About The champion newspaper. (Decatur, GA) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 2016)
EDUCATION CHAMPION July 28 - Aug. 3, 2016 • Page 17A TRUHTIO-KAL ™* Oakcliff Elementary School was chosen for Georgia United Credit Union’s annual School Crashers event in which one state school receives a facility makeover. DeKalb County School District superintendent Stephen Green took part in “crashing” Oakcliff Elementary with a makeover courtesy of Georgia United Credit Union. Hundreds of volunteers made their way to Oakcliff Elementary School to help install new carpet, apply paint, landscape, arrange books and paint a mural. Oakcliff Elementary gets crashed Georgia United Credit Union makes over DeKalb school courtesy of essay by R. Scott Belzer sbelzer@dekalbchamp.com For one week in late July, Oakcliff Elementary School transformed into a volunteer center made up of more than 300 individuals. Their mission: to “crash” the DeKalb County school with a makeover consisting of a new coat of paint, fresh carpet, redone classrooms and new library books. On July 19, GUCU officials, combined with more than 300 volunteers, began “pre-crashing” Oakcliff by making sure paint, paint liners, project lists and food were in place for the main event on July 22 and July 23. “We prepped, moved books, moved bookcases and coordinated the new murals in the cafeteria,” said GUCU senior vice president Shawn Turpin. “This has really been a week-long event. We make sure we can get everything done in two days and we can cleanup just as fast.” “This is all for the kids,” said Stephen Green, superintendent of DeKalb County School District (DCSD), who participated in the crashing event on July 22. “We’ll know how well we did when we see their smiling faces on the first day of school. This is to make sure we see those smiles when they show up Aug. 8.” The school will also receive landscape upgrades in pine straw, mulch, new signage and a front entrance mural. Oakcliff Elementary School third grader Chloe Riggins and Georgia United Credit Union (GUCU) are to thank for the upgrades. Riggins participated in GUCU’s annual School Crashers program by writing a 250-word essay explaining why the school should receive a facility makeover. According to GUCU officials, though Riggins was the only participant from Oakcliff Elementary, her admiration for the school and its surrounding community is what set her apart from hundreds of others throughout Georgia. Oakcliff, located at 3151 Willow Oak Way in Doraville, seats more than 700 DCSD elementary students and was originally built in 1965. In 1996, it was converted to a “theme school” to address overcrowding. Runner-up schools, which will each receive $10,000 improvement grants, include two other DCSD schools: Browns Mill Elementary in Lithonia and Hambrick Elementary in Stone Mountain. Others in Georgia included Norcross Elementary (Norcross), Dutchtown Elementary (Hampton) and Tunnel Hill Elementary (Tunnel Hill). Turpin said the overall goal of the school crashers event was making DeKalb County students happy and to ensure they have a good place to learn. “The looks, the smiles on faces, the tears of parents are all the thanks you’ll ever need to do something like this,” Turpin said.
