Reproduced with permission from Green Hills News — Page 14 — January 26, 2006

Franklin Road Academy breaks ground on new facilities, quad

By Erin O'Brien

Staff Writer

Amidst a sea of K-12 students sporting plastic yellow hardhats, a major ground breaking took place on the campus of Franklin Road Academy last week.

The ceremony on January 20 marked the official start of a $12 million expansion project that Head of School Dr. Sissy Wade said will help to make the campus a place where students want to be, even when classes aren't going on.

“I can see kids hanging out, using their computers, chatting, throwing frisbees,” said Wade. “These facilities are for them.”

The new facilities Wade referred to include a 26,300-square-foot math and science building and a 14,500-square-foot library and media center. Both buildings will line opposite ends of a new quadrangle containing gathering spaces, walkways and landscaping.

Five math classrooms and five state-of-the-art science laboratories equipped for live and virtual lab experiences will comprise the new math and science building, which is scheduled to open in August, in time for the start of the 2006-2007 school year.

The library and media Center, with a front porch facing Franklin Road, will serve as home to a wireless media center with numerous computers and data ports; an expanded book selection and additional technology media; a lobby with breakout rooms for study, research and meetings; and a help desk for students' technology needs.

Expected to open in October, this facility also will be the basis for supporting the campus' Tablet PC Program, which provides every high school student with a personal computer. The machines offer the full capabilities of a traditional laptop along with inking technologies, which allow students to record notes on their laptops by writing on a special screen.

Right now, Franklin Road Academy is the only school in Tennessee with a Tablet PC Program. In 2006-2007, the school hopes to equip every seventh- and eighth-grader with a tablet PC as well.

Along the southern edge of the quad, the former First Christian Church - which the school purchased for $3 [correction: $6] million - will be refurbished to house foreign language classrooms, administrative offices, a gym and space for student assemblies.

Additional classrooms for middle school instruction also will be constructed with funds from the Investing in Tomorrow's Leaders campaign which, according to Carleen Matthews, the school's director of communications, already has raised more than $11 million.

The expansion also will involve transforming the existing Upper School building at the quad's north end into an athletics and humanities building.

Once the project is completed, the campus of Franklin Road Academy will total 55 acres.

The whole construction project “is really in support of our curriculum and the tablet technology program,” said Matthews.

“I'm excited,” said Wade. Franklin Road Academy “is all about relationships and opportunities, and you're going to sec that happening in these buildings.”

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