And for something to brag about...

I am happy to share a story we can all be proud of. Today's AJC has posted a story called, Refugees a growing challenge, that goes into great detail about the growing numbers of refugees fleeing their home countries for America. Many end up in Georgia. Most of those end up in DeKalb. And a majority of those end up in Clarkston.

As I read the article, I realized that we are doing a very good job with our immigrant students. Much better than Gwinnett or any other school system. We have an International Student Center devoted to bringing new refugees up to speed in their studies, even when those students arrive having very little previous schooling.

A growing number of refugees have come to Georgia in recent years, with most settling in and around DeKalb County. By law, they deserve an education.

Their relative numbers are small: about 3 percent of the DeKalb County School System’s student body, according to school and state records. But the growth in percentage terms is not: DeKalb counted 2,627 refugee students in June, an increase of about 150 percent from the 2006-07 school year.

The students, many reared in camps, often come with little or no schooling. Many speak no English.

. . .

DeKalb teaches English to the refugees — who count more than 70 native tongues, from Amharic to Uzbek — and offers them tutoring. The hardest cases — those 13 and older with six or fewer years of schooling — typically spend two years at the International Student Center’s isolated campus on North Druid Hills Road before moving into neighborhood schools. There were 250 such students this year.

Other school systems, such as those in Fulton and Gwinnett counties, also have refugees. They don’t count them like DeKalb, but federal data give a rough head count: from June 2010 through May, DeKalb got 465 refugees ages 5 to 18, said Michael Singleton, the state refugee coordinator for the Georgia Department of Human Services. Fulton got 182, compared with four in Gwinnett and none in Cobb.

Kudos to Sandra Nunes and the leaders of our school system working so hard to assimilate our refugee students. I hope that you will add one more item to your "To-Do" list -- aid and support the International Community Charter School. Give them a home and some help. We're all in this together and it just seems symbiotic to work on this issue as a team. Some very delicate lives hang in the balance.

An American Story Right Here in DeKalb

We were recently directed to an article written by Jamie Gumbrecht and posted at her blog about her visit to the International Community Charter School in DCSS. It's amazing to think that within our DeKalb County School System is this charter school full of promise - the genuine original promise of what it means to come to America. The video highlights a story of two boys - one born an American and one a Burmese refugee - who became fast friends at the International School. The school suffers great challenges as it is comprised half of refugees and has no official school building. They struggle to meet their annual funding goal of $400,000. But amazing things are happening here - you may recall ICS student Genevieve Wilson who won a national poster contest for World Refugee Day and was flown to DC, stayed at the Ritz and was presented an award by Angelina Jolie! Her poster will be exhibited at the National Geographic Museum.

In addition to the article and video above written and produced by the New York Times, the school has been highlighted in the Christian Science Monitor with the story of "Little Bill Clinton", as well as the inspirational story, "Outcasts United", by Warren St. John (also the author of the NYT piece.)

We need to rejoice for this school, be glad in it - and support them in any way that we can.

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