ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Instead of chips and candy, high-performing students will be treated to a book through St. Clairsville Elementary School’s new book vending machine.

The device was unveiled last week, and Principal Amber Toriseva said it is part of the school’s Positive Behavior Intervention System program that aims to reward positive behavior exhibited by students.

“It’s rewarding students for doing the right thing and being good pillars of character in the classroom and out on the playground. So our focus is to reward positive behavior so that it’s contagious and that postivity is spread across campus instead of focusing on the negative,” she said.

The machine is filled with dozens of books that were donated by Books-A-Million, located inside the Ohio Valley Mall in St. Clairsville. Though similar to a food or drink vending machine, it does not take money – it only accepts “golden coins,” which students earn through exhibiting positive behavior. Toriseva said students earn coins through following the six pillars of character education: showing trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.

“The students have to trade in what we call chips that are basically bingo markers and those are given out by all of our homeroom teachers. Students must earn 25 chips, which is attainable but not too easy or too difficult. Once they get all 25, the teacher sends them to the principal’s office and they trade those in to get a golden coin, which is the only thing that operates that machine,” she said.

In addition to the book, students will also receive a certificate and have their picture taken in front of the machine.

Toriseva said students are thrilled about the new addition and can’t wait to earn enough coins to purchase a book.

“The kids are super excited to start the process,’ she said.

Once the books begin being taken home by students, different ones will appear behind the glass so there is always a new selection. There is also a plan in place to have more books added to the machine through the school’s local book fairs.

The $5,600 machine was purchased from Global Vending Group, which converts old vending machines into the new models that dispense books. Toriseva worked with the company to design a machine that would be appropriate for the students in the school.

“The bottom two trays of the vending machine are designed in a way that it can house larger books for students that are in the preschool, kindergarten and first grade level, like your larger picture books. As you go up to the middle of the vending machine, it can range for our intermediate elementary and at the top are the chapter books for our third- and fourth-graders. We designed it visually, too, so that our younger kids could look at it at eye level and realize that those books are for them. It graduates as the students get older,” she said, adding that team leaders throughout the school also helped in the machine design.

“We wanted to have a focus on a literacy rich environment. … We included our St. C logo, our school colors, just bright and whimsical elementary design as well as our districtwide initiative, which is making every moment matter, and that is on the side of our vending machine.”

The purchase was made possible thanks to money raised through fundraisers and an allocation from the school district through state funds meant for the Positive Behavior Intervention System incentive program.