DALLAS -- Students swarm through the halls of Dallas High.  It's lunch time, and most are chatting with their friends and snacking.  But some students have other things on their minds -- things like cashing checks and depositing money.
   Students can do that at school now.
   A student branch of Wells Fargo bank opened at Dallas High school Feb. 20.  Within minutes of opening, students were using the bank.
   "It will be a lot easier than making my mom cash my checks, freshman Heather Smith said.   "I have a job, and sometimes I have to wait a few days to get my mom to cash checks for me."

Dallas High School freshman Stephanie Brady makes change for Italian exchange student Carlo Setti on the opening day of the school's bank. Photo By Daniel Hurst

   Students can open savings and checking accounts, cash checks, get change and make deposits at the high school branch. Students under 18 need adult co-signers in order to open accounts. 
   On the first day of business, Wells Fargo employees hovered behind the tellers as they completed their first transactions.
   After today, the students will run the branch by themselves, with the guidance of Jim Walker, a business and marketing teacher at Dallas High.
   "Of course people from Wells Fargo will be available whenever we have questions," Walker said. 
   "And they've been up here running through the processes with them."
   Student employees on the opening day said the job was going well. 
   "It's easier than I thought it would be," freshman teller Melanie Artigo said.
   Walker said running the bank will be a learning experience for the students. There's even a curriculum to go along with it.

  "This will be good for the kids," Walker said. 
   "They'll run it just like a regular business."
   The student employees are enrolled in a class called Business Lab. They sell pastries and coffee in addition to running the bank.
   Senior Stacy Wells was excited about her job as operations manager. She'll supervise the other students and make sure things run smoothly.
   "I think this will give me good experience," Wells said.
   All the service at the bank is in person -- there's no ATM at the high school branch.
   "When people ask why there's no ATM, I tell them it's because it costs $40,000, that's why," Walker said.
   The bank will be open before school and during lunch every day. 

   The school won't be in charge of keeping money safe overnight. Every day after lunch the bank's money will be placed in the school safe. The school bookkeeper will take it downtown to Wells Fargo every night.
   The space that houses the bank used to be a closet. Walker said the district paid to remodel it, while Wells Fargo provided all the equipment inside.
   "It worked out just right. My office is right on the other side," Walker said.
   Walker and officials from Wells Fargo have been working on the bank project all year long. The idea was in the works before that, when Wells Fargo was still First Security and when Dennis Fritz, now a math teacher, was teaching business.
   Walker surveyed the bank window, still adorned with the gold ribbon from the ribbon-cutting ceremony, with a smile.
   "We are lucky to have this," he said.

Text and photo © 2002 Polk County Itemizer Observer     Reprinted by permission