By Erika Anderson, Staff Wrier

DECATUR—The Office of Catholic Schools will hold an informational meeting for prospective parents of students at St. Peter Claver Regional School on Wednesday, April 25 at 7:30 p.m.

The meeting will be held at Sts. Peter and Paul School, 2560 Tilson Road, Decatur, which is becoming a regional school effective in the 2001-02 school year.

The meeting will include presentations by Queen Grady, principal of Sts. Peter and Paul School, who will serve as principal of the regional school in 2001-02, by Donald Sasso, Secretary for Education, and by Judith Mucheck, superintendent of Catholic schools.

On April 3, Archbishop John F. Donoghue announced that the archdiocese would regionalize the school on the campus of Sts. Peter and Paul School. The school will be open to students from multiple parishes, including Sts. Peter and Paul Parish. Students who are currently enrolled at Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Anthony’s schools in Atlanta may transfer there automatically since the archdiocese will no longer fund those two schools at the end of this school year.

The future of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Anthony’s schools was left up to their respective parishes. The parishes may decide to fund them entirely as parish schools. One or both parishes could decide to start alternative educational programs.

The Decatur school is situated on a 50-acre site, where Sts. Peter and Paul Parish is located. Tilson Road is near the Candler Road exit off of I-20 East.

Renovations planned for St. Peter Claver Regional School include a new science lab and a gymnasium, projected to be open in the summer of 2002.

Applications and transfer information will be available at the April 25 meeting, which is open to all parents of students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Parents of students at Sts. Peter and Paul School are encouraged to attend the meeting.

Mucheck said the meeting will cover issues that are important to parents such as renovations, transportation, technology and curriculum. The Office of Catholic Schools hopes to unveil a new school logo at the meeting.

Mucheck will also discuss the differences between a regional school and a parish school.

“A parish school is established to service the needs of the parish community children first. It is an outreach mission of the parish. It also accepts children from other parishes, but there is some preferential treatment for children of the parish,” she said. “A regional school is set up by dioceses to serve a wide geographical area of parishes. It doesn’t distinguish between parishes.”

Students in both regional and parish schools, she pointed out, in all instances have to meet the academic requirements and preference is given to students from active Catholic families. The non-Catholic population at the other regional schools in the archdiocese, Mucheck said, is minimal.

The archdiocese has designed a “30-point commitment” to St. Peter Claver School. These points will be presented at the meeting.

The points include the school’s Catholic identity, curriculum, transportation, renovations, faculty, after-school care and parental involvement.

In establishing the school’s Catholic identity, the archdiocese has committed that though the school will welcome academically qualified Catholic and non-Catholic students, the school will be a solidly Catholic school, giving admissions preference to Catholic students. All transfer students from St. Anthony’s and Our Lady of Lourdes schools will be accommodated. Students will be allowed to wear their existing uniforms for one year at the regional school. 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 register at St. Peter Claver its initial year.

In addition, St. Anthony’s and Our Lady of Lourdes parishes will be offered funding for extended day programs.

As a regional school, the archdiocesan Department of Catholic Education will actively exercise oversight of the school.

An assistant principal will be added to the administrative team and administration and faculty salaries will be commensurate with other archdiocesan schools. All certified staff from St. Anthony’s and Our Lady of Lourdes schools will be considered for positions. Every permanent teacher will be appropriately certified and will be required to have documented annual observations. The entire curriculum will be reviewed and improved wherever needed so as to allow students to apply competitively to enter high school.

The technology infrastructure will be updated and expanded and each student in grades six, seven and eight will be provided with a notebook computer.

Parents will receive full briefings as to the school’s academic standards and achievements and all parents will be offered the opportunity to be consulted and to participate in the new school. A site-based tuition-aid fund will be established so that the regional school can raise money to fund tuition assistance in addition to archdiocesan tuition assistance.

Mucheck said that the Office of Catholic Schools is looking forward to meeting with prospective parents.

“This is a chance for us to start brand new,” she said. “I hope as we get started that we will be able to celebrate this school just as we did the other new schools.”

For more information about the meeting, call the Office of Catholic Schools at (404) 888-7833.