International Community School Moves Into Medlock

The K-5 charter school has moved into the Medlock Elementary School building on 10 acres.

The board of directors, staff, and families of the International Community School are extremely pleased to announce that the doors of its new Medlock campus are now open. With larger classrooms, a cafeteria, a gym and 10 acres, the single K-5 location is now home to 370 students and 85 staff members, all of whom are eager to strengthen the school's education programs and services. After 10 years spent leasing space from two local churches, and after a comprehensive multi-year search for a solution to the challenge of having their own school building, ICS finally found its home in the former Medlock Elementary School in Decatur, an unused DeKalb County School District building. Renovations and repairs to the property began in early July, …

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Jonathan Cribbs

3:48 pm on Friday, September 14, 2012

Good to see someone using that building. I know the community was concerned.   more ›

Medlock Charter School Readies for First Day Next Week

The International Community School has signed a 10-year lease with the DeKalb County School System to operate inside the old Medlock Elementary School building.

Video Preview: A Film About The International Community School

"A Place In The World" is a feature-length documentary that has been in production for several years about the school that will move into Medlock Elementary School in the fall.

Many newspaper and magazine articles and television news spots have been devoted to the International Community School in Avondale Estates, a virtual United Nations of elementary education. Refugee children from dozens of nations, plus local children, attend the school. Now ICS, which is moving into the now-defunct Medlock Elementary School in the fall, is going to be portrayed in a feature-length documentary, A Place in the World. Here is a preview of the movie. The movie's website says the film "follows three families with ties to the school, a first-year teacher, and the new principal of the school over the course of two years, as they adapt to, and learn from, this diverse and complex social environment. The film asks the question of …

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Back to School, Boys and Girls

Students throughout the North Druid Hills-Briarcliff area return to school today. For some it'll be the same old-same old. Others will see big changes.

Maggie Housworth said she has no great qualms about walking into a new school building this morning. If her parents had their druthers, she'd be dropped off at Medlock Elementary School this morning as a newly minted fourth-grader. But the DeKalb County School System closed Medlock Elementary in June, and when Maggie sits down for class this morning, she'll be in Laurel Ridge Elementary School along with more than 50 of her classmates. "I was a little excited, a little nervous," she said about the moment she heard she was headed to a new school. She said she was slightly anxious about "having to meet new teachers, getting to meet new friends and having a whole new system." Medlock was one of several nearby schools that found itself …

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Fernbank to Use Medlock Elementary While New School is Built?

There's been an increasing amount of chatter about the possibility of Fernbank Elementary School using Medlock Elementary as a temporary home during construction.

Will Fernbank Elementary School use the recently shuttered Medlock Elementary School as a temporary home if Fernbank is rebuilt? The DeKalb County Board of Education passed a resolution in early June supporting a $475 million SPLOST IV program (which stands for "special local option sales tax"). Included in the program is the replacement of Fernbank Elementary, a $21 million project. The construction, which could begin as early as 2013 or 2014, would require the school's students to relocate temporarily. Since the board's vote, community chatter has included the possibility of moving those students to Medlock Elementary, an important part of the Medlock community, which has been searching for a tenant since it closed earlier this summer. …

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Board Votes Down Cell Tower at Medlock Elementary School

Medlock residents spoke out against the proposed cell tower at Monday night's DeKalb County Board of Education meeting. But the board gave approval to towers at Lakeside High and Briarlake Elementary schools.

Medlock residents flooded the DeKalb County Board of Education meeting Monday evening to object to a proposal to erect a T-Mobile cell tower at the site of Medlock Elementary School. The plan before the school board also called for the construction of cell towers at several other DeKalb County schools, including Lakeside High School and Briarlake Elementary School.   Ultimately the Medlock residents’ impassioned objections were heard and the school board passed an amended version of the proposal that exempted Medlock Elementary from tower construction. Meadowview and Brockett elementary schools also received exemptions.   In her testimony before the board, Pat Camp, vice president of the Medlock Area Neighborhood Association, argued that …

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Cheryl Miller

11:32 am on Tuesday, May 8, 2012

You are worried about the kudzu and not the fact that the children could get cancer? And we wonder what's wrong with our society today? Hope you get that radio reception worked out ... God only knows how important that is compared to a neighborhood being forced to live next to hazardous materials for the next 30 years.   more ›

School Board to Vote on Cell Towers at Medlock, Lakeside Tonight

Residents around Medlock Elementary School have vehemently opposed the erection of a cell tower on the recently shuttered school's grounds, citing health concerns among others.

The DeKalb County Board of Education is scheduled to vote tonight on its controversial proposal to allow T-Mobile to erect several cell phone towers on school grounds in the county, including Lakeside High School and Medlock and Briarlake elementary schools. Here's the full item the board on which the board will vote: It is requested that the Board of Education approve the contract proposal submitted by T-Mobile for placement of Wireless Towers at the following locations:  Briarlake Elementary School, Flat Rock Elementary School, Brockett Elementary School, Jolly Elementary School, Lakeside High School, Margaret Harris Center, Martin Luther King Jr. High School, Meadowview Elementary School, Medlock Elementary School, Narvie J. Harris …

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Medlock Neighbors Speak Up About Cell Tower

The proposed cell tower at the former site of Medlock Elementary has neighbors up in arms.

The proposed cell tower at the recently shuttered Medlock Elementary School has neighbors up in arms. North Druid Hills-Briarcliff Patch asked several residents what they thought about the issue.

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Medlock Neighborhood Plans to Fight Cell Tower Proposal

A proposed T-Mobile cell phone tower at Medlock Elementary is being fought from many angles by Medlock Area Neighborhood Association members.

The Medlock Area Neighborhood Association plans to fight the proposed construction of a cell phone tower at the recently shuttered Medlock Elementary School, an association official said Monday. The association is concerned about many factors related to the tower proposed by T-Mobile, including property values, financial benefits and a general need for more planned, future-oriented development in the neighborhood, said Joanne Massey, an association member. “I think the first thing everybody needs to ask themselves is whether or not you’re concerned about the negative impact of having a cell tower that’s visible to almost the entire neighborhood. In particular, it would be in our front yard, so we’re really not excited about that,” she said…

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McChesney: Still No Set Plans for Medlock Elementary

Neighborhood residents want to know what's next for the school that closed its doors on May 20.

Medlock Elementary School permanently closed its doors last month to students after 50 years due to redistricting in DeKalb County. The beloved elementary school, which had an enrollment at the time of closure of only 325 students, is set to officially close completely in June. On many neighbors’ minds: What’s next for Medlock? “People want to know what the answer is to something we don’t know the answer to yet,” said Don McChesney of the DeKalb County Board of Education when asked of the school’s future. McChesney represents District 2, which includes Medlock Elementary. He said the county is still looking for a use for the school and hopes to find a positive solution for all involved. “At this point we do not know what the future plans …

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