DECATUR - School officials and Decatur clergy met on Wednesday for the quarterly One Voice banquet, an initiative to encourage Decatur's religious community to be involved with the schools.

The Rev. Norm Etnier introduced the Rev. Joe Bowman, pastor of Heartland Community Church, who has taken the newly created position of liaison between the Christian Ministers Alliance and the school district.

"We wanted to have somebody coordinate things between the CMA and the schools," Etnier said. "He had such a heart for schools, and his wife is a teacher. We didn't have a position like this, somebody to be the contact."

Superintendent Gloria Davis has done most of the organizing work in getting churches on board, Bowman said, and his job will be to take some of the burden.

Davis has asked pastors to preach periodically at their services on the importance of education and to encourage parishioners to volunteer and to provide support for their own and other children. Several churches have created after-school programs or gone as groups into schools to offer tutoring and other assistance.

Bowman said among the ideas under consideration for a greater role for churches are holding a back-to-school rally, possibly at Decatur Civic Center and inviting all area districts; providing a guest speaker to each of the two high schools for an assembly; and to hold an event to celebrate the National Day of Prayer.

"God really brought us together to do wonderful things," Etnier said. "(The schools) need our support, both our prayer and our feet."

On Wednesday, Davis said, she wanted to ask pastors' help with getting the word out about several things, chiefly about kindergarten readiness screenings in March.

"We want all kindergartners to be screened," Davis said. "We want to make sure every child has been screened and (the parents) have the opportunity to sit down and talk about the child's abilities and readiness to start school."

And for students already in school, she said, she wanted to enlist pastors in reminding families of the after-school programs at the middle schools and high schools.

Students who are struggling have only to ask for help and stay for the after-school programs, which offer a meal, transportation and recreation in addition to academic tutoring. Parenting classes are also on the horizon, she said.

"We want to help parents help their children," Davis said.

Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.