DUNWOODY--Fifty-three acres have been purchased by Pinecrest Academy, a private Catholic school, for its permanent campus in south Forsyth County.

Founded in 1993 under the auspices of the Legionaries of Christ of Cheshire, Conn., the school is now located in leased quarters at All Saints Church, 2443 Mount Vernon Road. Current enrollment is 150 students.

The new site, heavily wooded, is located on Peachtree Parkway about 1.3 miles south of exit 13 and the Georgia 400 interchange. Construction of school facilities for kindergarten through eighth grade is expected to be completed for the 1998-99 school year. Long-range plans include a boys and girls high school.

The school aspires to teach, educate and form each child with a sense of Christian virtue and to provide Christian leaders who will influence and transform their surroundings by example. Students are taught the Catholic faith, but children of all denominations are welcome.

Pinecrest seeks to provide academic challenge with careful attention given to the special gifts of each child. The low student-teacher ratio facilitates the development of each student toward maturity, integrity and charity.

With the rapid residential growth along the Georgia 400 corridor, the school will be positioned to help meet the growing demand for Christian-based education in the north Fulton and Forsyth county area.

Applications for the 1998-99 school year will be available in January. Applications for the current year are being accepted.

The Legionaries of Christ is a priestly order founded in Mexico in 1941. Since the order's founding it has established 60 elementary and high schools in countries around the world, educating more than 100,000 students, according to Bruce Carlisle, a member of Pinecrest Academy's board of directors.