Ron Clark Academy on Wednesday broke ground on the Ryan Marshall Performing Arts Center, a 42,000-square-foot multipurpose facility.
It will feature an auditorium, grand rotunda, and multiple classrooms on the school’s campus, at 228 Margaret Street SE.
Construction of the center is expected to finish in spring 2020.
“With the addition of the center, named in honor of the late Ron Clark Academy alumnus from the class of 2013, Ryan Marshall, the school will be able to increase the capacity for its educator training program, explore additional opportunities for customized workshops, and train an estimated 150,000 educators over the next 10 years,” according to a press release Thursday.
Co-founders Ron Clark and Kim Bearden, who serves as the executive director, were joined by current students, alumni, board members, and supporters of the school during the groundbreaking May 22.
“We are so proud that the community of Atlanta has come together to help us build a state of the art facility that will enable us to provide a training experience for educators like none other in the world,” Clark said at the event.
“The facility we are building is going to be simply jaw-dropping, but the true beauty of it will be that we will be able to finally meet the demand of educators from around the world who want to visit [Ron Clark Academy] to learn about our methods and techniques to help all children succeed.”
The Academy, a nonprofit school well known for its professional development program, The RCA Experience, which has trained approximately 60,000 teachers to date since the school’s inception in 2007.
