At a special meeting of the Oneida School Board on Monday, February 23, 2026, the Board unanimously voted to purchase the former U.S. Bank/First National Bank building in which the District offices are currently housed. The bank portion of the building has been vacant since May when U.S. Bank, based in Minneapolis, closed several of its branches nationwide, including the Malad branch.

Although the School District was not informed, the building was sold by the U.S. Bank company through a national auction to an investor from the southern U.S., which then offered to sell it to the School District for $450,000. The appraised value of the building was considerably higher than this purchase price.

The School District had about three years left on its lease for the top floor of the building. The rental fee will now go toward paying for the building.

The School District had Jared Lusk, the contractor with whom the District worked closely during the construction of the new elementary school, inspect the building; he reported that overall the building is sound.  The roof does leak in several places and will need to be replaced fairly soon. The elevator and alarm systems are in good working order. The power bill is very high due to the building having all-electric power, but some modifications to the windows and the amount of heat used in the vacant portions of the building may bring the cost down.

The School District has not decided on the future of the building.  Now that it owns the building, it can take time to consider selling it, leasing it, or using it for school operations. 

One of the stipulations of the original sale was that the building could not be leased to a bank for three years from the sale.