More than 500 Rock Island Academy students got to celebrate a late start to their school day Thursday morning, and donned Russell Construction hats during a ceremonial groundbreaking May 28 for a $7.9-million building expansion and renovation, at 930 14th St.
The project (with Davenport-based Russell as general contractor, to be complete by early August 2027) includes construction of a 12,880-square-foot, two-story building addition designed to expand the school’s instructional capacity.
The addition will include six standard classrooms, six English Language (EL)/Resource rooms, and two flexible learning spaces to support collaborative and multipurpose instructional activities. Supporting spaces will include electrical rooms, a dedicated IT server area, janitorial facilities, and general storage areas to ensure efficient building operations.
The project (designed by IDG Architects) also includes upgrades to the existing building, consisting of a 1,599-square-foot Media Center renovation, a complete hardware upgrade to all doors, and improvements to the existing interior courtyard and playground areas. These upgrades will modernize learning environments, improve safety and accessibility, and enhance outdoor recreational and gathering spaces.
Additional work will include repairs to the existing exterior masonry and code compliance upgrades to address identified deficiencies within the facility. These improvements will enhance the building’s durability, safety, and overall performance while bringing the existing structure into compliance with applicable codes.
“This is awesome,” Rock Island Academy Principal Thomas Ryan said at the ceremony, crediting Rock Island-Milan School District Superintendent Dr. Sharon Williams. “And this is what it's for. Not only our students, but our community. Can't thank enough people, Dr. Williams, the school board and the community. We talk about a village, it takes a village. But the village has got to show up. And the village is showing up. This is a much needed project.
"I think everybody agrees on that. We are doing awesome things, things in crowded space. We keep our elbows tucked, but we do what we need to do," he said. "Kids are growing, kids are getting a quality education and now they're going to have the room to breathe.”
“We knew that there was a need because of the growing student population here at Rock Island Academy, also at Eugene Field Elementary School, that we needed to add on some classroom space,” Dr. Williams said. "So these are the two biggest projects that are going on right now in terms of the facilities management plan.”
“It's absolutely about the kids,” she said. “As you can see today, they're super excited about learning one, but also being a part of the process. As you can imagine, being in a crowded space is not the way we want our scholars to learn."
"But also our staff members who are sometimes doubled up in classrooms and don't have classroom spaces of their own. So we're very happy that our board of education is very dedicated to making sure that our spaces are equitable and new and shiny for our scholars.”
Rock Island Academy (which serves Pre-K through 6th grades) was originally built in the 1960s, and has been added on twice, the last time 20 years ago, Williams said.
“It’s very much needed,” she said of the new project. “As you can imagine, we have many immigrant families that move into this area. So we have a large population of multilingual learners and that is a part of the growth that's happening here at Rock Island Academy.”
“Many classrooms are crowded. We have taken over the library space to make those into classrooms,” the superintendent said, noting the library has been in the basement, and a new one is part of the project. "And we feel very important that it's very important to have a library, especially in elementary school, so that scholars can learn to love reading and have a space to choose books that they choose to read.
"Over time, again, we have grown in our multilingual population and so we have teachers who don't have their own classroom space," Williams said. "And this is important for those small group learning environments for students who are multilingual learners. So this is definitely a space that's needed in this school and will have a long-term impact on the educational outcomes for our scholars.”
“Our staff does an awesome job here,” Ryan (school principal for seven years), said of the 86 employees in the building. “We have some staff that are not in the best place to provide an education, but they're doing a tremendous job going above and beyond."
A lot of the student growth (now at 520) has come from immigrant families, he noted.
“Highly diverse building. About a third of our population are immigrant family students. And awesome kids, awesome families,” Ryan said. That proves that Rock Island and the Quad Cities are a welcoming area, he said.
“Our families know that they can get what they need, which is crucial. You got to have what you need first and the education is as good as it gets anywhere,” Ryan noted. “So when you get what you need, you're getting a high-quality education. I don't think you can ask for more. Great support from the city as well.”
Caitlin Russell, president of Russell Construction, said during the ceremony:
“The mission of Russell Construction is to build great people, relationships and communities. And rarely do we have the opportunity to really impact 500 people,” she said. “And so it's just truly amazing and to give these students the opportunity to see this building get started, constructed and see the potential in the trades and the potential of being a team member at Russell someday. I'm guessing out of 500, we have at least one Russell team member someday.
"So I want to emphasize the importance of the opportunity to see the growth and not just the community, but the students here in exposing them to this project," Russell said. "When I say building great people, relationships and communities, this is the second groundbreaking in Rock Island in seven days for me. And so just the growth in Rock Island and having the impact on this community here and people investing here in Rock Island is truly amazing.”
Russell held a May 21 groundbreaking just a few blocks away for a new $2.7-million Ascentra Credit Union branch, at 600 11th St.
The Rock Island Academy project (which will include some interior work during the 2026-27 school year) will be done by the start of the 2027-28 school year, at the beginning of August 2027.
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