BY GRETCHEN KEISER

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--A meeting of the Archdiocesan Schools Committee, Archbishop John F. Donoghue and archdiocesan officials, and representatives from six Home and School Associations has led to expansion of the committee and the process for discussing Catholic school funding.

Archbishop Donoghue expanded attendance at the two-hour meeting to include the Home and School Association representatives after a coalition asked for two representatives from each school to be permitted to attend.

The Nov. 21 meeting, chaired by Msgr. Edward J. Dillon, resulted in several key decisions on the process by which discussion will continue on funding Catholic schools in the archdiocese.

In parishes with a Catholic school, the pastor and school principal will be asked to establish a local school committee with a joint committee representing Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Anthony's School because they have a consolidated faculty and the same principal.

The membership of the committee will be determined locally, as long as key constituencies are included. This includes the pastor, principal, parents with children in the school, parents with children on the waiting list or turned away because the school was at capacity, representatives of the general parish community and finance representatives. The local committee can be the local school board, if the membership is appropriate.

The 12 local committees are to be briefed on the current school funding proposal in a series of six meetings to be held in January 1997. School committees from two schools will be paired up so that the meetings can be small in size and able to respond to questions of local committees in significant detail. The briefings will be done by Archdiocesan Schools Committee members.

The 12 local committees will then continue to work during 1997 and have the responsibility of responding to the school funding proposal that will be distributed by the archdiocese in early 1997. The local committees will have to determine whether the proposal is workable for their school or whether portions of it are workable for their school. If the local committee determines that the proposal is completely unworkable for their school, they will be able to come back with an alternative proposal for their school. However, the alternative must respond to the archdiocesan goal of expanding Catholic schools without overtaxing parishes. Because of the latitude committees will have, it will be essential that all members be thoroughly briefed on the funding proposal and the data and reasoning behind it.

"We would feel much more comfortable if the people taking this apart hear a full presentation of what is in (the proposal) and the reasons," Msgr. Dillon said.

At the same time the Archdiocesan Schools Committee will be reconstituted between now and January to include some of its current members, but to add one representative from each of the 12 local committees.

The timetable for discussion precludes the possibility of any change being implemented for the 1997-98 school year, Msgr. Dillon noted. "One of the things that I hope you will do is go home and tell everyone that there is no way it could possibly change in that short a period of time," he said.

He noted that the timetable for discussion and recommendations "is not set in stone." He also expressed the hope that Home and School Association representatives would communicate the need for all groups "to start looking at this dispassionately" in order to work toward a solution to the funding challenge.

Archbishop Donoghue opened the meeting saying that he is both aware that the school funding issue is "volatile" and that he was concerned by the tone and lack of charity that characterized some of the letters he has received since an Oct. 21 meeting at Holy Cross Church on current school funding proposals.

"I have received many letters in the last week or so as a result of the meeting Oct. 21 at Holy Cross Parish and also as a result of the article that appeared in The Georgia Bulletin," the archbishop said. "I read these letters," he said, adding that he sent a formal response to all letters that came with a return address.

The archbishop said that contrary to the fears expressed in some letters that the proposals were unchangeable, "it was always our intention to meet with the parents of children in Catholic schools and with the parents who are trying to get children into schools."

"We were allowing at least six months to hear those concerns and formulate a final plan that would then be circulated for more input," he said.

Archbishop Donoghue said that he understood the concerns expressed by many parents over the proposed increase in Catholic school tuition. The proposal said that over five years elementary school tuition would gradually increase to a figure in excess of $4,000 per year.

"This is a preliminary plan that is being presented," the archbishop said. "Hopefully it can be refined."

"I was a little disappointed I must say that so many were form letters. What form letters mean to me is a concerted effort to stir people up," he said.

"Some of the letters I received I was very disappointed in. They were very accusatory and uncharitable at best," he said. "I hope we will be able to work together. Your concerns are my concerns."

He praised the Archdiocesan Schools Committee for "endless hours" of work gathering information from the individual schools and other sources and drafting the current proposal. "The work they have done is good."

"We do hope with your input we will be able to revise that plan. I hope this can be done in Christian charity," he said.

"I really believe Catholic schools are the backbone of the church not only in this archdiocese but throughout the country."

Msgr. Dillon reminded the group that there have been four studies over the last six years concerning Catholic school funding in the archdiocese. All came to the conclusion that "there is no one single fix," he said.

The proposal discussed Oct. 21 and reported on in The Georgia Bulletin of Oct. 31 is still under review by the archdiocesan committee. Before it is released to local committees, a more refined section is to be included showing how families in various income brackets and with varying numbers of children in Catholic school would be impacted by the proposed tuition rate increase. This is to provide a more concrete proposal for discussion and reaction.

At the Nov. 21 meeting, Msgr. Dillon opened discussion about sending the draft document to local communities. "What we need at this point is for the communities to take this (proposal) and take it apart. Critique it, see if it is at all applicable to the school, or in case it seems totally inapplicable to the school to come back with a proposal for their school."

Sister Pat Baber, RSM, principal of St. Joseph's School, Marietta, said that process of local review seemed to be "a really reasonable way of determining the feasibility for each individual school."

"You could come up with 13 different plans," Msgr. Dillon pointed out. "It gives you some idea of the magnitude of what this committee has accomplished. I think the people on the relational committee and the finance committee have done a phenomenal job in the last six to eight months."

Patrick Gunning, a spokesman for the Coalition of Home and School Associations from Christ the King, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Our Lady of the Assumption, St. Joseph's, Marietta, St. John Neumann and St. Jude's, thanked the archdiocese for inviting representatives to attend the meeting.

Gunning said the reaction of Catholic families to the current proposal "has been overwhelmingly negative," but he apologized for any "overly confrontational" tone in any letters sent to the archbishop.

"Our suggestion is to reopen the process," Gunning said. "We feel very good about the effort of the committee so far...However, we don't feel that the concerns and issues of several constituent groups have been adequately heard at the table."

Gunning, a parent of two children at St. Jude's School, then proposed forming a new group with a "disinterested facilitator" from outside the archdiocese who could objectively steer the process.

"Our fear," Gunning said, "is that the process has so much momentum at this point that it will not be possible to do much other than fine-tune the current proposal."

Msgr. Dillon responded that the discussion process, in the view of the archdiocese, has not been a closed one.

"We have always viewed the present committee as an administrative group," he said. "We had broad-based input from parents through the Egan group (a study group chaired by state Sen. Mike Egan in 1992) and also the Meitler study (a survey sent to Catholic parents of school-aged children in 1995)."

"The Home and School Associations are a very significant constituency," Msgr. Dillon said, "but they don't represent parents with kids on the waiting list, they don't represent the Catholic population in general, and they don't represent the clergy who are going to have to raise money."

Father Jim Miceli, pastor of St. Mary's, Rome, suggested the proposal be sent to the local Catholic school board for study and response. A Christ the King parent alternatively proposed letting each affected parish form an appropriate committee with the pastor as the starting point.

Jean Brass, a parent from St. Jude's, reiterated the Home and School Association proposal that a new archdiocesan study group be formed.

Msgr. Dillon questioned what would be gained by starting again with another diocesan committee.

Sister Baber reiterated her support for the concept of 12 local committees. "This is a good starting point, for the pastor and the principal to put together a committee," she said. "I would include finance committee representation."

"The one value that needs to be preserved," Msgr. Dillon said, "is that the varied constituencies in the parish are represented. The letters were overwhelmingly negative. But the letters were from less than one-third of the population of the schools."

Following a brief presentation on the planned archdiocesan Capital Campaign and a discussion resolving how the local school committees will mesh with the Archdiocesan Schools Committee, Archbishop Donoghue said he was "really very encouraged" by the meeting.

Expressing gratitude to the archdiocesan committee and to Msgr. Dillon personally, the archbishop said, "with the cooperation of the archdiocesan committee and the committees from various schools we will be able to move ahead with a plan to make Catholic education available" to the many families who want to send their children to Catholic schools.

Commenting afterward, Gunning said, "I feel very favorably about what has happened." Mentioning the various viewpoints on school finance held by parents, by principals and faculty, by pastors and clergy, by those unable to enroll children because schools are full, he said, "The fact that the process has been opened to all the various constituencies is very positive."

The reassurance by the archdiocese that no change will be made for the 1997-98 school year is also "very positive" to the Home and School Association representatives, he said, because it provides a longer time period to learn and reflect on solutions to the funding challenges. Those from various constituencies need to communicate their viewpoints, but also listen to and understand and appreciate the perspectives of others, he pointed out.

Don Heroman, a member of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish who served on the Egan committee, said, "I think this was a very encouraging meeting. I think the clear message here is there is a common goal that needs to be reached and we all have the same basic interest, ensuring the future of Catholic education."

Richard Farnsworth from the Cathedral of Christ the King cited the openness to different models for different schools as a perspective he thought would be welcomed by Christ the King and probably other schools.