Wednesday, December 6, 2000
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Wednesday, December 6, 2000 |
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Principal reflects on school's progress
BY PAT NEWMAN
When Sallie McQuaid took over as principal of Our Lady of Victory Catholic School in Tyrone almost one year ago, the dust had barely settled on the brand-new desk that occupied her office. The newly established elementary school had been open about four months when McQuaid replaced the school's first principal, Nanci Pearson. At the time, the school was faced with the struggles all new educational institutions are confronted with upon opening establishing workable rules and regulations, cultivating a trust between the parents and children and faculty and administration, and developing open lines of communication within the school and the community. Today, McQuaid admits the school is still experiencing growing pains. "It takes several years to get everything in motion," she said during a retrospective interview. But McQuaid is making headway and is determined to lay the groundwork for building a stable school for the next century. "I'm interested in setting up an institutional process," she said. "What we do as a school should be appropriate for the next 10 years." With 258 students in grades pre-K through 8, OLOV has already exceeded its anticipated enrollment of 250 and 30 faculty and staff members. The school has been accepted into the Georgia Independent Schools Association, which has a statewide membership of 130 private and religious institutions and is working toward its accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a process which takes between 18 months and two years. "I love it," McQuaid said of the process. Bringing in experts from all over the country to assess the school is a factor she finds enriching and "self-identifying." She expects an on-site visit from a SACS team in the spring of 2001. Creating a mission statement and developing the philosophy of the school are two of the tasks McQuaid intends to accomplish during accreditation. The basic premise is to educate students "to strengthen and grow in their love for Christ while developing a wholesome self-image and assuming responsibility for learning." Our Lady of Victory remains the first and only Catholic elementary school on the southside of Atlanta. This September, it was joined by Our Lady of Mercy High School, on the Fulton and Fayette county lines on Ga. Highway 314, which opened with the ninth and tenth grades. The two new schools are among five to be opened by the Atlanta Archdiocese to meet the educational needs of growing Catholic parishes. According to McQuaid, OLOV's student body draws primarily from the parishes of Holy Trinity in Peachtree City, St. Gabriel in Fayetteville and St. George in Newnan. "This is a regional school and we want all of the priests to feel that they are a part of the school," she said. As a regional facility, McQuaid said there is also a move among diocesan schools to decentralize administration to a more site-based type of management, allowing each individual school to meet the needs of its constituency. Selecting textbooks is one area where schools staffs and principals can exercise their judgement in implementing the curriculum best suited to their students. "We have three different math series," McQuaid noted, ranging from developmental math in the pre-k class to algebra in the seventh and eighth grades. Since opening its doors, the school has developed a number of club and athletic teams including a book club, chorus, soccer and basketball. A school band is in the works for fourth through eighth grade. A major component of a student's education at OLOV is involvement in service projects, McQuaid said. The current project is Operation Christmas Child, which calls on children and their families to fill a shoe box with small gifts for a child overseas living in crisis. About six weeks ago, the school soccer team raked, mowed and clipped the grounds of the cemetery located behind Tyrone Town Hall. Children attending OLOV are being prepared to "go on to higher education," McQuaid explained, therefore the school is selective in its admissions policy. "We cannot accommodate every child," she said, explaining that they do not have the resources for children needing special education. However, student tutoring and remediation is available, along with enrichment activities for all students. "Everybody can benefit from enrichment," she added.
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