Members of the community have gotten together and arranged a flower memorial for Gary DeToma Jr. in Oakhurst’s Harmony Park.  College Heights principal Suzanne Kennedy sent out the details yesterday about how you can participate…

Dear Parents,

In an effort to show support for Melanie DeToma and her family, but at the same time respect their wishes for privacy, a flower memorial in Harmony Park is being arranged by the community. A linden tree will be planted on-site by Trees Atlanta. Hopefully, by Friday afternoon families can begin to gather bouquets and remembrances as a gesture of goodwill for the family.

If you are able and wish to participate, simply place a suitable arrangement among the flowers in Harmony Park beginning on Friday afternoon. Please do not forget about the Gary DeToma Jr. Memorial Fund at Decatur First Bank, which is another way of showing support to the family as they get through this very difficult time.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Kennedy

Principal of College Heights

Michael and an anonymous tipster report that a letter was sent out to parents from College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center principal Suzanne Kennedy announcing that the pre-K program had received a grant to add additional spots to the current Head Start preschool program and open an Early Head Start (birth to 3) program at the school.  Kennedy sees the need because CSD still is striving to close the achievement gap between blacks and whites and provide equal opportunities to infant and toddlers from low income families.

But as is often the biggest challenge in little ol’ Decatur, in order to expand, you need room to expand.  And in order to accommodate expansion needs quickly, we must call in the trailers…or as they’re referred to in the letter, “learning cottages”.

The principal has called an open meeting to help decide how to use the trailer, umm learning cottage, to implement the Head Start and Early Head Start programs while “keeping our goal to blend the Decatur-DeKalb YMCA with the PCA program”.  The meeting will be held next Tuesday, September 29th from 5p-6p in the school’s cafeteria.

You can read the full letter, provided by Michael, HERE (pdf).