CHRISTINA EICHELKRAUT / PVT Superintendent Rob Roberts holds up a thank you card from the kindergarten class at Round Mountain Elementary School while Chairman Dennis Keating shows off the house-shaped tissue box that was a gift from the house. Because the board approved funding for teacher housing in the rural area, the class gets to keep their teacher. Advertisement

AMARGOSA VALLEY -- Travel was the order of the day for the Nye County School Board of Trustees last Thursday when the board made its way up to Amargosa to hold its regular meeting.

The new location was part of an ongoing effort to incorporate all the schools in Nevada's largest county in the school board process.

Future meetings will be held in Beatty and Tonopah.

The board is not the only entity interested in travel, however, as at the meeting it approved funding for several field trips for some lucky Nye County students. Funding for educational travel for students is provided by $50,000 allocated to the school district by the Nye County Board of County Commissioners from Payment Equal to Taxes (PETT) funds.

The school board may provide up to $1,000 per student for approved tuition and books for a planned activity.

With approximately $30,000 already sitting in the piggy bank from last year, and this fiscal year's allocation arriving this week, the school board put the money to use by approving the following field trips:

A group of 14 Tonopah and Gabbs High School students will be traveling up to Edwards Air Force Base in Mojave, Calif., where the students will participate in a whole host of exciting and educational activities.

They will take a V.I.P. tour of the base as well as the connecting National Aeronautics and Space Association (NASA) research facility.

Highlights of the trip will include students meeting the makers of the first private spacecraft that has ever flown into outer space, "Spaceship One," and see its launch vehicle, "White Knight."

A dinner hosted by adults and students from northern Nye County will also include graduates of the Air Force Academy. Mike Peterson, the youngest pilot in the history of TWA (and perhaps more notable to Nevadans, the personal pilot of Howard Hughes) will also be recognized.

The board unanimously approved funding of $3,596.

Thirty-five students from Rosemary Clarke Middle School will also be packing their bags for an action-packed trip to Washington, D.C.

The students will experience life as it was for Civil War soldiers for 24 hours when they participate in a living history Civil War camp.

In addition, the kids will pay a visit to the homes of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, the Smithsonian Museum, the Holocaust Museum, and a naval shipyard.

Students will also get to see the federal government in action when they sit in on U.S. Senate proceedings, meet Nevada representatives and tour the U.S. Capitol.

The board unanimously approved funding up to $1,000 per student, which will subsidize the tuition fee of $1,594 per student.

Meanwhile, four Round Mountain High School volleyball players will be taking a trip south of the Equator when they participate in the 2007 Down Under International Games on the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia.

The students were selected to represent Nevada by International Sports Specialists Inc.

They will spend seven days in Australia and then three to four days in Hawaii, where they will explore Oahu and Waikiki Beach.

As per policy, the board approved up to $1,000 per student for funding.