By Patrick McGroarty
News Editor

Representatives from the Archdiocese of Boston met this week with parents at each of the eight Catholic grammar schools in Dorchester and Mattapan to discuss the ongoing 2010 Initiative that will reconfigure those schools into a new, centrally administered school system.

During a Tuesday night meeting at St. Brendan's church, Kathleen Driscoll, co-chair of the 2010 Strategic Planning Committee alongside philanthropist Jack Connors, explained the administrative structure of the new regional system, took stock of the value and condition of each existing school campus, and disseminated the results of a recent survey among parents, faculty and staff that will inform the reconfiguration process. But questions persisted about the role that parents and parishioners will be allowed to play in the looming reconfiguration, and who will be held accountable for decisions to close or reconfigure any of Dorchester's parish grammar schools.

"Do not mistake our courtesy and our respectful behavior. We want to work with the archdiocese, but there's a lot of distrust here, and people have a lot of reasons not to be in this room, yet they're here," said City Council President Maureen Feeney, who lives in St Brendan's parish. More than 200 people packed the parish hall on Tuesday night, after the meeting had been heavily promoted through flyers and e-mails by Cedar Grove civic leaders. Two final meetings were scheduled at St. Ann's school and St. Angela's school on Wednesday night, after the Reporter went to press.

Driscoll used a data-heavy slide presentation to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the existing schools and explain the basic structure of a new centralized system. To refurbish each existing school campus to basic code standards, said Driscoll, would cost up to $50 million. Under the new system, each remaining school (an exact number and their locations has not been determined, she said) would be led by a principal, who would report to a system-wide school board. That board will then report directly to Sean Cardinal O'Malley. The new structure will also include close involvement of local Catholic universities, such as Boston College and Stonehill.

Specifics such as which campuses will be used and the fate of schools not incorporated into the new system have not been determined, said Driscoll.

"This isn't an answer time, this is the process of beginning to plan," she said.

Driscoll said that over the course of the summer the committee and consultants hired by the Archdiocese would formulate several- as many as five - models for re-casting the system.

By November 30, she said, the committee would return to parents to discuss each potential plan.

State Rep. Martin Walsh asked for assurances that parents and parishioners would be significant stakeholders in the planning process.

"I'm starting to get a real bad feeling inside because people in this room are people who kept this church alive," said Walsh. "The proposals should be given out to people, they should have a chance to look at it, a chance to digest it, and then should have another meeting here in this room."

Driscoll said that she could not define the specific role parents would be allowed to play or a timeline for that involvement, but sought to assure attendees that the archdiocese was taking their investment - and their concerns - seriously.

"If we don't include you, we're doing the biggest dishonor and disrespect in this process," she said.

She also said that the challenge facing Catholic grade schools in Dorchester and the Boston archdiocese is part of a long-term, national trend. In 1965, the Boston Catholic school system included 350 schools and 153,000 students; today, there are 47,000 students in 143 schools.

She said that while Boston was losing students at greater rate even than national systems facing the same problem, the 2010 Initiative is unique in its ambition.

"Doing nothing is not an option," said Driscoll. "That may not be the case for St. Brendan's, but it certainly is for some of the other parishes in Dorchester."

But one woman - who asked that her name not be printed - asked why Catholic schools in neighboring communities such as Quincy and South Boston had not been included in confronting that problem.

"Everyone here has lot invested in this neighborhood and wants to know if we are self-supporting and heavily Catholic and all of these kids walk to school, can we uninvite ourselves from this process?"

Driscoll's response was that Dorchester's pastors had invited the 2010 planning committee to help them re-tool the school system.

"Talk to your pastor," Driscoll said.

Feeney and others countered by scolding Driscoll and the archdiocese, insisting that parish pastors should not be left alone to confront an emotionally difficult and economically challenging reality.

"These pastors are engaged in trying to protect their schools, and now it's phrased in a way that makes it sound like if they didn't want part of it, they didn't have to," said Feeney. "We all know that's not the reality here."

As the meeting closed, Fr. Jim Fratus, pastor of St. Brendan's, said that he was worried about the long-term sustainability of even strong schools like St. Brendan's, but indicated that he had not expected to have such individual authority regarding the fate of his own parish school.

"I don't feel insulted. I'm glad I was given a new option," he said.