APS earns national financial reporting award

Atlanta Public Schools has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for its comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR).

The award is considered the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government agency and its management.

“We are very proud to have earned this national recognition from such a prestigious organization for our work in the area of financial reporting,” said Chuck Burbridge, chief financial officer for Atlanta Public Schools.  “We work hard every day to manage the school district’s financial resources with the view in mind of providing maximum support for our students to facilitate their academic achievement.”

GFOA is a nonprofit professional association serving approximately 17,500 government finance professionals in the United States and Canada.

Fickett Elementary builds new playground with KaBOOM!, Foresters

Fickett Elementary was hoping for about 250 volunteers to show up Saturday for a playground build partnership with KaBOOM! and Foresters. About 540 showed up. That’s the kind of passion that the Ben Hill neighborhood has for the school, which welcomed a completely new playground (with a few surrounding extras) over the weekend.

“It’s about the business community supporting the surrounding community, and the community feeling like they have a place they can come to, a place they have a stake in,” said Fickett Principal Dr. Anthony Dorsey. “They built it, they can use it, and they can be proud of it.”

They sure did built it. The volunteers worked throughout the morning to pour some 15,000 pounds of concrete and move 150 cubic yards of mulch in preparing a swingset, a geodesic “superdome,” a spiral slide and an adventure tube in the main playground. Surrounding the playground and nearby are three mendocino benches, two shade structures and two planter bench trellises in this, KaBOOM!’s 1,700th playground! Fickett Elementary physical education instructor Jocelyn Williams helped kick off the activities by leading the volunteers in a morning stretch. The school’s Spirit Club kept everyone peppy with a cheer.