At Shadow Ridge High School, thousands of dollars move in and out of campus accounts every week from lunch sales to club fees to sports purchases. And at the center of it all is one person: school banker Shannon Berge, who has been keeping Shadow’s financial world running smoothly for more than 20 years.
Despite the chaos that money management might bring, Berge says her days actually follow a pretty steady rhythm. Each morning begins with collecting funds from students and teachers, whether it’s payments for sports, clubs, or items from the student store. She also handles the behind the scenes tasks most people never think about.
“I write checks, I pay all the bills here at the school,” she explains. “I’m in charge of 20 credit cards that the school uses… and all the
credit card machines, all 14 of them.” From maki
ng sure devices are charged to ensuring every purchase is recorded correctly, she keeps the school’s finances “on the up and up.”
Berge didn’t originally plan on becoming a school banker. She first worked as a counselor’s secretary at Shadow Ridge. When the banker at the time left, the principal approached her with a surprise.
“He came to me and he said, ‘I’m going to need you to be the banker.’ I went, ‘I don’t want to be the banker!’” she laughs. But with lifelong experience working with money, she stepped into the role and never left.
Siannah Alvarez, sophomore, says, “I like to read and she makes being able to pay off all the books I forget to turn back into the library really quick.”
When people picture a banker, they often imagine someone who’s a math wizard, but Berge insists that isn’t the key to the job. “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to be so good at math.’ No, I have a calculator!” she jokes.
For her, the real essentials are organization and strong communication with students, teachers, and parents. Building positive relationships is a huge part of her daily work.
Her favorite part of the job is an easy answer: the students. She loves getting to interact with them and be part of their school experience. The most challenging part, however, is “keeping it all straight.” Every credit card transaction must be matched with a receipt, coded properly, and placed into the correct section of the budget. With so many moving pieces, accuracy is everything.
Noah Esparza, senior, states, “Ms. Shannon is very nice and she makes paying off my debts easy.”
After two decades in the position, all at Shadow Ridge, Berge remains the quiet but crucial force keeping the school’s finances running one receipt, one transaction, and one student at a time.
