By Msgr. Noel Burtenshaw

Pi Hi. In my first few months of ministry at St. Thomas More in Decatur, that name was in constant use. It was back in the summer of 1962. First of all, most of the Catholic kids from the parish went out to St. Pius. And secondly, the first high school football game between St. Pius and Marist was scheduled for that well-remembered fall season.

The game between the newer St. Pius and its mother school was played at Decatur High Stadium. Monsignor P.J. O’Connor, my illustrious first pastor, more taken with the eventual result of this battle than the national championship, ordered my presence at the historical match-up. It was my first glimpse of American pigskin fury. And the result demonstrated that the angels intervened. The game was a tie.

St. Pius was a packed school in those days. The scene has not changed. The plant was originally designed for 550 students. Even though only the merest expansion has taken place in its 25-year history, today that same plant houses 847 students. Relief is obviously needed. From the very start when Monsignor Cornelius Maloney began the school, St. Pius was unique. It was the first Catholic co-educational high school in the state. Four different religious communities would staff the school instead of the traditional one and from the first instant of its birth, St. Pius produced leaders for the community with solid Christian values coupled with high academic achievement.

Parents, some with meager means, are ready to sacrifice because of the wonderful blessing they recognize in St. Pius. “It creates a marvelous spirit in the growing kid,” says one parent. “They become so involved and attached that they will fight to save a classmate who may be on the verge of expulsion for behavior or academic reasons. They look at St. Pius like a second home, a family place.”

Many returning alumni use that same word when St. Pius is mentioned. “It was always like coming home,” said one recently. “You want to walk around the campus, visit the stadium, see the coach. Pius is another home. Maybe my children can go sometime.”

Many repeat that same wish. However, if greater numbers are to be accepted, expansion must take place. “Each year, approximately 325 students apply for the 9^th grade. Of these only 230 can be accepted,” said Father Terry Young, principal of the school. “Ten percent are placed on a waiting list. And of the 70 students who apply for the upper grades each year only half can be accepted due to limitations of space.”

Therefore, when it comes to the only archdiocesan Catholic high school the needs are clear. Campaign ’83 will provide room for a greater quantity of students and facilities for even grater quality of programs.

A minimum of eight new classrooms, each at least 600 square feet, will come first. These are a must when you consider that St. Pius has merely 35 classrooms at this time to accommodate its excess of 800 students and 49 teachers. More classrooms will come first.

But the faculty has needs, too. The same facilities that housed 25 teachers when the school was founded must now make do for almost double that number, plus other staff. A teachers’ lounge and study area will be added.

A library and media center is planned along with facilities to meet the needs of one of today’s great challenges for youth: the performing arts. Until now most theater, plays, dance, shows were all relegated to a meager stage in the cafeteria. And a great portion of the audience coming to admire the finished product was relegated to standing room around the cafeteria walls. This must change. Participation in the field of creative arts will be enhanced in the new expansion.

Other great newness will appear at old St. Pius. The chapel, lost to house a library in former years, will be back. The cafeteria will change; so will study centers, activity centers, the sports stadium. New restrooms and a host of other needs that presently, and for a long time, have challenged faculty, parents and students will be met. Campaign ’83 will help them all emerge.

Pi Hi is a wonderful, Christian, productive place. You will experience that if you walk on its grounds, meet with its students or talk with any group of its alumni. Students from every parish and every part of metropolitan Atlanta are part of its program. You see the quality when you reflect on the fact that the class of 1982 had six National Merit finalists and that 92 percent of the annual graduates are most acceptable candidates for the nation’s colleges.

Campaign ’83 is needed for many new challenges in our growing Catholic community. Only the very courageous will dare tell you which project is most important and which should come first. St. Pius must be very close to the top of the list when the results of its mission are so visible in the lives of our youth. They are the movers and shakers of tomorrow. Their needs are very many. The Catholic community of North Georgia can be confident that St. Pius, expanded by their generosity, will meet the challenges which those needs present.