High School Expansion to Add 23,000+ Square Feet at Mount Paran Christian School
On Friday, Feb. 5, Mount Paran Christian School — Cobb County’s largest private Christian school — celebrated the culmination of a years-long capital campaign with a “virtual” groundbreaking ceremony for the new Murray Innovation Center. The building, named after a generous lead gift from the Stuart and Eulene Murray Foundation, is a much-needed 23,000-plus square feet expansion of the current Dozier Hall high school, originally built to house just 250 students. With its booming enrollment, MPCS is thrilled to offer innovative new learning spaces for its 450 high school students.
At the morning’s Breaking-Ground Ceremony, an excavator onsite lent an air of excitement at the impending construction of the Murray Innovation Center, set to begin this month. MCPS families and staff were invited to watch the festivities safely via a live-stream. The event had physically-distance limited attendance with remarks presented by Head of School Dr. Tim Wins, Assistant Head of School and Head of High School Tawanna Rush, Board of Trustees Chair George Ethridge, and Imagine Tomorrow Capital Campaign Co-Chair David Bottoms. Dignitaries in attendance include Marietta Mayor Steve “Thunder” Tumlin, Cobb Chamber of Commerce CEO Sharon Mason, and former Head of School Dr. David Tilley.
Prior to the event kickoff, guests were offered a selection of coffee from the Roost coffee bar. The Roost is a cafe run entirely by the high school entrepreneurship classes. The class and cafe is a result of student fireside chat “dreaming” sessions durin gthe building’s planning phase. Senior Zachary Fors and fellow classmates drafted a business plan, borrowed funds from the high school administration, and launched the coffee shop in the fall of 2019, with a permanent home planned in the commons area of the new Murray Innovation Center. Because of this student-led venture, MPCS has added and refined course programming in personal finance, business management, marketing, and entrepreneurship, with the coffee shop already turning a profit.
After a welcome from Dr. Wiens and Mr. Ethridge, Mr. Bottoms thanked the 276 donors who contributed $12.4 million to pay for the new building in full, including the inception of the school’s first-ever endowment fund. Mrs. Rusk then shared specific features of the new building. The Murray Innovation Center will include additional classroom and lab space, as well as a collegiate-style technology -enhanced classroom, a maker space, a fabrication lab, a state-of-the-art digital lab, and a permanent home for the State-championship-winning Eagle Robotics teams.
In an especially moving moment, middle school students paraded onto the building site, lining to form the market perimeter footprint of the Murray Innovation Center building as a visual representation of the innovative space to cannons to the enthusiastic applause of those in attendance.
MPCS looks forward to welcoming students into the Murray Innovation Center during the second semester of the 2021-2022 academic year. To learn more about the new Murray Innovation Center and how Mount Paran Christian School is preparing tomorrow’s servant-leaders, today, visit mtparanschool.com/imagine-tomorrow.
