Decatur School To Be Regional School;

Future Of Lourdes, St. Anthony’s Left To Parishes

By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer

ATLANTA—The archdiocese announced April 3 that it will create a regional school on the campus of Sts. Peter and Paul School, Decatur.

The school will open this fall as St. Peter Claver Regional School. The new name reflects the regional rather than parish character of the school, a statement issued by the archdiocese said. The school is situated on about 50 acres at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish. The archdiocese plans to build a gymnasium and science lab and make other improvements to the school.

The future of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Anthony’s schools was left to the decision and to the funding of their respective parishes. The parishes may decide to continue them as parish schools, but would have to supply funding that has been provided by the archdiocese in the past. One or both parishes could also decide to start alternative educational programs, the statement said.

Archbishop John F. Donoghue made the decision after reviewing proposals submitted to him March 30 by members of a task force made up of archdiocesan representatives and representatives from Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Anthony’s and Sts. Peter and Paul communities.

“This is one of the most difficult decisions that I have ever had to make,” the archbishop said. “This has been, and continues to be, a very emotional issue. I recognize the fact that some will be disappointed, but I hope they are able to respect the fact that this decision was made in the best interests of our children who have remained the focus in all that we hae done. Since a decision has been made, we must cooperate as pastors, educators and parents and move ahead with implementation.”

The parish/school representatives on the task force and pastors of two of the affected parishes had submitted alternative proposals to the archbishop. (See pages 4-5.)

“After reviewing each of the proposals I saw that the task force struggled with the same issues that I did,” the archbishop said in a statement. “Although the task force worked very hard to identify and document alternatives, none of the submitted proposals provided me with a truly viable plan.”

In addition to building a gymnasium and additional science lab, the archdiocese will add special purpose rooms at the St. Peter Claver Regional School and the level of technology infrastructure and instruction will be significantly upgraded, according to the archdiocesan statement.

Middle school students in grades six, seven and eight at the regional school will be given personal laptop computers for use in middle school and to take on to high school.

Additional classroom buildings at the regional school will be constructed if there is substantial growth in the number of students served by the school, the statement said.

There are currently 143 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade at Sts. Peter and Paul School, located on Tilson Road in Decatur, near the Candler Road exit off I-20 East.

Principal Queen Grady has been asked to serve as principal of the regional school for the 2001-02 school year.

There are currently 100 students in kindergarten through eighth grade at St. Anthony’s School, located on Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard in the West End of Atlanta. There are currently 117 students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade at Our Lady of Lourdes School, located on Boulevard in Atlanta. Both schools opened in 1912 and have been considered mission schools, receiving archdiocesan financial support annually to supplement tuition income.

Our Lady of Lourdes School was founded to serve black Catholics by St. Katharine Drexel, foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.

Students who are currently enrolled at St. Anthony’s and Our Lady of Lourdes schools may automatically transfer to St. Peter Claver Regional School, according to the archdiocese.

While parents are free to apply for competitive admission for their children to other Catholic schools, most Catholic schools are already at capacity and have waiting lists at various grade levels.

Transportation to and from the existing campuses of St. Anthony’s and Our Lady of Lourdes schools to St. Peter Claver Regional School will be offered at the expense of the archdiocese for the balance of the school careers of all existing students who are registered at St. Peter Claver its initial year, the archdiocese said.

Judith Mucheck, superintendent of Catholic schools, and Hannah Martin, director of curriculum for the archdiocese, will work with Queen Grady to develop and implement an enhanced curriculum at the regional school.

Certified teachers at the three existing schools, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Anthony’s and Sts. Peter and Paul, can apply to teach at the regional school.

The archdiocese began a process in January 2001 of examining alternatives to continued funding of both Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Anthony’s schools. During this fiscal year, as of Feb. 28, 2001, the archdiocese has provided a combined $703,000 in support to the two schools and Sts. Peter and Paul School.

The first proposal considered by the archdiocese was to consolidate Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Anthony’s schools at the site of St. Anthony’s School. However, in February the archdiocese learned that St. Anthony’s School has been placed on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In addition, the current shared principal for the two schools, John Mayer, notified the archdiocese of his resignation at the end of this school year.

The second proposal was to consolidate the three schools at the site of Sts. Peter and Paul School.

Surveys were conducted twice at Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Anthony’s schools by the archdiocese and once at Sts. Peter and Paul School to determine parental support.

The archdiocese also expressed concern over the test scores of students at the schools and curriculum implementation at the schools by current teachers.

Less than 40 percent of the teachers at St. Anthony’s School meet state certification criteria, according to the archdiocese.

The archdiocesan decision to expand and improve Sts. Peter and Paul School and to stop funding Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Anthony’s schools was announced during spring break week for Catholic schools.

A meeting of approximately 50 parents and parishioners from Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Anthony’s schools was held April 3 at St. Anthony’s Church. Parents said they would seek the support of their pastors to make a concerted effort to find the funding to keep the two schools open.

“We don’t mind supporting ourselves, but why are we given several months when everyone else is given three to five years to become self-subsidized,” asked Lori Ashford, president of the Home and School Association at St. Anthony’s School.

“Our spirit is not crushed, by no means,” said Mary Avery, secretary at Our Lady of Lourdes School and one of two task force representatives from the school. “This is just another battle we are stepping into . . . Where is the educational justice for our children from our communities?”

Lystra Lewis of Decatur, the mother of a fifth-grade student at Our Lady of Lourdes School, said she believes lower test scores from the school may reflect the fact that the school accepts students from all walks of life, rather than restricting admission in a highly competitive process. She said her daughter has scored in the 96th percentile in the Iowa Basic Skills Test for three years while at Our Lady of Lourdes and that she bypasses other Catholic schools to drive her daughter there to school.

“We have to find a way (to keep the school open) and that is the bottom line,” she said.

While the meetings of the task force were taking place March 26 to 29, members of St. Anthony’s and Our Lady of Lourdes parish and school communities marched each evening for several hours, carrying signs and expressing their support for keeping both Catholic schools open. The parishioners held prayer vigils in front of Department of Catholic Education offices, the Catholic Center and the archbishop’s residence.

Father John Adamski, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Atlanta, declined to comment on the decision.

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish issued a statement March 26 stating that it considered the task force process to be “unjust” because it asked two representatives from each of three parishes to devise a viable proposal to closing the schools in four days. The archdiocese has been “in total control” of Our Lady of Lourdes School for seven years, the parish statement said. “Various initiatives for improvements have been publicized during this period. However, these plans were never fulfilled.”

“What the archdiocese has been unable to accomplish during the last seven years cannot be remedied in four days,” the statement from the parish said.

Father T. J. Meehan, pastor of St. Anthony’s Church, Atlanta, said that he would work with his parishioners and those at Our Lady of Lourdes interested in trying to establish a combined parish school. However, he noted that it is so late in the school term that “any effort now to establish a parish school is fighting against time to get the enrollment up to where it should be to make it possible.”

A board of education would have to be put into place quickly, he said, from the two communities.

“I think the only hope for that would be a combined school, Lourdes and Anthony’s,” he said.

Regarding the task force, he said, “We sent representatives to work in good faith with the archdiocesan school office, but they were given an impossible task, it seems to me, to come up with a viable counterproposal in four days. I think the truth of the matter is that there was no openness to hear the concerns of our people and it hurts not to be respected and listened to. I have some concern that the people in the school office have lost any sense of the unique missionary nature and identity of our downtown Catholic schools. The drive, I think, to be financially viable seems to have outweighed any other value in determining this issue.”

“I am very proud of the passion that our parishioners have shown for their Catholic faith and their love for their children. I am willing to work with the people of both Lourdes and St. Anthony’s who will now be looking to perhaps a new combined parish school.”

He said that he wished “good luck to the new regional school of St. Peter Claver.”

He said the parishioners at St. Anthony’s to whom he has spoken have said the location of the regional school presents practical and commuting problems for them.

Father Richard Wise, pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Decatur, said, “This whole process has been a non-process. The decision was apparently made a long time ago and good and faithful parishioners were given four days to solve a problem that the archdiocese has ignored since 1995. The purpose was apparently to show that the archdiocese’s decision was the only viable decision and not to come up with alternatives.”