After 12 years, Mount Paran Christian School (MPCS), the largest private Christian school in Cobb County, is pleased to announce the conclusion of its $30 million-plus capital campaign. The third and final phase of the Imagine Tomorrow Capital Campaign, whose goal was to raise $12 million, is now fully-funded. The Murray Innovation Center is an $11 million high school expansion that doubles the size of the high school and includes innovative learning space. The funds raised also include a $1 million building maintenance endowment.
Campaign Co-Chair David Bottoms says, “The degree to which the MPCS community has rallied in support of the campaign has been overwhelmingly encouraging. The fact that the Murray Innovation Center will be built debt-free is a testament to the MPCS community’s generosity and its uncompromising commitment to ensure that MPCS students continue to be equipped with the resources to identify and make the most of their God-given talents.”
Renowned education architect Danish Kurani was hired to partner with Mount Paran Christian School to design the innovative new space. Mr. Kurani’s work in the field of transformative learning spaces includes design partnerships with institutions such as Khan Academy, Howard University, Google, and Harvard University.
MURRAY INNOVATION CENTER
Since MPCS moved to its current location 16 years ago, the high school has experienced tremendous growth in enrollment – 138 students in 2003, 430 students in 2019 – all while housed primarily in Dozier Hall, which was designed to accommodate just 250 students. The space demands created by increased enrollment and a shifting curricular emphasis urgently requires
a state-of-the-art innovation center addition, providing needed facilities for bright, committed, and God-honoring students.
Beyond the need for more physical space, MPCS also recognizes that the way students learn and what they need to learn is changing. To accommodate the changes in 21st-century education, Mount Paran Christian School has planned for the high school expansion to be an innovation center, with radical spaces to learn, test, collaborate, grow, and think outside the box.
After an extensive period of planning – with design input from faculty, staff, and students – the new Murray Innovation Center, named for Stuart and Eulene Murray, will include spaces such as additional STEAM classrooms, engineering and PLTW® course rooms, art and graphic design studios, maker space with materials, a robotics construction area and fabrication lab, ideation zones and concepts gallery, digital theatre environments, and student collaboration areas with chat and share rooms. The addition of the Murray Innovation Center will allow for renovations to the current Dozier Hall, as well as a dedicated space for the Directed Studies program, which serves students with learning challenges, helping them develop comprehensive strategies and problem-solving skills. In all, the cutting-edge, flexible space and equipment will catalyze and support creative, project-based intellectual inquiry and interdisciplinary instruction.
DONOR CELEBRATION AND GROUNDBREAKING
On November 12, major donors to the Imagine Tomorrow campaign were the first to learn that the campaign had reached its completion and was now fully-funded. Mount Paran Christian School plans to break ground on the Murray Innovation Center in Spring 2020, with doors opening for the 2021-2022 academic year.
“We need to ensure students grasp the foundational components of a liberal arts education, understand how to read and analyze, write well, and critique,” says Head of School Tim Wiens, Ed.D. “The innovative, 21 st -century world has changed since I was in school and even since I began teaching. Together, these two approaches to education can inform us all of what it means to prepare students, not just for the world of work, but to flourish. We have a great opportunity at MPCS to do things others may not
or cannot do. Our mission is that students honor God, love others, and walk in Truth. As such, our education is meant to facilitate those long-term objectives.”
About Mount Paran Christian School
Mount Paran Christian School is a non-denominational, college-preparatory school for students in preschool age three through grade 12. MPCS is committed to excellence in academics, award-winning arts, and championship athletics, all within a Christian environment with small class sizes. Founded in 1976, MPCS is fully accredited (SAIS/AdvancED) and located near Kennesaw Mountain on a 68-acre collegiate-like campus. Providing academic excellence in a Christ-centered environment, MPCS unites with home and church to prepare servant-leaders to honor God, love others, and walk in Truth. For more information about the Imagine Tomorrow Capital Campaign, visit https://www.mtparanschool.com/imagine-tomorrow.
