By Gretchen Keiser

ATLANTA—After attending an April 18 meeting on budget deficits at new Catholic elementary schools, Donald Sasso, in his new role as Secretary for Education, said better communication was needed about the basis on which the schools are funded.

“I don’t think we, meaning the archdiocese, did a good job in educating our Catholic public about the financial structures that served as a basis for these Catholic schools coming into existence,” he said. “When people do have clarity, and when they do understand, they are better able to have informed opinions, not on the basis of misinformation, but on solid information.”

	Donald Sasso

The decision to approach the three Catholic elementary schools as one consolidated project in order to spread the fixed costs “is a very charitable and Christian concept,” he said. “It serves our church very well. Wherever the school is located, we are doing the very best job we can to prepare our children to be leaders of the future.”

“We want to provide access to Catholic education for as many students as we can.”

However, the public was not made aware of the consolidated approach and, as a result, could not place the budgetary expectations in the proper framework. Cash flows at the 500-student schools were projected to offset an anticipated deficit at the 250-student school.

“The sharing of resources to make the equation work, I think that was not clearly communicated,” Sasso said.

“It is a wonderfully Catholic message to communicate. I think people can be proud and would hold their heads up to be part of that concept.”

He also said that because a new model of financing Catholic schools is being implemented in the archdiocese, there is a lot of misunderstanding concerning how the cost is being borne.

“The parents of these schools were not being asked to pay back the cost of construction of these schools,” he noted, an amount which is $9.2 million for Holy Redeemer School in Alpharetta and $10.1 million for Queen of Angels School in Roswell.

Instead, the new schools are being asked to make annual contributions to the tuition assistance fund of the archdiocese, money which will be used either to help families afford to send children to Catholic schools or contribute toward the building of future Catholic schools.

The Capital Campaign of the archdiocese raised $12 million for Catholic school construction, but that money was used to leverage the additional funds needed to actually build five new schools and add on to St. Pius X High School. Tax-exempt bonds and conventional debt financing are being used to pay for schools construction, according to Michael McNamara, chief financial officer of the archdiocese. In addition, the $20 million tuition assistance fund has been endowed by the Capital Campaign.

“This was a new model,” Sasso said. “From a Catholic perspective, once it is explained adequately I hope people would be energized by the total picture of what we are trying to provide all kids who would hope to attend Catholic schools.”

Principal Sallie McQuaid, who took over at Our Lady of Victory School in Tyrone in December, also spoke positively of what the new schools have to offer and of the challenges the principals face in budgeting for new schools.

	Sallie McQuaid

The facility of Our Lady of Victory “is the school of the future,” said McQuaid, a former principal at St. John the Evangelist School in Hapeville who led it to become a national School of Excellence. “It is absolutely a wonderful, wonderful school. They have equipped it beautifully.”

While the Tyrone school, built for a student body of 250, has only one class for each grade, she noted that it is standard to include teacher aides for the lower grades and specialized teachers for middle school grades.

“You need an aide in kindergarten. You need an aide in first grade and you generally have an aide in second grade,” McQuaid said. “You try to have an aide in third or fourth or try to have a floating aide to multi-serve the school ... We all have aides in these grades, that is a given.”

Although she does not have an assistant principal at Our Lady of Victory, McQuaid said it is an important role, particularly at a larger school. “At a 500-student school, it may not be a requirement, but it is certainly desirable.”

She estimated that she currently has a staff of approximately 30 at Our Lady of Victory School, including teaching aides in kindergarten through third grade, a library aide and specialized teachers in computer, Spanish, art, music and physical education for all grades. The school has volunteers serving as the school nurse, she said. “We’ve got eight or 10 nurses. They rotate and really do a great job.”

McQuaid said that she plans to adjust staff at Our Lady of Victory as needs change and that while she is trying to be expedient, she also has felt supported in anything she has requested.

As a school principal, she said she always has submitted a budget proposal in the winter and then does an actual budget in October based upon the number of students that are enrolled and the faculty and staff in place. With a new school this process is more difficult because all expenses are being calculated for the first time.

“Because we are all doing it for the first time, there are going to be problems,” she said. “They are trying to hold the reins (financially) and why not. We are talking about three fantastically built and beautifully equipped schools. They are a dream.”

She also praised the tuition assistance program. “I know of families who could not and would not be sending the children to Catholic school” without it, McQuaid said, calling it essential to keeping the schools affordable. “That is a wonderful thing that the archdiocese has done.”