Mike Gannon, left, Pace Academy upper school headmaster, and academy headmaster Fred Assaf go over plans for the new upper school and library.
Photo by Nathan Self
Photo by Nathan Self
“We’re about 70 percent of the way to our goal,” said Fred Assaf, head of school.
The capital campaign to build the Arthur M. Blank Family Upper School was launched at the start of the school year, and there has been “broad participation from parents and alumnae,” Assaf said, and “faculty and staff have already given 100 percent.”
Assaf said there is a “tremendous need” for an updated upper school.
“At the end of the day, school is about people, not about a building, but we need a better workplace for our people,” he said. “Our facility we currently have is just aged out. … It was built in 1960 and does not acaccommodate a modern high school.”
In early 2010, Pace invited Buckhead-based Collins Cooper Carusi Architects Inc. to partake in an upper school design competition, and principal architect Sandy Cooper — a 1979 Pace graduate — took on the project.
“The initial idea that we presented at that time has been a constant guiding design concept as the more detailed design process unfolded,” Copper said. “Overall, we have spent two-plus years designing the new upper school and gardens.”
Although the new building will be 75,000 square feet, nearly double the existing school’s 40,000 square feet, Assaf said there are no plans to increase enrollment.
Construction will begin in May, and doors of the new school are set to open for the 2014-15 school year.
Tuition at the private, K-12 school ranges from $19,600 to $22,570 per year.
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Did you see how high the tuition is? Guess what your tuition is paying for? Better teachers? Or a 32 million dollar school?
Shameful.
Tuition is in line with other private schools in the area. Capital campaigns pay for buildings-get a clue.