EASD Comes to Terms on Coke Contract

The Easton Area School District appears to have won its cola war.

The school board's Finance Committee and Coca-Cola Thursday night said they have resolved some stumbling blocks that had been of a beverage contract between Coke and the district.

At a meeting Thursday, the committee recommended a new five-year contract -- almost identical to the previous three-year contract -- for approval by the full school board.

At issue was wording in the contract that would have prevented donated products to be distributed or sold by independent parent support organizations and booster clubs at school events. The 3-year contract ran out in January, though Coca-Cola has continued reimbursing the district at the prior contract's rates during negotiations.

Coca-Cola representatives said the purpose of the wording was to protect company interests.

“What we're looking for is just good old common sense,” said one Coke representative. He added that while the contract at issue specified that any product 'distributed' on school grounds must be a Coke product, he 'didn't expect to be everywhere', such as at class birthday parties and small club events.

The district will receive $3.50 back for every case sold under the new contract.

School board member Jennifer Holzberger said she understands the company viewpoint and can agree with not selling other products in Coke-provided equipment, but felt the language in the contract went beyond the verbally stated intention.

“Commonsense and contract law are two different things,” Holzberger said. “As a district, to try to guarantee this, when we're so heavily dependent on donations and there are so many independent organizations...I have no problem entering this contract, except for this language.”

“I think there is some thought you're going to come and be the Coke police and come bust us,” said school board president Kerry Myers. “I understand where this is coming from. You (personally) may not be here in five years. We need to come up with a way to make donations exempt.”

In the end, Coke agreed to specifically exempt donations for both distribution and sale at school events, though non-Coke products will be banned from using Coke-provided equipment, such as vending machines and the Coke wagon.

In addition, Coke will allow all independent organizations that are affiliated with the school district to set up their own accounts with Coca-Cola under the same terms as the school district and be reimbursed at the same rates.

In other business, the committee also voted unanimously to recommend the renewal of a 3-year contract with Apple computers for the middle school.

School district technology director Thomas Drago said the approximately $900,000 contract will include 1,030 laptops, plus 25 more that are specially equipped for the music department. Also included will be 150 iPad2 tablet computers with five charging carts to go with them.

The new contract is about $400,000 less than the prior one, Drago said, noting that in addition to getting a better deal from Apple, the district decided to make due with it's 9-year-old printers and dumped Applecare in favor of a local computer maintenance firm that is about a tenth of the price.

“The laptops are the newest release of Apple Macbooks,” Drago said. He added that the old computers will be sold off for about $400 apiece.