BY GRETCHEN KEISER

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--The archdiocese has announced sites it has selected for three future Catholic elementary schools and as many as two future Catholic high schools.

All five are proposed to be new schools built through the combined financing of a $50 to $60 million tax-exempt bond issue and a capital campaign in the archdiocese. Three sites are already owned or under contract by the archdiocese.

The schools and sites are:

• A new Catholic elementary school to be built in Cobb County on Post Oak Tritt Road at a site already owned by the archdiocese. The 18-acre site will also be the location of a mission formed off St. Ann's Church in Marietta. The mission will be called St. Peter Chanel in honor of the Marist order whose priests and brothers brought the Catholic faith into what is now Cobb County and who served there for the past 100 years. The plan is for a 500-student, K-8 school beginning with grades K-5 and adding a grade a year as the opening class progresses. The plan is to open the school in 1999 or 2000.
• A new Catholic elementary school to be built in North Fulton County on an 19-acre site on Old Alabama Road already owned by the archdiocese. The site is between Medlock Bridge Road and Jones Bridge Road. This site will also be the location of a future mission church. The plan is to open a 500-student, K-8 elementary school beginning with grades K-5 and adding a grade a year as the opening class progresses. The plan is to open the school in 1999 or 2000.
• A new Catholic high school to be built near the intersection of northwest Fulton County, northeast Cobb County and southeast Cherokee County. No site has been acquired yet. This is envisioned as a 1000-student, grade 9-12 high school to open in the fall of 2000. This school may open with grades 9 and 10 and add grades as the initial class progresses. A 30-50 acre site is needed.
• A new Catholic elementary school to be built on a 30-acre site in Tyrone in Fayette County. The plan is to build a 250-student, K-8 elementary school, with the possibility of future expansion for a larger student body. This would open in the fall of 1999 as a K-5 school and add a grade a year as the opening class progresses.
• A new Catholic high school will be considered for the same site in Tyrone. This is proposed as a 400-student, grade 9-12 high school. No date of opening can be projected at this time. This same site is the future location of St. Matthew's Parish, currently located in Fairburn. Because demographic studies have shown a smaller and less concentrated population to support a Catholic high school on the south side of Atlanta, archdiocesan officials are approaching this with more deliberation in consultation with area pastors and Catholic school principals.

The new school sites were announced by Archbishop John F. Donoghue. This would be the first new Catholic school construction in the archdiocese since St. John Neumann Regional School opened in 1986 and the first time a bond issue has been proposed for archdiocesan construction.

The archbishop met with pastors of the archdiocese January 28 to discuss possible school sites, based on the detailed findings of a Catholic school interest study conducted by Meitler Consultants, Inc. in 1995 and a further demographic and economic analysis by Carter-deGolian Real Estate Advisory Group.

Archbishop Donoghue said that he wanted to consult with the pastors prior to making the site decisions. After hearing input from the priests, he acknowledged that "everybody was not in agreement at that meeting," but that he was making the decision based on his assessment of all the factors.

An implementation committee chaired by George Aulbach, retired president and CEO of Laing Properties, a property investment company, has been established and is working in the areas of bond financing, building and engineering, school facilities, and school administration. A group of business, construction, real estate, financial and educational representatives are on implementation subcommittees.

"We are hard at work with our heads down, trying to get it in proper perspective and looking at being in construction by next year," Aulbach said. "We want to come up with a school model that is not only up with the times, but ahead of its time."

The estimated $60 million bond issue will be sold by Wachovia and underwritten by Wachovia through a letter of credit, according to Michael McNamara, chief financial officer of the archdiocese. The variable rate demand bonds will have 25-year maturities. The overall interest rate paid by the archdiocese is estimated to be 4.25 percent at the time of the issue, McNamara said.

The archdiocese will determine the exact amount of the bond issue when site locations, construction timetables, and construction managers, architects and contractors are assigned, he said, adding that he expects this to be done in the near future.

The tax-exempt bonds are available to non-profit educational organizations, McNamara said, and will be used to finance only a portion of the school construction costs. The remainder will be financed by a capital campaign of the archdiocese.

The "Catholic School Interest Survey" conducted in the archdiocese by Meitler Consultants, Inc. in 1995 indicated support for new Catholic elementary and secondary schools in the archdiocese and outlined areas of greatest demographic support and timetables for possible construction between 1995 and 2020.

The Meitler findings were published in detail in The Georgia Bulletin May 16, 1996. Multiple recommendations for possible elementary school sites and timetables were made, depending upon the rate of school tuition that would be set by the archdiocese. The final Meitler report advises the archdiocese that a number of new Catholic schools could be built and filled with children, but that number would vary depending on whether tuition is $2,500 or $4,000 a year per child.

Carter-deGolian Real Estate Advisory Group was asked by the archdiocese to further evaluate potential school locations in light of the Meitler report, but also factored in additional demographics and family income data to produce a real estate/economic analysis.

Carter-deGolian applied demographics from Claritas, a national demographics service, and family income data and 20-year population projections from the Atlanta Regional Commission to the Meitler recommendations.

Census tracts were grouped into geographic clusters called "superdistricts" that have similar characteristics. The report studied 32 superdistricts in and around metropolitan Atlanta, as far south as Fayette and Henry counties, as far west as Douglas and Cobb, as far north as Cherokee and as far east as Rockdale and Gwinnett.

Within the superdistricts, the real estate report established the current Catholic population both as a figure and as a percentage of the total population, using parish and census data. The superdistricts were also evaluated in terms of number of children ages 17 and younger. The superdistricts were also evaluated in terms of number of households with incomes of $60,000 a year or higher.

The data was then evaluated for the years 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010, using growth projections of the Atlanta Regional Commission where applicable. However, the Catholic population percentage was held constant. If the Catholic population is currently 10 percent of a superdistrict, the Catholic population was projected to be 10 percent of the future population, which the firm evaluated to be a conservative Catholic population estimate.

Finally, the areas were ranked as most advantageous for a future Catholic school. Clusters with the highest percentage of Catholic families and with the greatest number of children of school age falling into the group with household incomes over $60,000 were ranked highest.

As a result of applying these additional characteristics Carter-deGolian proposed a five-year development program for the archdiocese of four Catholic elementary schools and one Catholic high school.

After meeting with the pastors, Archbishop Donoghue announced the final site decisions, designating three of the elementary school locations and two high school locations.

"These schools will not fill the needs of all Catholic people. This is a first step. We've got to creep before we walk," said Msgr. Edward Dillon, vicar general. "When these schools are built and operational, we can move to the next tier."

He said that the capital campaign of the archdiocese aims to raise a $20 million endowment fund for Catholic schools, a portion of which will be used for tuition assistance for families who cannot afford the full cost of Catholic school tuition.

The figure of $60,000 in household income represents an average Catholic household income in the archdiocese, Msgr. Dillon said. "By siting these schools where they are available to the average Catholic household we know they will draw" sufficient numbers, he said.

In regard to the proposed Catholic high school on the site in Tyrone south of Atlanta the project must be approached with deliberation, he said. The Meitler survey data showed that the Catholic demographic base on the southside is smaller and less concentrated in one area. "We are doing further demographic studies and surveying pastors and principals of feeder schools to get their input," Msgr. Dillon said.

"We are committed to making a high school reasonably accessible to the Catholic families in the south part of the metro area ahead of the Meitler projection, which was 2005," he said.