It is a day Chris Reaves has been waiting on a long time as the head of the drama department at Cedartown High School. He’s seen many plans and concepts for a theater to be built at the school – along with a new band room and much-needed classroom space for artists – but time after time, the project came up just short.

On Monday, Reaves took the controls of new light boards and provided the young actors and actresses under his instruction the opportunity to show off on their brand new stage after the years of waiting.

Students performed their Competition One Act play titled “The Diviners” by Jim Leonard Jr., for the audience during a ceremony on Monday officially opening the Fine Arts wing of Cedartown High School, the centerpiece of which is the 500-seat theater that Reeves finally got to see come to fruition, and gives him a place to showcase the talents of youth who have yet to take center stage.

“I want to express as best as I can what it is like to sit inside a dream that you’ve had for 24 years, for most of your life. There aren’t words,” Reaves said. “Just know that my heart is so full right now.”

Reaves and Superintendent Laurie Atkins both took to the stage before the One-Act performance to thank many in the audience for their help to make the facility possible such as the W.D. Trippe Foundation that helped with the funding, contractors who brought it all together and the community as a whole for approving and spending their dollars locally to fund the Education-only Special Purpose, Local Option Sales Tax fund that made this and other construction efforts possible.

“When we first started our SPLOST campaign, this was one of our primary anchor targets and we wanted to make sure on the Cedartown side that we had a beautiful Fine Arts facility, and in Rockmart the agricultural side,” Atkins said. “This has just gone beyond our expectations, it is a beautiful facility that allows us to have the drama productions, the band concerts and to display the beautiful artwork from our talented students.”

Reaves added that he couldn’t wait to see what his students will be able to do with their new space. Previously, they were relegated to rehearsing within the confines of the cafeteria when it wasn’t in use during the day.

“Some of the things I can do in this place I only thought I’d be able to do outside in a professional theater,” he said. “It is truly more magnificent than anything I could imagine.”

Cedartown’s new Fine Arts wing that administrators from the school and across Polk School District gathered to cut the ribbon at on Monday marked just the latest improvement, and cost $7.1 million by the time everything was said and done. It is one of the many projects in years past handled by R.K. Redding Construction.

Alongside the new theater – the crown jewel of the project – the Cedartown High School band got a new room to gather and play together as well, and a grand entryway that ties the facility to the school. Alongside that are new changing rooms and green rooms for boys and girls, and classroom space. Elevators were even installed to make it easier to transport equipment, props, and instruments from areas around the facility and outside for the marching band for home football games. There’s also a gallery space overlooking Cedartown Memorial Stadium that provides a place to hang student artwork in shows as well.

It is the latest addition to the high school that included the new Polk County College and Career Academy campus opened officially in August 2017.

Any further improvements systemwide not already part of the current SPLOST will have to be considered for the next extension down the road, Atkins said.

“We have lots of things on the agenda, hopefully we’ll be coming to the public again in November 2021 for a continuation of the SPLOST so we can do other buildings like this throughout the county,” she said. “Possibly extensions on some of our schools as we get ready for growth in our Elementary schools.”