By Gretchen Keiser, Staff Writer

ATLANTA-The Department of Catholic Education will seek accreditation from the Southern Association of Independent Schools for the planned new parish school at St. Catherine of Siena Church, Kennesaw. The department is also looking at SAIS as a possible accrediting organization for Catholic elementary schools in the future. Up until now Catholic schools have been accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. But in recent years SACS standards for non-public schools have become "disproportionately rigorous," said Judith Mucheck, superintendent of Catholic schools. She said, by way of example, that SACS requires 25 percent of instructional personnel in public schools to have an earned graduate degree while "in non-public school standards, it says 30 percent of instructional staff shall have an earned graduate degree." The department is unable to get answers to their queries to SACS about why standards are more rigorous for non-public schools, the superintendent said. The SACS accrediting process also provides no leeway for new schools, she said. When the department requested a second year of candidacy for new schools so administrators could accomplish the paperwork, they were told the schools would have to drop out of the process for a year. On the other hand, she said, because the SACS process applies primarily to public schools, it does not include any standards to evaluate the Catholic identity of the school. "That is very weighty for us," she said. With the SAIS model "we certainly are absolutely allowed and encouraged to write some criteria for Catholic identity," she said, for example, "is the religion curriculum being taught appropriately, how vital is the sacramental life of the school, what kinds of opportunities are they providing kids for service?" In other key areas, SACS is rigid on class sizes, while Catholic schools are "tuition-driven" and have to balance a budget. That sometimes requires adding more children to each classroom. SAIS also allows for phased-in building improvements, Mucheck said, that would be unacceptable to SACS. For example, when St. Catherine of Siena opens with primary grades and kindergarten, they can open without a dedicated library, said Gareth Genner, managing director of ISC, a consulting firm for non-public schools used by the Archdiocese of Atlanta. SACS standards would require the school to open with a dedicated library of a certain square footage depending on the number of children being served, he said. Realistically the books needed immediately at St. Catherine of Siena can be stored in a smaller area and in a less costly way, he said, and a dedicated library can be built in a few years. "The SAIS model will allow us to decide ourselves on the point at which we need to add a dedicated library." The SAIS option opened up in July 2000, when its board of directors endorsed a set of standards for independent schools, Mucheck said. The standards will be presented to the National Association of Independent Schools for their endorsement, a process that will not be completed until 2003. She said that Catholic secondary schools have to stay with SACS in order to ensure continuity in a number of areas with the collegiate model. "They really have to have a well-established status quo," she said. Elementary schools, on the other hand, primarily need to get "specific feedback from an outside agency" in order to continually assess their schools. "SAIS will do and can do the same thing for us," Mucheck said. The SAIS standards fit on a four-fold piece of stationery while SACS standards fill a booklet. She said SAIS is not competing with SACS, but "they are an alternative to SACS." At the moment all of the archdiocesan elementary schools are in good standing with SACS, she noted. "We are not investigating another model because we are compromised in SACS, but some of these issues are weighing on us more and more." "We are being held to a standard which more and more strays away from how we are functioning . . . SAIS is a better fit for us." She said the standards were shown to archdiocesan principals at a principals retreat in September 2001 and the group discussed the matter. She said that changing from SACS to SAIS would be the principal's decision. "I am not going to unilaterally make that decision," the superintendent said, adding that she did not think any decision would be considered until 2003 when NAIS will have evaluated and acted upon SAIS standards. "We've got some time to look at the downsides, if there are any," she said. Genner noted that SAIS provides additional flexibility in the areas of administration and faculty and "puts a great deal of trust in the Department of Catholic Education." "We do not see it as diminishing the standards we are delivering," he said. Under SAIS "the standards will be set by the Department of Catholic Education." He called the St. Catherine of Siena model "a new paradigm" for Catholic schools. "The archbishop has given a mandate to expand the number of children served" by Catholic schools, Genner said. "We needed to develop a new paradigm and we believe this is it." "It is intended to be a replicable model. Once we have the school open and have the benefit of refining the model, we see it being replicated," he said, adding that a number of pastors have expressed interest in the model.