Fayette County BOE Financial Report Receives Highest Honor

Can the words “financial report” and “easy to understand” be used in the same sentence? They can when referring to the financial report published by the Fayette County Board of Education.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada has given the Award of Financial Reporting Achievement to the school system for its comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR).

The award is given annually to reports that demonstrate a constructive spirit of full disclosure that clearly communicate the organization’s financial story, and motivate potential users and user groups to read the CAFR. It is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management.

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Fayette County BOE Financial Report Receives Highest Honor

Financial reports are usually not on most people’s top 10 list of must read items but the one published by the Fayette County Board of Education could change that.

For the third consecutive year, the Government of Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada has awarded its Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting to the board of education for the school system’s comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR).

The award is given annually to reports that demonstrate a constructive spirit of full disclosure that clearly communicate the organization’s financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the CAFR. It is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management.

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Review Committee Recommends Fayette County School System for District Accreditation

The Quality Assurance Review Team of AdvanceED has recommended the Fayette County School System for District Accreditation as a quality school system.

The announcement was made last Wednesday at 3 p.m. during a called session of the Fayette County Board of Education. The team announced its decision to recommend the school system for District Accreditation after spending three days reviewing documents, interviewing stakeholders and observing classrooms.

The accreditation team will submit its recommendation to the AdvancED Accreditation Commission for review. If the commission agrees with the committee’s findings, the school system and all of its schools will be granted a five-year term accreditation.

During the presentation of its report, the committee commended the school system for its “strong and positive academic learning climate in which teaching and learning are actively supported.” The report also commended the positive and productive working relationship among both external and internal stakeholders, the accessibility and openness to input from a broad spectrum of stakeholders and invaluable resources and support services that the system provides to schools.

Part of achieving and maintaining accreditation is implementing a continuous improvement process. The committee issued five recommendations that it feels the school system needs to address to maintain accreditation. The full report outlining the recommendations is on the school system’s website under eBoard. The public can also listen to the committee’s report on the podcast page of the website.

The school system will submit a report in two years detailing the progress it has made toward addressing the recommendations. This is a requirement to maintain and keep accreditation.

The school system started preparing for the accreditation committee’s visit a year ago by compiling a report that addresses the seven standards needed for accreditation. An explanation of how the district is meeting each of the standards, along with supporting documentation, is outlined in the complete report.

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Fayette County School System Annual Publication Goes Electronic

The 2007-2008 Annual Report for the Fayette County School System is now available for download on the school system’s website.

This marks the first time that the annual report has been distributed electronically instead of in traditional print format. Residents who have signed up for the school system’s RSS feed automatically received the publication last week.

The move to distribute the publication electronically resulted in a savings of over $7,000 in printing costs.

A limited number of printed copies are available for residents who do not have access to a computer or have trouble downloading files. Changing the publication from full color to black and white and using a less expensive paper further reduced printing costs of the limited quantities.

The annual report is one of the first printed publications that will be distributed electronically. Not only does this measure save money, but it also makes documents more accessible and is environmentally responsible.

“We realize that it will take time for our residents to get used to this change but we believe the cost saving benefits will be well worth the adjustment,” says Melinda Berry-Dreisbach, public information specialist for Fayette County Schools. “ I highly suggest that residents sign up for our RSS feed so that they know exactly when new publications and news items are added to our website. The feed eliminates the need to constantly check the site for new information.”

The RSS feed is free. Instructions on how to sign up for it are on the website, www.fcboe.org.

Anyone interested in receiving a printed copy of the 2007-2008 Annual Report can call 770-460-3535 to have one mailed or pick up one from the Fayette County Board of Education office located at 210 Stonewall Avenue in Fayetteville from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.

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