In a Student Council survey this year, we asked people “what would you like to see improve this year?” Without question the top answer was “We want the juice back!” This improvement to the school has been long awaited. Every single member of StuCo at one point or another has promoted this idea that people want and need juice.

At the beginning of the year, everyone who was elected to StuCo mentioned juice in his or her speech at one point or another. We as a council are happy to announce that we have come to a compromise with [Head of School Coreen] Hester on the juice issue. The juice will be brought back after spring break.

Among Hester’s concerns was the juices’ high sugar content and the biggest issue was that both the middle school and high school students were choosing juice over a healthier option. Another reason why juice was removed was because of the star system. The star system was a way for people to buy multiple things for the same price, as long as it counted up to five stars. Each type of food or drink is tagged with different amounts of stars based on its price and your total purchase has to add up to five stars to pay for a meal deal (widely used in the Middle School). The problem was that all healthier juice options were two stars or more. This meant that people were choosing juice over healthier options, such as a fruit or some popcorn, for that extra boost.

The junior representatives decided to directly address these issues. We found juice that was healthier and made sure that its price would make it one star in the five-star system. We also provided Hester with multiple alternative options, such as putting a juice vending machine in Academic Advising just in case the new juice plan did not work. Once we brought these new ideas back to Hester she was sold and was willing to bring the juice back to the cafeteria for good.

Something that should not be dismissed once we get the juice back is the lack of hydration that goes on in our school. As students tended to drink more juice rather than milk and water, the faculty had became concerned with how kids in the High School were hydrated.

Even though the juice has been brought back, we as a council think that it is important to highlight the importance of hydration, especially with all of the sports and extracurriculars people do in and outside of school. By keeping a water bottle or by using the cafeteria water jugs, you can stay hydrated and be prepared for athletics after school. Overall hydration is extremely important in keeping students healthy and alert throughout the day and cannot be neglected.

The Student Council hopes to encourage this hydration by proposing a few initiatives. We have proposed to the administration to buy water tanks stations for the High School. These tanks will be a quicker alternative to the water fountains, and will reduce the lines to them. We will also be selling orange and black reusable water bottles at Top O in the next couple weeks to make sure that everyone who needs one can have a reusable water bottle.

Although the juice has not been brought back yet, we hope to have it in the cafeteria after spring break. The council will be promoting this idea of hydration by sharing a video with the High School, as well as selling water bottles at Top O (as mentioned before). After the word has been spread more about this lack of hydration throughout the school, Hester is happy to bring back the juice. The exact time is still to be determined but we should have it back a couple of weeks after everyone is back from spring break. Hopefully this puts to rest some of the speculation and mystery of the juice. We hope this shines a light on the long process that we, the Student Council, have to endure for little tasks like juice. However, we are confident that we will be able to bring back the juice.