A priest, a Baptist preacher and a principal walk into a high school …

No, they really did.

On Monday, a crowd of ministers, business leaders, elected officials and other citizens fanned throughout Gardendale High School to pray for the students and staff who will soon be occupying the new facility.

GHS principal Dr. Anna Vacca gave the group free rein for one hour to roam the halls, classrooms, cafeteria, courtyard, basketball courts, parking lots and all other areas of the new school.

The prayer walk, led by the North Jefferson Ministry Association, drew out about 40 people to pray for the school, which could open as early as mid-February, according to Vacca.

“We feel like it’s important to have God’s blessings on this school,” Vacca told the crowd after thanking them for attending.

Curt Sanford, president of the North Jefferson Ministry Association, said that students have a right to have a spiritual and a protected place to go to school.

“We just wanted to prepare the school for the incoming students so it will be a haven and a place they can learn,” Sanford said. “We didn’t want to go in and change the school, we just wanted to go in and help the school be what it can be.”

Randy Posey, who works for the SAFE program, said he took part in the prayer walk for personal reasons.

“It’s important to me because my daughter will be starting here next year,” he said. Posey himself graduated from GHS in 1989.

GHS assistant principal Neal Underwood told the crowd he was grateful for their participation in the prayer walk.

“You don’t know how much it means to us as faculty and as members of the community for our local ministers to come out and pray for where we work and go to school,” he said.

Gardendale High School is one of three new schools currently under construction in north Jefferson County. Also being built are new high schools at Corner and Mortimer Jordan.

There are a total of six new high schools being built in the Jefferson County School System, funded from 1-cent tax funds collected in 2005.

The new facility for Corner High School is slated to open this spring and Mortimer Jordan is projected to open in December.