Way

Published by The National Herald, November 19, 2004

$4.5 Million Greek School on The Way in Tarpon Springs

By Nora Koch

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. - The 24 grade school students who attend Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Parochial School learn in classrooms within the cathedral's downtown complex.

But the future of this fledgling school lies about four miles to the east on a parcel where the church is building a 37,000-square-foot, $4.5-million campus on Keystone Road.

By next year, when the school expands from its kindergarten through fourth grade to include a fifth grade, school leaders hope students will have moved to the Theotokos Campus, where construction began last month.

"It's a sign of growth, not necessarily as numbers, but deepening the spiritual experience of the faith when the community is able to run such an institution," said the Rev. John Bociu.

For years church leaders dreamed of establishing their own parochial school. The idea finally materialized about two years ago, led by William and Regina Planes of Tarpon Springs.

The Planes, church members since 1994, took on the project after a conversation with Rev. Tryfon Theophilopoulos, the cathedral's dean emeritus.

Father Tryfon is the namesake of the classroom building where students hope to move to next year. He said the school will be one where students will get a strong church-based education.

"We had the mind to create something, a reminiscent school of the old times, which would bring new values in the schooling and the uprearing of the children, in a truly family and religious environment," Father Tryfon said.

The semi-retired Planes have a third-grade daughter at the school and have been instrumental in planning and launching the school. Mrs. Planes serves as the school's volunteer full-time administrator, and her husband is a chief organizer.

The school started last year with seven students, and enrollment more than tripled this year. Next year, when the school adds fifth grade, William Planes said he expects enrollment to multiply again. Each year, the school will add a grade until it reaches 12th grade.

St. Nicholas Cathedral, a centerpiece of this deeply Greek-rooted town, has 900 families and 250 children in Sunday school classes. The church also has a Greek school where 78 youths learn the heritage every afternoon. The parochial school has agreed not to teach the language, so as not to compete with the established Greek school.

Students of all faiths will be welcomed at the parochial school, which is expected to serve the entire Tampa Bay area.

For now, the school has six teachers. As the school expands, Mr. Planes said, it hopes to maintain an average class size of 12. The school will seek accreditation from the Florida Council of Independent Schools and is already sanctioned by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

Tuition is $4,350 a year. Many parishioners have donated to scholarship funds, and anonymous donors have committed to backing the construction project.

St. Nicholas broke ground on the project last month on a 10-acre site west of East Lake Road. The school's lower campus, which should be complete by December 2006 and will house students up to Grade 8, includes a classroom building, a building for the administration and a library, a chapel and a student activities center with a gym and a cafeteria.

"It is a horrendously large jump of faith," William Planes said. "It's not an undertaking; it's a leap of faith."

Editors Note: The above article was published in the November 6, 2004 issue of the St. Petersburg Times. The original headline is, "School anticipates growing with campus."



Volume 6 Number 47 - Tuesday, November 23rd, 2004	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY