Board to consider school bank project

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

June 15, 1997

By Devlyn Brooks

Staff Writer

The Bemidji School Board will consider a proposal to establish a High School bank pilot project for the upcoming school year at its regular meeting 7 p.m. Monday in the High School Green Room.

The project would be the first student-run bank to open in Minnesota, according to BHS business teacher Jane Singer, who is overseeing the project.

Singer said in an interview in April the bank would probably operate during lunch hours and would be staffed entirely by students who would be supervised by either a school employee or a First National Bank of Bemidji employee -- the district's partner in the venture.

The bank's operating guidelines were created by students, school officials, the Bemidji School Board and First National officials.

According to the guidelines, students and district employees could open savings accounts, take out small loans and cash checks at the bank, Singer said.

The students involved would be required to file an annual report summarizing the bank's operations with the state's commissioner of commerce.

Singer said the creation of the bank was an out-growth of a banking course taught at the High School and based on a model of a student-operated bank in Dickinson, N.D.

Making the proposition even more attractive, First National Bank received official approval to participate in the bank venture from its regulatory agency, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, in late May.

In other business, the board will:

• Review the district's 1996-97 activities and recognize the teams and individuals who earned the right to compete at state-level events.

• Hear a "Share the Pride" presentation from the Riverside School staff.

• Hear a Facilities Committee update concerning discussions about a new High School or Lincoln Elementary School.

• Consider a requested extended leave of absence by teacher Duane Goodwin.

• Consider acceptance of several grants.

• Consider approval of the 1997-98 annual school district budget.