ABCs OF BANKS

The 10-year-old bank teller greeted her pre-kindergarten customer with the utmost professionalism.

"What's your name?" asked Martina Faciane, a fifth- grader at Brock Elementary School in Slidell.

"Jeremiah McGee," the pint-size client replied, sticking his entire head through the cardboard window sitting atop a cafeteria table, which on Tuesday served as the Brock Beavers Branch Bank.

"OK," Martina said, pulling the necessary deposit form. "Do you have any money?"

Resurrected last month after a four-year lapse due to Hurricane Katrina, Brock's Bank at School program, where students get lessons in fiscal responsibility by making monthly deposits into savings accounts managed through Whitney Bank, has returned.

The program, which is also being offered at Alton Elementary School, is one of several initiatives spearheaded by Shirrelle Gordon-Jefferson, who since August has served as the community liaison to both schools.

"What we're really doing is just trying to build relationships with the community and with our parents," she said.

To that end, the schools have partnered with local businesses including Dubuisson's Art Corner in Olde Towne, and last month enlisted Police Chief Freddy Drennan, state Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, and other local leaders to read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" to Brock and Alton students as part of a national campaign.

"It's important for children to see the connection to the community and the school, to see that the things they're learning are preparing them to be a part of the community," she said.

Gordon-Jefferson also hopes to put parents of Brock and Alton students, both Title I schools with significant low-income populations, in touch with social services that will help to meet their financial, job and housing needs so they can be more involved at home and in the schools.

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