By Melanie Brent

St. Anthony's School is still waiting for a bus outfitted as a classroom for Chapter 1 students even though it has been ready for use since Nov. 3, 1986. The mobile bus is the City of Atlanta's latest answer to finding a neutral place for instruction for St. Anthony's.

In July, 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court said in the Aguilar v. Felton case that public remedial education teachers could not work on the property of private religious schools as they had in the past. However, Catholic school students who qualify are still entitled to this instruction in a "neutral" location.

The Chapter 1 program had been instituted nationally to provide remedial instruction for any student scoring below grade level on achievement tests in the areas of reading or math. Prior to July, 1985, Chapter 1 teachers used a classroom in Catholic schools to teach students who qualified for the program

Since the Felton case was decided, Catholic schools affected have had to work with the local public school system to find a place for instruction for the Catholic students located off of Catholic school property.

The changes in the Chapter 1 program have "had a negative impact on what was a very good program," said Sister Patricia Clune, CSJ, principal at St. Anthony's. Interviews with several other Catholic school principals revealed drastic declines in the number of children being aided by the program and other frustrating problems.

"There is supposed to be an equitable program for the Catholic schools students," said Sister Joan McCann, OP, assistant superintendent of Catholic schools. In fact, she said, "what they're getting is not equitable. Our students are being treated like second-class citizens."

Three representatives of the U.S. Department of Education were in Atlanta last week to gauge how private religious schools are faring under Chapter 1 since the Felton decision. The key determination federal officials are trying to make is whether or not private school students are receiving services that are "equitable" to those of public school students. "I left them no doubt that we did not consider our services equitable," Sister McCann said.

"It has taken a long time to get any kind of program off the ground," since the Felton decision, Sister McCann said, and in trying to work with public school districts' plans, "we find ourselves in predicaments you would hardly believe."

Last school year, St. Anthony's had no Chapter 1 instruction until February, 1986. Then services were provided in an unsecure largely vacant building across the street from the school. The homeless used this building at night and the building burned in March, 1986. The students lost another two weeks' instruction while another location was found. Eligible students now attend classes in two rented rooms above a realty company office on Gordon Street about three blocks from the school.

Sister Clune's concern with the present location is for the safety of her students and the time lost from instruction. To get to the office building, the students must cross two driveways, one in front of a Wendy's restaurant. The walk takes 10-15 minutes from instruction time both coming and going, Sister Clune said. In very rainy and very cold weather, the children miss the instruction altogether. Olivia Kappus, the Chapter 1 teacher, said that the children had missed about 20 school days this year, the equivalent of a month of school. The walk also takes students near two night shelters, one at West Hunter Street Baptist Church and the other at St. Anthony's.

Sister Clune had high praise for her Chapter 1 teacher, Olivia Kappus, and her aide, Joyce Reed, saying both are dedicated teachers and give much more of themselves than is required. But frustrations abound. Currently, the public school system of Atlanta has provided three computers for the program, but the electrical system at the rented space is not designed to support such use.

Surge protectors and power strips to provide additional outlets are needed. They only cost about six dollars, but Sister Clune said they are still waiting for them.

In order to provide a classroom closer to St. Anthony's, the City of Atlanta school district has converted a special education bus into a mobile classroom with tables and benches along the windows and one small storage closet for materials. There is room for about 10 students with a narrow aisle down the center of the bus. Although the bus has been ready for use since November, they have not come up with a location where the bus can be parked and hooked up for power. In a telephone interview, Ethel Blayton, Chapter 1 coordinator for the City of Atlanta schools, said the public school district has paid the rent for the two rooms of Gordon Street for the full school year. She said that the public library located next to the school would not allow the bus to be parked in their parking lot and that she had written a letter to the Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Atlanta to see if the bus could be parked on Howell Park located directly next to St. Anthony's school property, but she had not received a reply to date.

When a location for the bus has been found, the bus will have to be driven every day to the park and hooked up and then driven back to the bus parking lot after school by the two Chapter 1 teachers. Any materials which cannot be stored on the school bus will have to be stored someplace else. The computers would have to be removed from the bus every day.

At St. Anthony's the number of students served by Chapter 1 has dropped from 74 students in 1984-85 to 24 in 1986-87. With the problems faced last year when the largely vacant building was used for classes, many parents decided to keep their children out of the program altogether. The students who qualify for the program and aren't taking advantage of it "aren't making the same progress they would if they had the additional help," Sister Clune explained.

St. Paul of the Cross has been using a converted special education bus since Oct. 15, 1986. Sister Kathleen Purser, GNSH, principal, was told that there was no room at Harwell Elementary School next door for her students. They had no instruction until the bus was ready on Oct. 15. A month ago, the heating system on the bus was found to be insufficient for the cold weather. Since then her students have been receiving Chapter 1 instruction in the Harwell Elementary School library.

Sister Purser sat in on one class when the bus first arrived and said that she found it most confining. The aide was at one end of the bus and the teacher at the other. The aisle is too narrow for two people to move in it at one time, she said. There was no blackboard on the bus and extremely limited storage space. The use of special educational manipulatives would be limited, she said, because of the lack of storage and work space. "Children with learning problems need more than paper and pencil materials from an educational point of view," she observed. As far as she knew the two computers for her students were not being used because the space on the bus is too limited.

Sister Anna Kearns, CSJ, principal at Our Lady of Lourdes, said the number of students who used the Chapter 1 program has dropped from 75 last year to 30. Her Chapter 1 teacher will only teach those students who qualify and who live in the City of Atlanta School District. Students from DeKalb, Clayton, and Fulton school districts attend Our Lady of Lourdes and qualify for the program, but are not served. In a telephone interview, Sister Joan McCann, OP, assistant superintendent of Catholic schools, said many decisions about implementation of Chapter 1 are left up to the local public school principal including whether or not to serve students from other counties.

Sister McCann reported that the number of students served in the archdiocese by Chapter 1 has dropped from 392 in 1984-85 to fewer than 175 since the 1985 decision. St. Joseph's School in Athens and St. Thomas More in Decatur have dropped the Chapter 1 program altogether and hired remedial education teachers from their own school budgets. At Sts. Peter and Paul School in Decatur, Chapter 1 students are bussed to the nearest public school at 7:30 a.m. for class before school.

Sister McCann has been approached by an independent company, RESS, Inc., who will act as a third party interceding with the state Department of Education to work out where and when Chapter 1 funds will be spent. It would be their responsibility to find a neutral place for instruction and to fund it from the Chapter 1 funds allocated for the Catholic schools. This company has worked for Catholic schools in Florida and Illinois. Sister McCann said that she had talked with these school systems and they reported that although the process is time-consuming, "they were very pleased with the results."

In talking with several of the principals affected by the changes in the Chapter 1 program, the overriding feeling that emerged was one of weariness in trying to fight for what their students are entitled to by law and need.

The students at all the schools have missed many days and sometimes months of instruction. However, as Sister Patricia Clune from St. Anthony's said, "It's worth fighting for because it is a good program. Our students deserve it. They're legally entitled to it and their parents are taxpayers. It's not a gift from the Chapter 1 people that we should be happy with what we get."