There was cause for celebration in the Gilmer County Schools’ finance department.
It was announced at Monday’s board of education work session that district finance director Trina Penland and her staff’s exemplary practices have been recognized by the state. The department once again received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellent Financial Reporting for fiscal year ’21 by the Georgia Department of Audits.
Additionally, nine department employees expanded upon their financial knowledge and practices. They recently earned the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson School of Financial Accounting Certification.
“This is a new program that was developed specifically for K-12 school-based training,” said Penland. “It’s really good to have something that will meet our needs. We signed up three people a year and a half ago, and it was so good when they came back we signed the rest of the bookkeepers up.”
Those who earned the certification at the central office included accounting manager Page Reynolds, accounts payable manager Sabrina Teague, district bookkeeper Regina Hill and payroll employees Brittany Lomonaco and Amber Kerr.
School-level bookkeepers who completed the program included Gilmer High’s Maria Nieves, Clear Creek Middle’s Amy Rogers, Clear Creek Elementary’s Penny Griggs and Ellijay Elementary’s Mandy Sanford.
Recipients studied financial governance in quality basic education, internal controls, fraud, risk assessment, detection and prevention, as well as governmental accounting, school-level budgeting, purchasing and report preparation.
“It was very extensive and involved in-person classes, Zoom classes, homework assignments and group projects. These individuals took time away from their work, family and personal time to earn this certification,” Penland said.
“I’d like to say how proud I am of this group. They don’t get a lot of recognition because the work they do is behind the scenes. They’re some of the hardest workers in the district and usually the ones who open the door in the morning and close in the evenings.”