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, funded by a successful capital campaign effort. The building opened on Aug. 7, just six days before the first day of school.
In an exciting show of community spirit, more than 100 parents, grandparents and neighborhood volunteers stepped up to help with indoor and outdoor clean-up and beautification projects. This rallying of support for the school was followed up on Aug. 25, when more than 250 ICS children, parents, and staff members celebrated the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year with a Back to School picnic organized by the International Parent Teacher and Staff Organization.
Keller Williams Realty Metro Atlanta in Decatur has shown its community spirit in support of ICS in May on their “Red Day of Service” pulling weeds, trimming the overgrowth in the school garden, and sorting donated school uniforms. They have also held two fundraisers for the school and filled backpacks with school supplies, which they donated to children whose families benefit from the ICS food cooperative. An additional 50 backpacks and school supplies were donated by the Atlanta office of accounting firm Dixon, Hughes, Goodman. Turner Broadcasting System donated more school supplies and a contingent of their staff will be volunteering at the school on Oct. 2, to help beautify the campus.
The International Community School hopes to take advantage of its new single location in a real school building to amplify its mission to provide refugee, immigrant and local children with an international education by exploring and celebrating cultural differences in an academically challenging, nurturing and intentionally multi-ethnic environment.
A limited number of spaces are available at ICS for fourth- and fifth-grade students. The children must be residents of DeKalb County (outside the City of Decatur School District). Please contact the ICS school registrar at 404-499-8969.
This article was submitted by the International Community School.