COMMUNITY
WELLNESS
MINISTRY
Golfers will be teeing up for a good cause when Stan Watson hosts his annual golf tournament at Sugar Creek Golf Course. 4
Breakfast is too important to skip on a regular basis, so here are some recipes that even finicky kids will love to eat. 9
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went to Alabama in May to assist families impacted by tornadoes on April 27. 13
Teeing up for Watson
Copyright © 2011 CrossRoadsNews, Inc.
Putting fun in breakfast
June 11, 2011
Relief in action
Volume 17, Number 6
www.crossroadsnews.com
Charter schools seek DeKalb approval to keep operating By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
situation. We are doing it in the right spirit of wanting to educate our kids.” Both schools lost their legal standing when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled on May 16 that only local school boards can fund and open public charter schools. The court’s 4-to-3 vote struck down as unconstitutional a 2008 law that authorized creation of a new kind of state charter school called “commission charter schools.” Over its three years of operation, the commission approved 16 charter schools in DeKalb and 13 school districts. To consider them for a one-year charter to continue operation, Moseley said the DeKalb School Board will have to waive its policy in order for the vote to take place to authorize the schools as local charters.
The DeKalb School Board is set to offer a oneyear approval to two charter schools to that were approved by the now-defunct Georgia Charter Schools Commission. On June 13, the board will vote on the applications from the Museum School of Avondale Estates and Peachtree Hope Charter School to become local charter schools so that they can stay open for the 2011-2012 school year. Both applications are expected to be approved. Robert Moseley, the district’s deputy chief superintendent for school operations, said Wednesday that the expected approval is in the spirit of trying to help the schools that together will have enrollment of 887 students. “We have schools with students in them,” he said. “We are trying to make the best of a hard Please see CHARTER, page 12
Curtis Parker / CrossRoadsNews
The Museum School of Avondale Estates is adding three classrooms in anticipation that the DeKalb School Board will approve its one-year charter to keep operating.
‘Future Home’ taking shape Lyn Menne of the Decatur Planning Office (left) and Agnes Bourne, capital campaign chair, unveil a sign depicting the new home of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education that will be built in downtown Decatur.
Pastoral education group erecting $10 million facility By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
A new $10 million building will soon be rising from the ground on Church Street in downtown Decatur. The three-story building will be the new home of the national Association for Clinical Pastoral Education and will house its administrative office and its Academy for Continuing Education. From that location, the group will offer virtual, Internet-based classes to people in ministry, pastoral care and other helping professions worldwide. The Rev. Dr. Teresa Snorton, the association’s executive director, said they are very excited about the move. “Our goal is to break ground by the end of 2012 and start operating by the end of 2014,” she said. Teresa Snorton On June 9, ACPE and Decatur city officials unveiled a “future home” sign with a picture of what the 17,000-square-foot office building will look like when it is completed. The new building will take place of the old McKinney Pharmacy building that was demolished in May. The association acquired the property at 542 Church St. with the old building last year for just over $1 million. Snorton, who also is a bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, said ACPE has launched a capital campaign and expects to start taking bids for construction later this year or early 2012. Agnes Bourne, a member of the Foundation for Clinical Pastoral Education and chair
Carla Parker / CrossRoadsNews
of the capital campaign, said they picked downtown Decatur for the group’s new headquarters after a national search. “We chose Decatur because of its hospitality,” she said. “It’s the right environment for our work. We have the ability to house students in Holiday Inn and hold conventions. We’re planning to be very involved Agnes Bourne in the community.” Snorton said they plan an LEED-certified building that will utilize as much green, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly
materials as possible. “Our architects are Lord, Aeck and Sargent, an Atlanta-based company known for its leadership in designing LEED-certified buildings,” she said. In addition to office space, the building will house the association’s archives and library, a multipurpose meeting space, and a winter garden that goes from the first to the third floor. The ACPE, which works to advance experience-based theological education for seminarians, clergy and lay people of diverse cultures, ethnic groups and faith traditions, establishes standards, certifies supervisors and accredits programs and centers in varied
settings. Its programs promote the integration of personal history, faith tradition and the behavioral sciences in the practice of spiritual care. In addition to its virtual offerings, Snorton said the association will offer short-courses, one-day seminars and miniconferences on caregiving, disaster response, and crises intervention in the workplace. When it is completed, the ACPE will relocate from its current 3,000-square-foot home at 1549 Clairmont Road in Decatur. About 20 regular employees will work in the building. For more information, visit www.acpe .edu.