By Gretchen Keiser

A private elementary school has opened at the former Northwestern Elementary School building in Alpharetta with the intention of attracting Catholic students.

Called Pinecrest Academy, the school opened Sept. 7 with 29 students and five teachers, according to founders. John Gannon, a member of All Saints parish, Dunwoody, is president of the board of director and his wife, Arlene, is principal.

As of early December, enrollment had reached 47 students, and there are six teachers, Gannon said in a telephone interview. At this point the faculty is a combination of paid and volunteer teachers, Gannon said. Mrs. Gannon is a former elementary school teacher.

The Gannons and co-founders Sharon Hulsebus from All Saints and David Hanson from St. Thomas Aquinas in Alpharetta met with Archbishop John F. Donoghue in September at the Catholic Center and the archbishop made an impromptu visit to the school in October.

The building is leased from Crabapple Baptist Church and was readied for a September opening through the volunteer efforts of the directors and their families and friends.

Gannon said the school was opened by the families because some Catholic elementary schools in the vicinity of North Atlanta have waiting lists and families are looking for an alternative to the public school system.

The school does not fall under the jurisdiction of the archdiocese of Atlanta, and because of guidelines that restrict the use of the term "Catholic" to schools under the local diocese, Pinecrest Academy cannot call itself a Catholic School.

Tuition rates range from $3,100 a year for the first child to $800 a year for the fourth child from the same family. The school this year has students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

The school brochure says the academy is run by "laymen who adhere to Roman Catholicism's rich understanding of the human person and to its doctrinal content as expounded today by its Teaching Authority." Curriculum areas are language, science, mathematics, history and the Catholic faith, the brochure indicates.

Gannon, who is regional operations manager for Kraft Foods Co., said the family moved to Georgia from Chicago in the last two years, and has five children ranging in age from 19 to six.

Pinecrest is using a curriculum developed by the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order of priests with a very traditional religious education focus.

The guiding principles are "the teachings of the Catholic Church and what the Holy Father teaches," Gannon said. "We use (the Legionaries of Christ) curriculum as a reference point and their spirituality as a reference point.

All three of the founding families have children in the school. The school is open to all children.