Archived News

The DeKalb County Board of Education on Oct. 10 passed a five-year charter to allow the Museum School in Avondale Estates to continue operating.

Earlier in the year, the school’s charter status was called into question after a Supreme Court vote declared the Georgia Charter School Commission (GCSC) unconstitutional. The GCSC was created in 2008 as a way for the state to approve and fund charters that were denied by local school boards.

On June 13, the board voted to allow the Museum School a one-year waiver, which allowed it to continue to operate as it prepared to submit its five-year charter application.

Museum School Principal Katherine Kelbaugh said that in the 2012-13 school year the school’s attendance zone would be expanded to include the Knollwood elementary attendance zone. Currently, the school serves the Avondale and Midway elementary zones.

The board also voted to rename the Tucker High School gymnasium after the late A.Z. Johnson, a former basketball coach who worked at Chamblee High School for 11 years and Tucker High for 21 years. According to school officials, Johnson’s record of more than 500 career wins in basketball makes him one of the most successful coaches in Georgia history.

A letter of intent and a charter amendment for the International Community School (ICS) also passed unanimously. The vote will allow the school to negotiate a lease agreement with the school system to use the vacant Medlock Elementary School rent-free. ICS would only be responsible for the maintenance costs of the building. The elementary school was closed earlier this year under former Interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson’s redistricting plan. Currently, ICS has two different locations, one at a church in Avondale Estates and another at a church in Stone Mountain.

New Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson presented an update of the progress the system has made in meeting eight requirements AdvancED requested earlier in the year when the system was put on advisement.

Atkinson said seven of the requirements had been met, the remaining one being the implementation of a new strategic plan that would be finalized and come before the board in January.