By Paula Day

The archdiocese's only Catholic high school, St. Pius X, celebrates its 30^th birthday this year. In September, 1958, the school opened its doors for the first time to a student body of 418.

A generation later, 959 young people attend St. Pius and the school boasts over 5,000 registered alumni. The faculty has grown from 22 to 66 full-time members.

Numbers are not all that have changed in the school's three decades. Curriculum, faculty composition, student rules and regulations as well as teaching methods and equipment have evolved.

A May 10, 1962 headline in the Decatur DeKalb News declared, "Going Steady Is Not Allowed At Saint Pius." The article quoted the school's principal, Father James L. Harrison: "Going steady is not allowed here. Except possibly the case of a senior girl. Sometimes I know and sometimes I don't. Then I ask and call the parents. They either have to stop or go to another school."

St. Pius was the "brainchild" of Monsignor Cornelius L. Maloney, the first superintendent of Catholic schools in the diocese of Atlanta, established in 1956, two years before St. Pius opened. Prior to that Atlanta was part of the Savannah-Atlanta diocese which comprised the entire state of Georgia.

Father Walter Donovan, now in residence at Sacred Heart parish in downtown Atlanta, was a contemporary and close friend of Monsignor Maloney. He recalled that his friend went to Bishop Francis E. Hyland, Atlanta's first bishop, explaining the need for a coeducational diocesan high school. Until that time, secondary Catholic schools in Georgia were maintained by Religious communities or parishes, and the sexes were separated. In Atlanta, Marist School served boys and schools at Christ the King and Sacred Heart parishes served girls.

Monsignor Maloney was "farsighted" according to Father Donovan. "Bishop Hyland was not sure -- not enthusiastic -- about coeducation but Monsignor Maloney was a forceful man. He thought out what would be the possible objections and had his answers ready. He didn't rush into anything, but thought through and followed through. It was a novel idea. Bishop Hyland went along -- maybe reluctantly -- but he went along."

The new school was to be located on 26 acres, costing $6,700 an acre, at Shallowford Rd. and the Northeast Expressway. A site in the Lenox Square area was considered, according to Father Donovan, but was rejected because of cost. Final price for the selected site was under $175,000.

Nick Pascullis, a Macon Architect, designed the building; Larry DeGive Construction built it. Monsignor Michael Regan, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish in Carrollton, and Miss Ann Guscio, head of Pius' English department, both agree that Monsignor Maloney donated personal funds to the project. Pascullis donated the bell tower when it was discovered there were not enough funds to keep it in the plans, according to Jim Harrison, the first principal.

In addition to being coeducational, St. Pius was unique among area Catholic schools because four religious communities of women agreed to staff it. The Sisters of St. Joseph, the Sisters of Mercy, the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, accepted responsibility for specific academic departments, according to Harrison. Six lay people and a diocesan priest completed that first faculty.

"They were an excellent faculty," Harrison recalled. "I was more of a figurehead. The Religious ran the school."

St. Pius had the distinction of being the first air-conditioned school in the state. "We were very proud of that," Harrison said. But in the beginning, the school was considered another girls' school since many of its students came from the recently closed schools at Christ the King and Sacred Heart. "It was a struggle to get boys," said Harrison. "The first graduating class of 73 only had eight boys."

Protocol and acceptable behavior were not left to chance.

Boys were to sit in the desks next to the windows; girls in the desks closest to the door, according to Ann Guscio, St. Pius' longest tenured faculty member who joined the staff in 1960. Miss Guscio had taught in a public high school before coming to St. Pius and admits to "culture shock" when she began teaching at the Catholic school.

"Girls could not be cheerleaders unless their skirts came down to their knees. Students were to stand up to recite, and I remember wondering "What is happening?" Miss Guscio felt the practice inhibited free exchange because it slowed down interaction.

"It was a very quiet place," she recalls. During class change students would use one side of the corridor going one way; the other side, going the other way, leaving the center for the faculty. "The kids themselves in the 60s were very wholesome -- very active in school. They seemed to enjoy it all."

"It was like a little family growing up," George Maloof, football coach during Pius' first 26 years, commented. "The nuns had to call the bishop to get permission to go to the ball games on Friday nights."

Miss Guscio says she has taught in four different schools since she came to St. Pius in 1960. The first was the traditional school with well-defined codes of behavior and textbooks selected only from those published under Catholic auspices. The small group of lay people on the faculty had separate lounge and dining areas. "We felt like second-class citizens even though the sisters were very kind, very helpful, very gracious. We had no decision-making power."

Vatican II marked the beginning of change. "It opened up what sisters and priests were thinking about education and its purpose and the best way to be educators. Questions like 'How can English best be taught?' and 'How frank can you be in the classroom?' 'What questions can you ask?' surfaces," Miss Guscio recalls.

In the late 60s and early 70s the counterculture of the colleges broke into high school consciousness, according to Ann Guscio. Students began to openly voice their dissatisfaction with society, with school, and to experiment with marijuana. She remembers a momentous and emotionally-charged decision by Father Richard Kieran, principal at the time. He told the student body that he would not expel anyone for using marijuana -- that such an action would counter productive. He appealed to them, using a passage from St. Luke's gospel, to be trusted in small things so they would be worthy of greater trust.

During this period, St. Pius experimented with a modular system for class schedules. One class period might take two modules of time; another four. A subject that required laboratory time or an extended period for an audio-visual presentation would have this flexibility. The system "really opened the doors," according to Ann Guscio.

Then, for two years, the high school used a completely open system in which students arranged, according to their needs, to meet with teachers. While this might work with a smaller student population, Miss Guscio pointed out, it did not serve St. Pius students' needs and was discontinued.

The "fourth school" St. Pius has become is hard to label, Ann Guscio said. "It's mainstream with good academic and good religious formation. There's a very good pastoral ministry program that meets the students' spiritual needs apart from religion classes. Father Young (the present principal) has developed a caring sort of community."

She credits Father Terry Young with making provisions for students with lower academic ability. "He believes everybody has potential and he has provided for developing this potential through a range of curriculum possibilities and a variety of qualified teachers."

Father Young, principal since 1976, divides the school's history into three periods: the early, "traditional, Catholic, college-preparatory school based on the Philadelphia model with a limited curriculum;" the 1969-76 period which had less structure and depended upon a high degree of student responsibility and maturity; and the period since 1976 which has seen a reorganization and a synthesis of the best of the first two periods.

During the 1970s the school added a gymnasium activity center and four classrooms to meet increasing enrollment needs.

An archdiocesan capital funds drive, Campaign '83, appropriated $4 million of its $7.2 million goal to expand St. Pius' facilities and to improve the quality of the school's programs. By the fall of 1985, the new wing, Hallinan Hall, named after Atlanta's first archbishop, was open and ready for students. The wing housed an auditorium, the Flannery O'Connor media center, as well as a dance studio, music studio and arts center. At that time the older wing was renamed Monsignor Cornelius Maloney Hall. The old chapel, being used as a library, became once again a place for prayer and worship.

Opportunities for spiritual growth abound at St. Pius. In addition to taking religion classes all four years, students have the advantage of daily Mass, yearly retreats, and individual spiritual direction. Freshmen take a "Life Choices" course in which they explore their values. "Following Your Inner Call" helps juniors deal with the conflict between the world's values and Christian Catholic values. The campus ministry department, in operation since 1976, makes these opportunities available.

St. Pius now serves students from nine metro Atlanta counties who come from a broad socio-economic base and represent 26 parishes and the Korean Apostolate. While 97 percent go to college, the school attempts to evaluate each student, asking the question "Where is the best place this student can study?" according to Father Young. Lou Loncaric, director of the development and alumni office, pointed out that while one student may excel verbally and take level one English classes, his mathematic abilities may place him in a basic math class. The school's present organization allows for such individualization.

For Father Young, the school's size and its lack of space to expand, is a blessing. "St. Pius doesn't have the capacity to get more students. It's large enough to float programs and sports that are good for a school. At the same time it's small enough for you to know your population."

St. Pius is now old enough to have students of alumni as part of that population. Junior Will Euart and freshman Anna Euart are children of Susan Murray Euart and John Euart, class of '64.

As parents of second generation Pius students, the Euarts have some perspective on "then and now."

"The pressures today -- alcohol, drugs, sexual activity -- they're so foreign to what we had to deal with," John Euart observed.

The Euarts explained they "talk a lot about what is right. We can't go on dates with them, can't go to the parties," Susan Euart pointed out. "The only thing we can do is teach our values. We know they'll be offered something to drink -- or drugs. 'Are you going to have the guts to say no?' we ask them."

"Another big change," John Euart said, "is in the physical plant. We didn't have a gym. And in the area of the arts, there are a lot of choices for these kids -- drama, classical music -- the junior and senior play was 'it' for us. This is a tremendous enhancement."

Mrs. Euart noted that cheerleading and basketball were the only athletic opportunities open to girls when she was a student. "I'd give anything to be a teenager now and have all the choices they have."

The addition of the learning lab for students with learning difficulties is a major improvement. "I had a learning disability," Susan Euart explained, "and I didn't know why school was so hard for me and the teachers didn't know. Now they realize that children may learn in different ways and they capitalize on that."

"Teachers seem to be available on other than an academic level. There are people they can go to and say, 'I'm really felling down.'"

"When we were at Pius," Susan Euart concluded, "it was all white. Now there are Koreans, Vietnamese - there's wonderful acceptance at Pius."

To celebrate St. Pius' 30^th birthday, alumni gathered for a weekend of festivities, October 28-30. Jan Smith Banister of the class of 1962, who helped organize the weekend, said, "It's hard to put into words what the celebration meant. I'd totally lost touch with a lot of friends -- hadn't seen them since graduation. I love rekindling old friendships. To me it was like we were in high school again. We just let our hair down and enjoyed it." The main function of the weekend was a Saturday night wine and cheese party, attended by approximately 300 people. The Fall Arts Festival Nov. 19 celebrated the anniversary with student performances in drama, music and the arts.

The 30^th anniversary "was an opportunity for us to reaffirm our commitment to Catholic education," Father Young said. "We may look back, reflecting on what we've done, but we also want to work together to pull the school into the next century."