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The following is a look at some of the divisions within the Cobb County School District working daily to ensure excellence in education for more than 106,000 students.

Technology Services
The Technology Services division spent much of 2006 helping deliver the technology enhancements and refreshment made possible by SPLOST II, under the new leadership of Chris Ragsdale, Assistant Superintendent for Technology Services/Chief Technology Officer.

Beginning in spring 2006, individual laptop computers were distributed to every classroom teacher in the District. Technology Services was responsible for providing software imaging and technical support during the deployment. Teachers were provided with ‘out of the box’ training to help them maximize their new tools from day one.

More than 30,000 classroom and administrative computers are being refreshed in 2006 and well into 2007, providing students, teachers, and staff with up-to-date operating systems and hardware. Aging servers and other network and data center components are in the process of being replaced.

In December 2006, the District announced its decision to move technology support and services in-house. Since April 2003, the District has outsourced its technology needs to Titan/L-3 Communications. A gradual transition of services will begin in spring 2007, to be completed by July for the beginning of the 2007-08 school year.

Technology Services’ support staff includes Field Services, whose technicians directly support local schools and administrative sites, both in the Customer Call Center and on-site at local schools. Application Services consists of software engineers and data center staff who support the enterprise applications for Human Resources, Payroll, Student Information System and Data Center operations. Numerous engineers in the Network Services Organization support the enterprise communications servers and network throughout the District.

Financial Services
Effective Management of Taxpayer Dollars
The Financial Services division is responsible for managing $1 billion in revenue received by the Cobb County School District annually. Departments include: Procurement, Field Services, Disbursements, Accounting, Financial Technology, Budget, and Internal Audit.

These departments perform tasks such as ensuring that the District’s 14,000-plus employees are paid each month, that the five-year $697 million Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) is accounted for properly, and that the $845.1 million general fund budget is expended and budgeted accurately.

Financial Services prides itself on managing taxpayer dollars in the most effective and efficient manner possible and has received substantial acclaim for its efforts, including:
• Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Association of School Business Officials (ASBO) for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2005. The School District has received this award for the past 22 years for excellence in the preparation and issuance of the District’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports.
• Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting from the Government Finances Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) for the 2005 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. The School District was the first in Georgia to receive this award in FY 1979-80, and has continued the trend for 26 consecutive years.
• Budget Presentation Award: The District prepares an official budget document each year which is issued as a separate report. The District has received prestigious budget presentation awards for this document from GFOA since 1990 and from ASBO since 2005.

The Cobb County District’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is available online at www.cobbk12.org. Also see the Financial Results section of the Annual Report for the District’s financial overview.