Cutbacks Hit the International Community School in Avondale

In the wake of DeKalb's budget shortfall, the International Community School in Avondale Estates has faced cutbacks of its own.

Patch learned this week that the charter school with two campuses laid off nine workers in February. Most of those affected were assistant teachers. In addition, all administrators, teachers and staffers took equal pay cuts across the board, the school said.

The cutbacks also affected the school's Saturday program, which provided English as a Second Language classes, as well as those on American currency and financial systems, and cultural nuances for students and their families.

The news came to light during an emotional Town Hall meeting Tuesday.

"It was intensely painful," said Laurent Ditmann, principal of the International Community School, which was founded in 2002. "Economic realities are what they are. The school grew and the move to a second campus was unplanned and now we're stuck."

Administrators and the school's board blamed DeKalb County's $33 million budget shortfall, which put the nearly 10-year old school in the red.

As a result, the International Community School's per student allotment fell short of expectations that even a $400,000 capital campaign could not fix.

Another financial blow came last year when the county hit the charter school with a $100,000 bill for bus transportation. 

"The school was not billed in the past and we received this invoice last year," Ditmann said. "We tried to get DeKalb to bill us over the years and they never did -- until last year."

During the Town Hall meeting, parents expressed deep concerns over the manner in which the layoffs were handled. The layoffs, they said, came without warning at the beginning of a teaching day, leaving many to question the financial stability of the charter school.

One volunteer with three children at the school even chimed in that when funding ran out for a culinary arts program, she pitched in the money from her own pocketbook. 

"If we don't succeed, all of us have failed," said Natalie Porter, the volunteer. "That's why I'm giving time and money to classes."

Denis Pichanick, board chair of the school, said the school relies heavily on donors.

"We have a fairly intricate financial structure," Pichanick said, during the Town Hall meeting. "We came into this year with a view that we were expecting cuts from the county."

With two campuses - including one in Stone Mountain on James B. Rivers Drive, the school serves 400 Kindergarten to sixth grade students from more than 40 countries. The main campus operates in cramped space in Avondale Pattillo United Methodist Church.

Besides serving surrounding neighborhood children at the school, the other half of the students are refugees from war torn countries and live in nearby Clarkston.

"It has been a difficult year financially and we did what we needed to do," Pichanick said. "But we have a very bright future."