The Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Oregon is trying to establish a long-term business relationship with Sisters schools.

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According to Schools Superintendent Steve Swisher, the soft drink company has offered at least $50,000 in cash in exchange for an approximate 10-year role as a title sponsor for the Sisters Schools Foundation-sponsored Sisters Starry Nights concert series and exclusive vending rights in the schools.

Both Coca Cola and Pepsi have vending machines in the high school now.

Swisher emphasized that no action has been taken on the offer. Any such deal would require a school board policy decision and is probably a year away. It may be necessary to open the process to competitive bids.

Swisher said he has raised the issue with the school board and the board of the Sisters Schools Foundation. So far, he said, the idea has received a warm response, with the main concern being whether the offer is sufficient given the value of the return.

"The question really isn't whether we should or not; the question is how much," Swisher said.

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But at least two school board members aren't quite ready to reach for the cash.

"I have some reservations," said Harold Gott. "I don't want to compromise what we do, and we are not a business. I'm not ready to sign on the dotted line with Coke or Pepsi or anybody else. It just raises questions that I don't think have been settled."

Connie Morris questioned whether the school district should allow one company to get kids "hooked" on their product.

"There'd be no interest (in exclusive vending) from Pepsi or Coke if that weren't the case," Morris said. "Should a public school system be set up to encourage to drink only one product line?"

Morris said she has no problem with Coke's sponsorship of the Sisters Starry Nights series and offering their products exclusively at the shows. But she wants the district to be cautious about extending that relationship into "an exclusively student environment."

The proposal is a sign of the times. Schools, pinched by property tax rollbacks, are looking for creative alternatives for funding.

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The trend is nationwide, and soft drink companies are the major players.

According to an article Swisher provided to the school board, a Colorado school district approved a seven-year $7.3 million deal with Pepsi this year. Pepsi will help the district build a new football stadium and get the right to advertise at school athletic fields and gymnasiums as well as exclusive vending rights.

Other business deals are afoot in the Sisters School District.

"A cellular phone company is considering and very interested in installing a tower, or actually just adding onto one of our light poles," Swisher said.

The deal would involve a 10-year lease valued from $250 to $400 per month.

"Is that a different kind of business situation than (soft drinks) in your schools?"

Swisher acknowledged that the trend toward highly visible corporate involvement raises broad questions about how schools and businesses relate to each other. Some schools have to wrestle with the implications of school-business partnerships in academic programs, with concerns that school curriculum is driven by particular business sectors.

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"Where does the influence of those businesses come in regarding the well-rounded education of a student?" Swisher queried.

In Sisters, Swisher said, the local business community has been "extraordinarily responsive" to the needs of the schools.

The schools, in turn, try to buy from local vendors. School buying policies reflect state law, but local rules allow the district to seek vendors within the school district as long as their prices, reflecting shipping and distribution costs, are no more than 5 percent higher than outside bids.