Pinecrest Academy is a private

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

school in Cumming,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, United States, for students from

Pre-K Pre-kindergarten (also called pre-K or PK) is a voluntary classroom-based preschool program for children below the age of five in the United States, Canada, Turkey and Greece (when kindergarten starts). It may be delivered through a preschool ...

(3 years) through

12th grade Twelfth Grade (also known as Grade 12, Senior Year, Standard 12, 12th Standard, 12th Class, or Class 12th or Class 12) is the twelfth and final Educational stage, year of Formal education, formal or compulsory education. It is typically the final ...

. It is in the

Archdiocese of Atlanta The Archdiocese of Atlanta () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in northern Georgia in United States. The archdiocese is led by a prelate archbishop, who also serves as pastor of the mother chu ...

History

Pinecrest Academy was established under the inspiration of the

Legionaries of Christ The Legionaries of Christ (in , abbreviated L.C.) is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of pontifical right founded on January 3, 1941, by the Mexican Catholic priest Marcial Maciel. It belongs constitutively to the spiritual family of Regn ...

, as an elementary school serving the northern part of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. It opened on September 8, 1993 with 29 students in a rented former school in

Crabapple ''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 32–57 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples (sometimes known in North America as crabapples) and wild apples. The genus i ...

and moved in 1995 to the Catholic parish activity center in

Dunwoody Dunwoody is a city located in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. As a northern suburb of Atlanta, Dunwoody is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. It was incorporated as a city on December 1, 2008, but its area establishment dates back t ...

. In 1998, when enrollment had reached 153, it was accredited by the Georgia Accrediting Commission. It moved in fall 1998 to its own campus in Cumming. The high school was added in 2003, expanding the campus from 53 to 68 acres, and the first high school class graduated in 2007. The first headmaster was Dr. Brian Tierney, appointed in 1998.

School

Pinecrest Academy is a

Regnum Christi Regnum Christi, officially the Regnum Christi Federation (Latin: Regnum Christi Foederationis) is an international Catholic Federation. It is made up of lay Catholics, as well as the religious congregation of the Legionaries of Christ (seminaria ...

school and a member of the Georgia Independent Schools Association, the Atlanta Area Association of Independent Schools, the

National Catholic Educational Association The National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) is a private, professional educational membership association. It represents over 150,000 educators in Roman Catholic Church, Catholic schools, universities, and religious education programs i ...

, and the

Southern Association of Independent Schools The Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS), founded in 1953, is a U.S.-based voluntary regional accrediting association of more than 380 independent elementary and secondary schools with a combined enrollment of more than 220,000 ...

. It has been accredited by the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is a regional educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. As of 2022, the organization oversees ap ...

since December 31, 2001.Pinecrest Academy
Cognia accreditation search, retrieved January 1, 2024. The current Head of School is Jake Rodgers. The principal of the lower and middle schools is Dr. Blanca Plazas Snyder (since 2023) and the principal of the high school is Amy Bowman. Emily Roman is director of campus ministry. The campus includes separate buildings for the lower, middle, and high schools, a main chapel and two additional chapels, and sports facilities including two gymnasiums, two athletic fields, and a cross country trail. There is also an outdoor

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Via Dolorosa, Way of Sorrows or the , are a series of fourteen images depicting Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and acc ...

. In 2014, Pinecrest was named a

National Blue Ribbon School The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program is a United States Department of Education award program that recognizes exemplary public and non-public schools on a yearly basis. Using standards of excellence evidenced by student achievement measures, ...

. At that time, its enrollment was almost 800. It has been recognized by the

Cardinal Newman Society The Cardinal Newman Society is an American 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization founded in 1993 whose stated purpose is to promote and defend faithful Catholic education. The organization is guided by Cardinal John Henry Newman's ''The Id ...

as a School of Excellence since 2007. In 2020, the high school was rated the best Catholic high school in Georgia by

Niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development and growth *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ec ...

Extracurricular

The school sports teams are the Paladins. An athletics hall of fame was inaugurated in 2016. The high school wind symphony has been successful at the Williamsburg WorldStrides Music Festival.

References

External links

School website
{{authority control Catholic secondary schools in Georgia (U.S. state) Schools in Forsyth County, Georgia Educational institutions established in 1993 Private middle schools in Georgia (U.S. state) Private elementary schools in Georgia (U.S. state) Regnum Christi Legion of Christ 1993 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia Accrediting Commission

History

School

Extracurricular

See also

References

External links