By Gretchen Keiser

The blessing of the new education building at St. Joseph’s parish in Athens Sunday was also a reunion.

Former students, now parents themselves, found old teachers and principals from St. Joseph’s School. There were shrieks of excitement and some tears. But the dominant emotion was joy that the students of the present day were going to classes in the brightly painted, modern and functional new building.

“It’s a change of day and night – this beautiful building they have now,” said Sister Maria, M.S.C., who was the first principal of St. Joseph’s School in 1949. The school began in a building which was used as a rectory and which had been a Newman Center for the University of Georgia. It grew in a haphazard way over the years, eventually taking over the entire rectory and outside trailers. But the building was never designed as a school site and was overcrowded and ill equipped.

The new $800,000 facility, which by the time of last weekend’s dedication was paid for by the parish, is being used both as the new school and as the center for parish religious education for adults and children. The strong emphasis on both is deliberate and the two staffs are consciously working together to make the facility an education building for the whole parish, not just for those who have children in the school.

There are 12 classrooms, including a science lab. A kindergarten in an adjacent building is connected by a covered walkway. A “media center” and library are part of the new building and extensively used both by the school and the adult education program. The school serves kindergarten through eighth grade with two classes in kindergarten, first, second and fifth grades. The student body, which is about one-third non-Catholic, has been growing and is now approximately 300.

All on one level, the education building is bright, simple and very functional. “It’s a workable building,” enthused Sister Agnes Patrice, I.H.M. who has been principal for the last three years. “Sometimes you get a building that’s beautiful but not functional. It has made the biggest difference in the children. They just love taking care of it. They love being here.”

The structure has had a similar effect on the parish high school students who are coming for religious education, said Ginny Bell, who is director of the parish program. A full-time director of religious education with a team of three others leading elementary, high school and adult religious education, Mrs. Bell has her office in the new education building.

Other cooperative elements designed into the building are cabinets and bulletin boards in each classroom solely for the use of the religious education program, Mrs. Bell said. The hope was to create a sense that the program is an integral part of the facility, not a stepchild.

The building is used by the school during the week and by the religious education program during the evenings and on weekends. The adult religious education library is being developed in a section of the school library.

A former teacher at the school, Mrs. Bell said the links of friendship between the two staffs are being augmented by a study program on community they are undertaking together.

The blessing of the new building took place under threatening skies that kindly withheld the rain until after the outdoor Mass. Archbishop Thomas Donnellan was principal celebrant at the Mass, celebrated on the steps of the rectory, while several hundred parishioners gathered on the lawn and parking lot below. Children from the parish presented offertory gifts and then were invited to follow the archbishop down a sloping hill to the new building to show him their facility.

The building is part of a larger plan to renovate parish structures including the church.

Father Richard Kieran, pastor, said the next stage would be to renovate the old school building so that it can once again be used as a rectory. That will be followed by renovation and expansion of the church, which will be realigned so that the entrance is made through the new rectory/parish center and seating is nearly doubled to about 400. The fund-raising for all the work began under former pastor Father William Calhoun, speakers noted, and has been a major accomplishment for the parish.