On Monday night the Bismarck School Board approved the purchase of 17.74 acres for $1.

The land purchase was part of an agreement with Aspen Realtors. In order to aacquire the land, the school district sold 20 acres on east Century Avenue adjacent to Saratoga Avenue for $1. The 17-acre lot the district purchased is on Washington Street, north of 43rd Avenue.

Bismarck School District Superintendent Paul Johnson said that it's nice for the district to have land and to be able to exchange it, depending on where housing developments occur. The piece of land the district purchased more than 10 years ago on Century Avenue as a potential school site is now surrounded by more commercial development then housing.

The district wanted the land north of 43rd Avenue, near Horizon Middle School and Highway 83, because of projected development of single-home families, Johnson said. However, it could take five to 10 years before a school is needed or built.

During the meeting, the board also heard from a small group of medical professionals about their concerns on the upcoming renewal for a beverage contract.

The contract would allow an equal number of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola machines to be provided in the school district and displayed in public areas. The contract would be for the next five years, and the school district would receive more than $400,000 in revenue from the contract.

Dr. Parag Kumar, from the North Dakota Academy of Pediatrics, asked the school board how they can justify allowing children to drink soda, which he said has 19 teaspoons of sugar in a single can. He said the board should't allow soda to be sold in the district.

Currently there are soda machines in elementary, middle and high schools. In the elementary schools, the soda machines are in public areas, but students can't purchase the soda during school hours.

Soda is accessible from the machines after school hours. There also are machines in the teachers' lounge.

A nurse, who is helping the school district draft a policy on soda in schools, told the board that obesity, which is linked to soda consumption, is not just a school problem or a parent problem.

She recommended that healthier alternatives replace soda in the machines.

"Let's not sell out on our kids' health now, before they have health problems down the road," she said.

The board did not take any action on the beverage contract. Former school board president Parrell Grossman has been working on the soda policy draft with medical professionals. He said the policy will be presented to PTOs for parental input on the subject.

The soda policy draft isn't expected to be completed until October or November.

Before the meeting adjourned, the board authorized the superintendent to begin negotiations for a career and technical facilities site near Bismarck State College. Johnson wouldn't comment on which specific site the district is interested in.

Ideally, the district would like to lease a site with a 50,000 square foot building. The current Technical and Career Center is 70,000 square feet, but Johnson didn't think that large of a building was needed.

(Reach reporter Kayla Cogdill at 250-8251 or kayla.cogdill@;bismarcktribune.com.)