EDUCATION BRIEFS

The Atlanta Board of Education has approved key adjustments to the Atlanta Public Schools’ (APS) FY2021 operating budget. Since the state’s $1,000 retention bonus did not include all job titles, APS will provide one-time $1,000 payments to all full-time staff and $500 to all parttime staff and permanent substitutes. In addition, APS has moved forward with part of a compensation package originally proposed for next fiscal year, which is a 2% across-the-board increase to all of the pay scales. The district is also committed to providing raises and step increases as part of its developing general fund budget for FY2022.

UPS provided more than 55,000 books through the Georgia Family Connection Partnership to be distributed throughout the city, with a portion of those books going to APS students in support of the Race2Read challenge. The initiative is designed to boost leisure reading citywide to close the literacy gap. For more information on how businesses can help directly support the Race2Read challenge through “wish list” items including book donations and more, contact jsaunders@ atlanta.k12.ga.us. For information on how businesses can become a Race2Read Friend or Literacy Champion, contact a EducationEquity@ulgatl.org. Individuals and families can also help by logging their leisure reading minutes daily at Race2Read.org.

▲ Oglethorpe University has named Laura Renée Chandler as its first Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a member of the senior administrative leadership team. In this new role, Dr. Chandler will lead the strategic discussion advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion across the university and, working with key campus leaders, will build, guide, and assess policies and practices that encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion as a means of improving Oglethorpe’s cultural climate and identity. Dr. Chandler is the former Director of University of South Dakota’s Center for Diversity and Community. She received her MA and PhD in History from Rice University in Houston, TX, and a BA in Political Science from Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN.

Grady High School’s student newspaper, The Southerner, has been named as a winner of the National Scholastic Press Association’s (NSPA) 2021 Pacemaker Award in Online Journalism. The Southerner was one of just 13 online publications to receive the honor, out of a field of hundreds of applicants vying for the award. The Southerners student editors are Katherine Esterl, Anna Fedorova, Kamryn Harty, Tyler Jones, Kiki Soto, and Charlotte Spears. The faculty advisor is Delbert Ellerton.

Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School’s 6th annual President’s Cup Golf Tournament held on March 29 at Capital City Club in Brookhaven raised $200,000 for student scholarships. The money raised supports the private, college-prep education of 550 high school students from underserved populations. Since 2015, the golf tournament has raised over $950,000 to help cover the gap between the income earned from the school’s innovative Corporate Work Study program and the cost to educate the students.

May is Better Hearing Month!