove candy and soda from school vending machines starting Jan. 1, 2005.

Twelve votes against the bill in the education committee prevented its consideration by the Illinois House of Representatives. House Speaker Michael Madigan replaced the 12 opposing committee members. After a second vote, the bill will go to the House floor.

Illinois principals fighting to save their vending machines aren’t sure how much the bill will hurt.

“The bill is rather generic,” said Dave Turner, executive director of the Illinois Principals’ Association.

Turner said the bill targets vending machines in K-12 schools. However, the bill is unclear about the criteria by which candy and soda will be judged.

The Illinois State Board of Education would decide on the specific rules of the bill after it passed, Turner said.

Some schools already face regulation of soda sales.

Mark Wancket, principal consultant for the Illinois State Board of Education, said 3,578 of the state’s 4,271 public schools participate in a federal program, the National School Lunch Program, that provides subsidized lunches and dictates that soda be unavailable where food is served or eaten.

Other than the federal program’s guidelines, the Illinois State Board of Education has no control over soda in schools.

DeKalb High School participates in the program and only has soda vending machines available before and after school, said Larry Stinson, DeKalb High School principal. Vending machines with water, fruit and sports drinks are available during school hours.

Stinson said he fears the bill would negate the high school’s five-year contract with Pepsi.

“That would really hurt us,” he said.

Pepsi provides the machines, stocks them and collects the money as part of its full service contract through 2007, Stinson said. The school receives monthly checks averaging $1,000 for the sale of Pepsi products like soda, Gatorade and Aquafina.

Stinson said he has used the money to buy floor mats for the library and sponsor one student’s trip to a leadership conference in Washington, D.C.

Stinson said he was unsure what the school would do if soda and high-sugar fruit drinks were banned. The school might have vending machines that sell only water.

“But at the high school level, I think kids are beginning to make better choices, and we should give them the option,” Stinson said.