Tag: DeKalb County School System

International Community School Moving Into Vacated Medlock Elementary

From the Principal of the International Community School, Laurent Ditmann, Ph.D….

On Monday, October 10, at their monthly business meeting, the Dekalb County School System (DCSS) board approved the International Community School’s(ICS) requested Letter of Intent to lease the Medlock Elementary School building located at 2418 Wood Trail Lane in Decatur, Georgia.

The decision is a victory for ICS, which has been searching for a new facility for more than five years. To accommodate the school’s growing number of students and staff, the facilities have been split between a main campus within the Avondale Pattillo United Methodist Church in Avondale Estates and a satellite campus housing its fifth and sixth grades in Stone Mountain.

ICS officials will now begin finalizing the lease as well as a financial and logistical plan to support a move during the summer of 2012. The new building has more than 20% more space than the existing split campus, with larger classrooms and such prime amenities as a larger library and media center, an award-winning outdoor garden that serves as an outdoor classroom and a multi-purpose building with a gymnasium.

Notes from the DCSS board meeting state; It is beneficial to the District to have unused facilities occupied and to shift the expense of maintenance and utilities to the charter school. As part of the agreement, the International Community School will be solely responsible for providing any repairs, renovations, building and grounds maintenance and payment of utilities at this facility.

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Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton’s Financial Past

Doing what he does better than almost anyone out in the Atlanta news-sphere, Jim Walls of Atlanta Unfiltered digs into Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton’s past and unveils all kinds of financial weirdness.

Here’s a sampling of a few of the strange details uncovered by Walls…

  • During her campaign for county commissioner, Sutton somehow managed to loan herself $69,000, even though she had a history of unpaid debts and made just $43,000 a year in the DeKalb County School system.
  • While Sutton told the AJC that the root of her financial difficulties stemmed from a dispute with a contractor and her mortgage company, Walls notes that two cases Sutton brought against the aforementioned parties were dismissed by the Fulton County Court System for “lack of prosecution.”

Also, make sure you check out Walls’ excellent time-line of Sutton’s legal problems – which stretch back to 1995 – at the bottom of his article.

AJC: I hope you can use Walls’ new info to go back to the commissioner and demand some ACTUAL answers to your questions.  It also would be nice to give Walls props for his efforts with a mention AND a link!