BY GRETCHEN KEISER

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--The superintendent of Charlotte Catholic schools told pastors and leaders from 20 North Georgia parishes "we're all in this together," as he described his diocese's response to the challenge of funding and enlarging the Catholic school system.

"Change is very difficult," said Dr. Michael Skube. "Whether we like it or not change is going to happen . . .The key is whether you recognize those changes, get in the forefront and make those changes."

Skube spoke to archdiocesan pastors, school principals and parish council leaders at a three-hour session Dec. 1. The meeting was part of ongoing exploration in the Archdiocese of Atlanta of new ways of funding Catholic schools.

Brought into the Charlotte, N.C., Diocese in 1989 to implement a regionalized approach to Catholic schools, Skube said he has never been involved in closing a school, "unless it was to open a brand new school."

The term "regionalization" can cause anxiety in some people's minds, he said, since in the past, particularly in the North, it was linked to a process of consolidating and closing schools.

Skube said regionalization in Charlotte refers to a new "governance structure" that was put into place in the early 1990s for Catholic schools in the city of Charlotte. The new regional board was given authority to act in specified policy areas for the schools under its jurisdiction.

Regionalization in Charlotte also has been built upon a consultative model, he said, in which the concerns of principals, teachers, parents and home-school associations in the region are channeled through representatives on councils. When tuition rates are presented to parents, the programmatic improvements that the rates will fund are also presented to provide an opportunity for people to buy into the proposals, along with their cost, Skube said.

Like the Archdiocese of Atlanta, he said, Charlotte was experiencing demand for Catholic schools that exceeded classroom space. There were waiting lists of children. One Catholic elementary school was in the path of a highway project which would force it to close. "We and the parish did not have the money to build a new school."

In the face of this crisis, the diocese implemented a plan which had been proposed in theory and discussed in Charlotte since 1983. The regionalization plan brought schools in the immediate Charlotte area into one system known as Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools (MACS). This system now includes five elementary schools, one middle school and one high school.

There are 10 other Catholic schools in the diocese which are not part of MACS and continue to function as separate schools. Geographical proximity determined the make-up of MACS, Skube said.

In the past 14 months he has also been working with a second cluster of Catholic schools in the High Point, Winston-Salem, Greensboro area that are interested in forming a second region.

Among the positive outcomes of regionalization in Charlotte he cited were:

--The MACS system has been able to open new Catholic schools since it was formed in 1992-93. Two existing Catholic elementary schools have had replacement schools built. One new Catholic elementary school was opened. The existing Catholic high school, Charlotte Catholic, moved into a new building and the former high school was refurbished and made into a middle school for sixth through eighth grade.

--School enrollment in MACS has grown because of increased school capacity. Skube estimated the increase from 1992 to 1996 at 40 percent.

--Teachers' salaries have been raised significantly and brought closer to parity with the state teacher salary scale. Disparities among salaries within the Catholic school system for the same level of experience and education were equalized.

--MACS have improved curriculum and staff. Skube cited the addition of computers to classrooms, master's-degree librarians, counselors, a learning support program and an elementary instrumental music program as improvements over the last three years.

--A MACS Educational Foundation was formed in 1993 to augment financial support for the regional schools. It raised $141,000 in 1993-94 and conducted a successful $3 million pledge campaign in 1994-95 for the new high school. According to the MACS annual report, the capital campaign for the high school achieved more over a shorter period of time than any campaign in the history of diocesan fundraising.

--A Catholic bus transportation system has been started in Charlotte.

--Public relations and development efforts for the regional schools have been strengthened and unified, making a concerted effort to inform the general public of the value of Catholic schools in the community.

After outlining these factors Skube said they were the result of Charlotte's regionalization process and needs. However, in approaching the needs of the Atlanta Archdiocese, Skube said that it was most important to address eight core issues. He identified the eight as structure and implementation; organization of schools; facilities; parish support; tuition; transportation; development and personnel.

In each of those eight key areas the archdiocese will have to identify the critical issues and reach a conclusion. The conclusion may not be identical to the one reached in Charlotte, he said. But those eight areas are bedrock to the success of a regionalized plan.

For example in Charlotte the question was placed on the table as to whether parishes should provide any future support to Catholic schools at all. Pastors in the Mecklenburg County area met and reached a mutual agreement to continue to provide parish support through a funding formula developed in consultation with the chancery, Skube said. Those funds go into the tuition assistance program and are used to help families pay for the cost of Catholic schools.

In another example, he said, the system surveyed parents initially and found no interest in a Catholic bus system. MACS began with car pools only. Now, Skube said, with the addition of a new middle school, parents want a bus system and one has been started.