Nashville's Teacher Training and Development Center Officially Opens!

The 6.1 million Martin Professional Development Center, which is at the completely refurbished historic Eakin Elementary building officially opened this week. This is a new state-of-the-art training facility for our teachers that came to fruition with a great public private partnership in raising money. It's a 44,000-square-foot building complete with wireless Internet access, a meeting hall that can accommodate 500 guests, 10 training classrooms, a technology wing and a 150-seat café where teachers-in-training can stop for lunch. Mayor Karl Dean and Metro Nashville Public Schools interim Director Chris Henson received the key. Former School Board Member and Nashville Alliance Executive Director Pam Garrett, Councilman Keith Durbin, Parker Toler, Duane Dominy, former councilman Leo Waters, School Board members Gracie Porter, Steve Glover, David Fox, Mark North, JoAnn Brannon, myself, other public officials and MNEA leadership helped dedicate the center. Our teachers will now have a first class training center for all professional development/training which will help every child in our city. Congratulations to all of our teachers!