After an executive session that lasted nearly three hours, the Cranston School Committee made no major decisions Monday, but revisited the district’s wellness policy after initial discussion prompted a second look. Debate over the resolution dominated the remainder of the meeting and, from the looks of it, no one’s ready to yield their position just yet.

“I am puzzled as to why there has not been a change to the policy since it was tabled at the last meeting,” said Joanne Spaziano, a parent and teacher who spoke at the committee meeting.

The proposed changes to the policy require that all food sold before, during and one hour after school must be purchased through the school food services program. What Spaziano fears is that the move creates an unfair situation for food service providers.

“This essentially creates a monopoly,” she said. “By requiring all food to be purchased through food services we are limiting ourselves to one price.”

In her experience, outside food sales also provide a service to students in that it gives children a boost during the day.

“If basic needs have not been met, no learning will occur,” she said. “A lot of these kids need something to sustain them through the morning.”

The other concern expressed is that the policy hurts school groups looking to make a buck for extracurricular activities.

“I understand the intention of it and the need, but I think it’s going to undermine certain group’s abilities to make a profit,” said Ward 2 School Committee member Stephanie Culhane.

Her colleague, Janice Ruggieri, who is on the committee to study the policy, maintains that there are alternatives for these groups. She suggested the committee talk with Kids First, a non-profit organization that promotes health and wellness for children. The group visits schools to talk about some of those fundraising options outside of food sales.

“Food is not your only option for fundraising,” Ruggieri said.

Superintendent Peter Nero said he could relate with school groups that are struggling with fundraising, but with a food services program that consistently runs in the red, he needs to keep a close eye on factors that influence profits.

“You’re competing against a food service that runs a deficit every single year, and that’s the reality we’re dealing with right now,” he said.

Ruggieri suggested then that school groups could still sell food for a small profit, but had to do so through the food services director.

“He has the ability to purchase at what may be a better price because they purchase larger quantities,” she said.

That would still, countered Culhane, take profits away from food services.

The recommendation coming out of the discussion is to develop a policy that allows sales at certain times of day, perhaps avoiding the lunch hour when food services would be most affected. The larger issue, then, seems to be a debate over the types of food being sold.

“That’s the important part of this, is to get some control over what’s being sold,” said member Steven Stycos. “The problem with all the schools that we have is people go out and buy stuff and it doesn’t meet the guidelines.”

The guidelines, set in the District Nutrition Standards, dictate that food available to students must meet certain nutritional criteria and when bake sales revolve around brownies and cupcakes, Stycos believes the schools aren’t doing their part.

Ultimately, no decision was made and the resolution was tabled for further study. When addressing the committee again, Spaziano urged them to consider the effects on fundraising and thanked Clerk Andrea Iannazzi in particular for her attention to the issue.

Other than several items relating to employment – hiring and retirements – the committee tabled other issues up for discussion, including a mandate on insurance coverage for student athletes in the district.

They did, however, request that former Superintendent Rick Scherza return to help them on the topic of Senate bill 1041, which threatens to negatively impact enrollment at the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center. Several parents spoke about the impact the CACTC had on their children and encouraged the committee to continue fighting the bill on the state level. Iannazzi charged Scherza with creating a fact packet to assist the committee in making “the state aware of what an asset we have in the Career and Technical school.”