A school closes but 60 years of memories live on: Goodbye Medlock
Medlock was one of eight DeKalb schools that closed for good Friday.
Thousands of families in DeKalb bid farewell to beloved schools on Friday.
The last day of school for the county’s students marked the last day ever for eight DeKalb schools, shuttered due to restricting.
The schools were Atherton, Glen Haven, Gresham Park, Peachcrest, Medlock and Sky Haven elementary schools, Avondale Middle School and Avondale High School.
I wanted to write about the closings and wondered the best way to do it.
A Medlock Elementary School parent did it for me with a lovely tribute to his children’s school. I have always loved the atmosphere of Medlock, an elementary school tucked away in a old central DeKalb neighborhood. This is a sweet piece that honors Medlock, but speaks to the sadness that all affected DeKalb families must be feeling as they say farewell to their schools.
By Amin Bhayani.
As my son Ali and I were walking toward the car, Ali said to me: “You know Dad today is the last day of my school.”
His face was glowing with happiness and his voice was full of excitement but I was feeling a little gloomy and glimpses of the last four years kept coming into my mind, one after another.
Every morning for the past four years, I have driven my kids to Medlock Elementary School. During those years, I have heard the same phrase so many times — “This is my last day” — but never felt the way I felt yesterday.
My daughter Iman graduated from Medlock Elementary School in 2008, and my son Ali just finished first
A parent talks about the last day at the school.
grade. But after this summer vacation, I will never drive him back to Medlock because the school will be closing its doors at the end of this month as part of the DeKalb County redistricting plan.
While I was driving Ali to school, the first two years of my daughter Iman’s time in Medlock were circling around my mind. Iman was admitted to Medlock in fourth grade after we had moved from Daytona Beach in 2007. The following year she graduated from fifth grade to Shamrock Middle School.
Ali was admitted to kindergarten in 2009, and this year finished first grade with his name on the principal’s honor list. After parking the car, Ali and I started walking toward the school. The school’s surroundings have always fascinated me. At the left side, there are so many lush green, dense trees and across them you can see the widows of the classrooms.
During these four years, I have seen robins flying or plunging from the trees to the ground where they might have seen juicy worms to target for easy snacks.
A little bit on the right, just by the wall where the name of the school is written in big letters, there is a pole in which the American flag is mounted. So many times, I have seen different kids there raising the flag.
While coming out of the school, across the street in a yard of a home, you can see a very huge tree on the left side. The rays of the morning sun are reflected through the shiny green leaves of the tree.
We entered the school and, while passing the corridors, I looked at many black and white and color photographs of school’s past 60 years — students, teachers, group pictures from the classes of previous academic years, events and extracurricular activities, which were placed there in the last few weeks to mark the closing.
As I looked at one year after another, thoughts kept coming to my mind. What became of all those students?
Some may have become doctors, engineers, scientists, police officers, politicians, teachers, authors or business persons. Most might have no idea that the very same school that gave them their early education, provided their first introduction to letters, words, numbers, colors, lines, drawing and taught them other more important lessons is now vanishing forever.
As the school closes its doors forever, the students and their parents will never be able to return to Medlock Elementary School. But I am pretty sure that all the memories connected with the school will always be in their hearts.
Whenever they want to revisit Medlock, they will just turn their heads toward their hearts and they can see the pictures of those golden memories from the past.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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32 comments Add your comment
Dr NO
May 23rd, 2011
2:06 pm
Oh brother…
bob leblah
May 23rd, 2011
2:31 pm
Comments from Bob on school closing:
“As I wandered the halls, one last time, the smell of crayons permeated the air. A broken water fountain, dribbled its cool refreshment slowly. I wondered if pushing on it, would reveal any water pressure. I then entered the math hall. The same hall I had seen a paper airplane narrowly miss my ankle.. oh just one year ago.”
d
May 23rd, 2011
2:39 pm
I’ve spoken with teachers who have taught students from the last time DeKalb had closings. The students were all fine with it. It was the parents who made a big deal about it.
B. Killebrew
May 23rd, 2011
2:41 pm
Of all the school closings, Medlock Elementary is really the only one I feel was a mistake.
Write Your Board Members
May 23rd, 2011
2:44 pm
Why? Medlock was underenrolled and in an area with lots of empty seats.
Inman Park
May 23rd, 2011
2:48 pm
School closings in metropolitan areas are commonplace as population shifts inevitable occur and as people move to suburbia. My old Atlanta high school (East Atlanta) has been closed for years and years, as has Roosevelt, Murphy, Northside, West Fulton, Dykes, Turner, etc. It happens. No one is really hurt. Life does go on.
thumper
May 23rd, 2011
2:51 pm
The kids will go to a new school won’t they? I mean they won’t be trapped in the school when it closes, will they?
Leaving My School
May 23rd, 2011
3:05 pm
I don’t understand the sarcasm in some of these comments…when you are shifted to a new school without it being your own choice, the change comes with a bit of melancholy, especially if you loved your previous school. Yes, redistricting was necessary. Yes, the kids adjust and will be fine, and most of the emotional “toil” is experienced by the parents. But don’t discount the emotion. It’s real.
bob leblah
May 23rd, 2011
3:11 pm
“the janitor locked the chain on the door, one last time. I could see all 60 years on his face. He looked at me and said nothing. He didn’t need to, his face told me all I needed to know. The idea that I’d not see children stepping on a bus, with steps too high for them reach easily, began to set in…”
bob leblah
May 23rd, 2011
3:18 pm
“I contemplated, if I’d been the principal, would I have gone down with the ship? The wrecking ball smashing large chunks of the school cinderblocks, while I stood ready to give my own life, for a school that had given so much to me.”
Maureen Downey
May 23rd, 2011
3:23 pm
@Leaving my school,
I am surprised at the sarcasm as well. I have friends whose schools no longer exist, and it still saddens them to drive by and see a Burger King where their school once stood. My older kids enjoy ducking into their old elementary school now and then.
And my husband never passes the Center for Puppetry Arts without telling me that it was Spring Street School. He also launches into the school song, which now my kids know by heart as well.
“Unfurl the colors purple and green/Spring Street School the best ever seen.”
Maureen
bob leblah
May 23rd, 2011
3:30 pm
Our sarcasm is not that it isn’t a little sad when schools close down. The tribute above is ridiculous and overly dramatic. Of all the posts, Dr. No said it best in 2 words.
Philosopher
May 23rd, 2011
3:31 pm
Well, Maureen, I guess this is another another thing we’ve failed to teach our children along with manners and respect…empathy!
Dr. Proud Black Man
May 23rd, 2011
3:32 pm
@ Maureen
“I am surprised at the sarcasm as well.”
You shouldn’t be. Since 2008 society has become LESS kinder and gentler. All thanks to the rethuglican right and their tea (insert the name that cannot be mentioned) do-boys.
William Casey
May 23rd, 2011
3:34 pm
I guess I’m one of the sentimental ones. I had a sense of passing when the old Southwest DeKalb closed in favor of a new campus back in the late ’60’s. Of course, I went on to teach history for thirty years.
Bucky Beaver
May 23rd, 2011
3:58 pm
I’m still in disbelief that the once great Avondale HS is no more. In the 1960s we were the premier high school in academics and athletics in the State of Georgia. I was there when the first black students enrolled. Most of us knew then that it wouldn’t end well, and it didn’t. RIP Blue Devils.
yagottabekiddingme
May 23rd, 2011
5:13 pm
@Maureen: must be fatigue setting in….and see a Burger King where there school once stood. “there”??????
Philosopher
May 23rd, 2011
5:13 pm
How refreshing to see that there is still someone out there who loves their children so much that the things that touch that child’s life are special and sweet to them. How nice to hear that kind of tenderness and loyalty in a time where so many are cold and self-centered and unwilling to feel. Thanks so much for sharing this, Maureen, and please thank the author for trying to convey what some of us feel but either can’t or don’t have the courage to express.
Maureen Downey
May 23rd, 2011
5:25 pm
@yagotta, Thanks. I was writing that response while rushing out to catch the mail carrier to hand her our car tag registration form. See change.
Maureen
RJ
May 23rd, 2011
6:17 pm
My elementary school was closed a few years ago. I too become sad when I pass it. I see what used to be the kindergarten playground, the upper field that I used to play kickball on and I really wish I could take my kids back and see where I spent my K-6 years. I understand how they feel.
Unfunded pension
May 23rd, 2011
9:23 pm
“rethuglican do boys”???
And you think our society has become less kind because of “them”!
You need a mirror.
a conservative voice
May 23rd, 2011
9:38 pm
Stupid DeKalb BOE!!!!!!!! I used to deliver the Atlanta Journal in this neighborhood right up to the school and still ride through it just about every day……this neighborhood will start to change without the school…….the grounds will start to look like the ghetto because of no maintenance and the cell tower will just add to the destruction. Stupid DeKalb BOE……oh, I already said that……well, it merits saying again.
TC
May 24th, 2011
6:47 am
I went to Medlock many years ago. We live in Roswell now, but we went to the Dekalb Farmer’s market earlier this year. I drove the kids by Medlock and down to the park and then around the block. It was a good memory. And the kids weren’t even annoyed with me!
d
May 24th, 2011
6:48 am
No sarcasm here, but a school is given life by the people in the school. Otherwise, it’s just bricks, blocks, ceiling tiles, lights, etc. People do get very sentimental with buildings, and I can understand, but what makes a school great is the people who fill it and give it life, and those people aren’t dead. They are just going elsewhere. Spread the spirit and the school itself will never truly close, just the building.
Nikole
May 24th, 2011
8:11 am
I have never agreed with Dr NO until today.
Dr. Proud Black Man
May 24th, 2011
8:16 am
@ Unfunded pension
Yes but first remove the beam from your eye…;
Crystal
May 24th, 2011
10:26 am
My niece attends one of the schools that closed and, unfortunately, the closest alternative elementary schools were also closed. So, does anyone have suggestions for good schools in the area (i.e., private, charter)? And, since she can’t be bussed to her school, do you know of any great after school programs in the event she has to attend her public school option.
SE GA Retired Teacher
May 24th, 2011
12:22 pm
In the late 70’s I was an elementary education student at Georgia State and had the privilege of being assigned to Medlock Elementary for my reading quarter block. I was amazed at how well-disciplined the 6th grade students in my class were, and I recall that the teacher was confined to a wheelchair. It seems hard to believe that today students would be that well-behaved in a situation such as that. I was so impressed with Medlock.
Hmmm...
May 24th, 2011
8:47 pm
Medlock had its head put on a platter by the all powerful Fernbank Elementary PTA. Part of the actual Medlock neighborhood is zoned for Fernbank, because of some way back politics, even though Fernbank is miles away. Fernbank fought tooth and nail against being slightly re-districted, which would upped Medlock’s enrollment.
Fernbank made an insider’s deal with Board of Ed member Gene Walker that they would support his campaign if he left Fernbank alone. He did, and Walker won his re-election campaign, and Fernbank didn’t have any changes made to its sending area. Fernbank made sure Walker got his. Despite the federal sexual harassment lawsuits against him. Despite his number of relatives working for the school system. Despite his acceptance of tens of thousands of campaign contributions from an out of state developer.
Yep, the mighty Fernbank PTA “got their’s”. Even if they had to sell out Medlock, along with their souls.
Educator for Life
May 25th, 2011
8:58 am
I am a 1982 graduate of Medlock. That school helped me to become an Engineer and now Assistant Principal. Thanks for the years I spent there.
Joyce
May 25th, 2011
6:02 pm
I agree with those who parents, teachers, janitors, students, principal, etc.. this is an emotional hard time. Leaving a school which has been apart of a family for years, it is hard to adjust. All the memories….gosh. I remember when our high school was torn down to build a new one in the same location. The new building,, oh s__t..does not even compare to the old building. And, really, there was nothing wrong with the old building that a little paint would help. You see school systems build new building- well figure it out- $$$$$$. If the enrollment is low, change the school to a different grade level. If that doesn’t work go back to the old days. Have a teacher with an administrative degree who can be the principal and a teacher. This has worked in some system. Your cutting out the big salary. Small schools have proven to be the best educators- everyone knows each other this makes a difference. Why tear it down When it can be possibly be sold. They could have made money.
no mas
May 25th, 2011
8:46 pm
I agree that Medlock’s closing will have an effect on the neighborhood. The neighborhood itself is strong and lively, the kind of place most anyone would like to live, but given the DeKalb school system’s track record of leaving closed schools to rot, I worry that the property will become a dangerous eyesore.
It would be a great place for a charter school, particularly one focusing on environment and experiential learning, because of its proximity to a park,a nature preserve, the South Peachtree branch of PATH and the wooded area around it. Too bad DCSS is not too fond of charters that don’t employ friends and family….