March 13, 2001

Dear Parents and Friends of St. Joseph’s Catholic Elementary School:

I want to take this opportunity to thank each member of the community who took the time to fill out the survey regarding the future of St. Joseph’s School, Marietta.

After reviewing the survey results and consulting with the Office of Catholic Schools and Gareth Genner, a consultant from Independent School Counsel, whose company administered the survey, I am happy to report the following information:

1. The current St. Joseph’s School will remain open. Approximately 66 percent of those people surveyed indicated that they would like to remain at the existing campus. From the beginning I promised that I would not force the community to move if they desired to stay at the existing facility. The voice of the community has been heard. We were able to reach this conclusion without surveying the nearby parishes.

2. The Archdiocese of Atlanta is still exploring the possibility of building a school for 500 students at the Villa Rica Road site. Approximately 30 percent of those surveyed indicated a desire for a new school at that location. This percentage, extrapolated, indicates that approximately 100 people were open to enrolling their children in this new school even if the tuition were set at $6,300 and there was the necessity of pledging funds to a capital campaign to fund this project. Parents surveyed felt that a school of 1,000 was too large, so we are no longer considering this model. We will now begin surveying the nearby parishes to see if the area demand is sufficient to go ahead with the new project.

Next Saturday and Sunday surveys will be placed at the parishes in the geographic regions near St. Joseph’s. Announcements will be made during the Saturday Vigil and Sunday Masses inviting people to fill out a survey at the parish and express their opinion on whether or not they would be interested in the Villa Rica Road School. We will give parents of school age children two weeks to fill out the survey; at that point we will assemble that data to determine our next step.

I know that this process has been a very difficult one for members of your community. I realize that many of you were in the trenches during the zoning hearings, battling night and day for the archdiocese. Your enthusiasm and efforts were key elements in our success, and for that you will always have my enduring gratitude. It is because of your efforts that the school on Villa Rica Road is even a possibility.

Your surveys communicated very real frustrations with the archdiocese, the Office of Catholic Schools and your own community. It is time for healing to begin, and I would like to begin that process today by asking your forgiveness for the disappointments and frustrations we have caused and the inappropriate manner in which things were handled in the past.

Today, I believe, we can begin again. We have new people in place who have started a process of communication and partnership that I pray will lead us down a path that will both preserve the existing St. Joseph’s and very possibly enable us to serve the needs of even more Catholic children in your area.

May our Lord bless us and his Spirit inspire us as we walk together on this journey.

With kind personal regards, I am

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend John F. Donoghue

Archbishop of Atlanta