Cape Girardeau elementary schools won't serve sodas at annual Play Day end-of-school festivities next school year. That's just one restriction in the school district's new wellness policy designed to improve the health of students.

Students can drink juices or flavored water. "It is a better kind of a sugar than a soda," said Lisa Elfrink, the district's food service coordinator.

Starting this fall, classroom teachers no longer will hand out lollipops for good behavior or allow their students to drink soft drinks at class parties.

But chocolate Hershey Kisses will be allowed because they have some nutritional value, school officials said.

The wellness policy also discourages principals and teachers from withholding recess as punishment, but doesn't ban the practice.

School officials say it's a necessary form of discipline in some cases.

But Elfrink said it's important for all students to get some exercise during the school day.

The wellness policy, adopted by the school board earlier this month, emphasizes the health benefits of nutrition and exercise.

School districts nationwide must adopt wellness policies by the start of the 2006-2007 school year as part of a federal law enacted in 2004.

Jackson school officials are developing a wellness plan that they expect to adopt this summer.

Congress passed the legislation to promote student health and combat childhood obesity and poor nutrition, local school officials said.

The new emphasis on exercise comes even as some school districts have eliminated playground recess.

The proportion of schools that don't have recess ranges from 7 percent for first and second grades to 13 percent by sixth grade, new government figures show.

But most school districts, including the Cape Girardeau district, still have recess.

Even so, the Cartoon Network and the National PTA have launched a "rescuing recess" campaign nationwide.

Elfrink said parents locally don't need to worry. Recess and physical education classes are part of the curriculum, she said.

As to nutrition, Elfrink said the U.S. Department of Agriculture hasn't banned soft drinks from school vending machines yet.

But she believes that soft drinks may be banned in the future.

California bans soft-drink vending machines from its public schools, Elfrink said. Chicago public schools took out all their vending machines last summer.

Cape Girardeau high school students currently can buy soft drinks at lunch and before and after school from vending machines. But Elfrink said lunchtime sodas may be eliminated next year.

"At best, they are going to get diet soda," she said. "This is a very easy first step for us to do."

School officials said they'll still allow the sale of soft drinks at school sporting events and won't restrict the after-school fund-raising sale of candy by various student groups.

"We are concerned at this point with what is going on during the school day," Elfrink said.

That includes field trips, she said. School officials plan to encourage field trip groups to take along sack lunches prepared by school cooks rather than stop at a fast-food restaurant.

School board president Sharon Mueller welcomes restrictions on soft drinks. "In Southeast Missouri, we have a tremendously high rate of tooth decay," she said.

A nine-member school committee drafted the wellness policy, working off a model policy drafted by the Missouri School Boards' Association.

The local policy is designed to restrict what students eat and drink during the school day but without eliminating all treats.

"Let's take little bitty steps," Elfrink told the Cape Girardeau school board. "Let's not cause too much of a sugar withdrawal."

As part of the policy, school officials will monitor wellness policies and the impact on students.

In the future, school nurses may monitor students' weights annually and alert parents in cases where obesity may be an issue, Elfrink said.

Franklin Elementary School principal Rhonda Dunham, who served on the wellness committee, already has plans to reward students differently than in the past.

Rather than treating deserving students to fast food, Dunham plans to serve school meals.

But she intends to seat them at a separate table with a tablecloth and linen napkins. Students would eat off china dinner plates. They would be served milk and juice, but in glasses rather than the normal boxed drinks.

The goal is to make them feel special without treating them to unhealthy, fast food, Dunham said.

"I don't think we are doing kids any favor by having them eat a lot of junk food," she said. "We just have to be more creative."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123