Holy Innocents' Opens New STEM Building

Eight years after an idea for a new campus flagship building was conceived, Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School’s state-of-the-art Math, Science and Commons Building was formally opened on Aug. 21.

Friday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony was more than the dedication of a new high-tech STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) building, however, said Board of Trustees Chair Bruce Ford. “I see great things here, much more than brick, stone and mortar. The development of this new building is a beginning that serves to ask, ‘What’s next, what now, and what else?’”

The Rev. Michael Sullivan, rector of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church, said the new building was also the newest symbol of Holy Innocents’ “deep and abiding responsibility to care for children.”

The three-story, 64,000-square-foot building, designed by Atlanta’s Collins Cooper Carusi Architects, Inc., and built by Hodges and Hicks General Contractors, has a cutting- edge media suite with broadcast studio, robotics lab, state-of-the-art science labs, and a dining hall to seat 500,

Head of School Paul Barton cited the building’s abundance of natural light, space, flexibility for hands-on learning, and high-energy atmosphere. “What a special day this is for our whole community—a day when we remember our past as well as celebrate our present, and honor our future.”

A total of 1,375 students are enrolled in the school this year—students ages 3 through 12th grade—including a record-setting 128 seniors.

After Friday’s ribbon-cutting, students from across campus gathered in the Main Gym for the annual All-School Assembly to hear some words from former Holy Innocents’ basketball standout Emanuel Mathis, a 1998 graduate and an inaugural member of the school’s Athletics Wall of Fame. Mathis, now the director of math and student support services at KIPP STRIVE Academy in Atlanta, spoke about how HIES impacted his own personal journey.

“You have no idea what this building meant to me,” Mathis said. “In this building, I dreamed and dreamed.”

Mathis recalled how afraid he had been to come to Holy Innocents’ as a new student. “I didn’t know anyone, wasn’t used to this culture, and I was completely terrified of what I was doing.”

Making the decision to attend HIES, however, was an important step on a journey that would take Mathis to Florida State University, on to a position as manager of basketball development for the Atlanta Hawks, and then to KIPP.

“We don’t always know what our destinations are going to be,” Mathis said, encouraging students to trust the journey. “Every milestone is the start of something new. There really is no one destination.“Just keep believing, dreaming, learning from your failures and your successes—and smiling.”

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