By Gretchen Keiser

If any new Catholic schools are to be built in the archdiocese, the impetus will have to come from a task force involving several parishes, according to Father Richard Kieran, secretary for education.

“The case for a new school would have to be made by some kind of interparochial task force,” probably including pastors, members of boards of education and interested parishioners, Father Kieran said. The group would have to undertake a “needs and feasibility study” to assess possible enrollment, possible sites, and possible sources of faculty for a regional school.

Father Kieran’s remarks, underscored by later comments from Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan, came at a workshop last week on the future of Atlanta Catholic schools. Some 400 parents crowded St. Pius High School cafeteria, on the night of the presidential election debate, to argue the case for more Catholic schools. The workshop was sponsored by the Archdiocesan Parents’ Organization, a four-year-old service organization.

While the meeting opened with reports from Father Kieran and Sister Valentina Sheridan, former superintendent from 1976 to 1980, on the status of existing schools, the question and answer period quickly turned to parents’ interest in new schools, or expansion of existing schools.

Specific questions were raised about expanding St. Pius, developing a high school to serve the southern section of Atlanta, and providing schools for Gwinnett and Cobb County residents.

On new schools’ construction, Father Kieran said that the Education Department would “work with any kind of interparochial task force,” but that department is to oversee educational quality in existing schools, he said.

However, several in the audience countered that they couldn’t form a task force because their pastors were discouraging them. “We don’t get the clergy’s support. I think we need to talk to some of the clergy,” said one woman. The audience broke into applause. Another said clergymen had told her “Archbishop Donnellan would never go along with that” when she raised the topic of building a school.

“If our pastors are turning us down, where do we go? And how do we start?” asked Jane Heyer of St. Patrick’s Church in Norcross. “We’re not educators. This is what we’re asking for – some guidance that’s definite.”

Archbishop Donnellan, who was the last to speak, told the audience, “I’m not really going to give you the answers you’re eagerly awaiting to hear.”

“I don’t mind confrontations, but I’m not much for making commitments under pressure that I can’t keep,” he said.

He underscored national and archdiocesan support for Catholic schools, noting parish subsidies of schools, and archdiocesan financial support for St. Pius. However, he placed the debate over new schools in the context of other building commitments in the archdiocese.

To the comment that there are no schools in Gwinnett County, he noted “Twelve years ago my first Mass in Gwinnett County was in a laundromat. Now there are five parishes in Gwinnett County.”

As a result of the need to build churches for new parishes quickly in recent years, the present debt of the archdiocese is $6.4 million with new construction of $4.4 million waiting to be placed in the long-term borrowing market. The projected 1982-82 debt is $12.6 million, he said.

With many parishes struggling to meet initial construction payments, and two or three unable to meet expenses he said, it is understandable that there is not unanimous support for building new schools. In addition, there is the question of finding faculty, and paying a decent wage, he said.

“All of you have a personal and family interest in Catholic education,” he said. “There are plenty of people in your parishes who don’t share your enthusiasm.”

But, he said, “You know the parish in which you live. You know the institutions and structures in your parish. Who’s going to convince them? Probably you are. You’ve got to have a consensus from your parishes.”

In earlier comments, Father Kieran reviewed developments in the education department over the last five years, noting that all but two of 13 elementary schools have been accredited, and those two are in the process of being accredited. A systematic review and development of the curriculum, section by section, will have been completed once by the end of next year, he said, and has produced curriculum guides that are being used by other archdioceses.

Construction or renovation work is in process or beginning at four schools, he said. Overall enrollment is up by 142 students over last year and several elementary schools have waiting lists.

Sister Valentina Sheridan, who spoke because of her familiarity with developments over recent years, noted that in the process of obtaining accreditation for elementary schools the pupil-teacher ration dropped from 65 or 70 to one in 1967 to 25 to 30 to one in 1980. The archdiocese also began hiring state certified teachers and administrators, worked with parents to develop programs, launched adult education and teacher training programs. Sister Roberta Schmidt assumed the post of superintendent of schools this fall.