POWAY - The Poway Unified School District Board of Trustees met in the Morning Creek Elementary School gym for the first time since last week's election in a generally low-key session Monday night.

Trustee Steve McMillan chose not to run for another term, and is being succeeded by Todd Gutschow, the top vote-getter among board challengers Nov. 7. Though McMillan has one meeting to go before his stint is officially over, that didn't stop fellow board members from paying tribute now.

"I'd like to thank Steve for all his input at all the board meetings," said Trustee Andy Patapow. "I've always known him to come up with that added little extra input that helps us make a decision."

"In 12 years we have developed a great friendship," board President Penny Ranftle said.

"I feel proud about the years that I've served," McMillan observed later. "I'm leaving at a time when the district is in very good hands, so I can leave with my head up."

In other discussion, Marsha Dodson and Darlene Willis - co-authors of a recent book on parenting and both parents of Westview High School students - spoke to the board about a new energy drink, called "Cocaine," that's four times stronger than energy drinks such as Red Bull and is now being marketed in San Diego (www.cocaine-drink.com).

"We are very concerned as parents, and we're trying to get the word out," said Dodson, who first became aware of the drink while volunteering at a Westview football game a week ago, when she talked with a cheerleader who'd just taken one. The drink contains a chemical that intentionally reproduces the throat-numbing sensation experienced by users of the drug.

"There are no stores in the Poway district (selling it)," Dodson said. "That doesn't mean it won't become more popular."

Dodson suggested the board consider a ban. "We ban sodas from school," she said. "We ban candy."

"Kids don't know," said Willis in an interview after the meeting. "They think it's cute 'cause it's in a cute little thin can."

Dodson and Willis appeared to have made an impression on the board, though Superintendent Phillips sounded a cautionary note on the extent of the district's jurisdiction.

"The obvious first step is to do something with the PTA … and make sure our schools are aware of that," he said. "And the part we'll look at is how we might put in place some form of structure to review - you know when kids come on campus and they bring it in their lunch bags, we're really not in the business of trying to police their lunch bags. And so we really have to try and figure out if that's realistic, or if this is a responsibility that falls to parents to oversee their children."

In other board actions:

• Board Vice President Jeff Mangum, back from a Technology and Learning Conference in Dallas less than a day ago, offered a brief report on what he learned during the trip.

"If you go to a conference and come back with one really good solid idea, then it was time well spent," he said. "I have several."

Among those he favored: talk radio at the elementary school level, on the theory that students wishing to get on the air will be more willing to brush up on their reading skills to read the show script; and blogging and podcasting as new communications facilitators between teachers and students.

• Superintendent Don Phillips presided over a brief ceremony honoring Poway High School senior Emily Holme for achieving a perfect score of 36 on the ACT test - one of only 12 California high school students to have done so, out of 73,000 who took the test. She accepted the award accompanied by her parents.

• On a far more somber note, Ranftle extended the district's sympathies to the family of Mark Ebert, a senior at Abraxas High School, who died in a car crash Nov. 5. Witnesses said he was involved in a race with another driver.

Ranftle praised Ebert as "A fine, soft-spoken young man who enjoyed surfing, snowboarding, his friends and his family." She concluded by asking for a moment of silence.

Ebert would have graduated in June.