During Thursday’s Scottsboro City Board of Education meeting, the board had Nathan Lombard from Redstone Federal Credit Union speak to the board about an opportunity for Redstone to open a student-run branch in the school.
Redstone began this schools program in 2017, with seven high schools and three colleges currently participating in the program. Lombard describes the program as an opportunity for students to gain experiential learning opportunities. Though the bank would be run by students, there would be a teacher overseeing the bank and it would be a non-paid position with the exception of training or other work outside the school, due to the program being a school curricular activity.
“We build a live teleline inside the school with about three windows, they’re performing live transactions so what you see them do would be just like you would be able to do in a regular branch. It’s on a smaller scale, limited to what they can do, they’re doing deposits, withdrawals, basic things but it is a real, live thing. This is not a sandbox or something,” Lombard said.
Before any board member could ask the question of cost, Lombard explained that Redstone would cover the costs of all work to set up the branch, from construction, internet and technologies.
“Anything we put in there is our equipment. We don’t come in with any of your wiring or any of your things. We will be independent so you don’t have to worry about any breaches with us spilling over our data. We’re as worried about breaches as you guys are,” Lombard said. “We pay for everything. We’ll do the demo for removing the lockers, we’ll build this out, we put all the equipment in there, all the money in there is ours… There is no cost for you guys whatsoever.”
For the program, Redstone would have the school sign a five-year contract, with Lombard explaining the reasoning simply being that the cost to set up the branch should be given a chance to run properly, and one-year rolling renewals after the first five years.
Should the board approve the program, the branch would look to open at the start of the next school year, with Lombard requesting a quick decision due to the nature of having to set up the branch itself while school is out and needing to train students and teachers on working the branch.
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