HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Ron and Charlotte Floyd take a tour of the new elementary school name after them Monday, June 16, and are impressed with what they see. HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT The new Ron and Charlotte Floyd Elementary School, set to open its doors to 680 students this September, is in the final stages of construction. The school is located at 6181 Jane Avenue. Advertisement

Ron and Charlotte Floyd kept smiling as they toured the brand-new elementary school named after them.

"It's wonderful," Charlotte said. "I went down and looked at drawings but they didn't tell me about all of this stuff," she added, referring to the many technological advantages the school will offer its 680 incoming students.

Ron and Charlotte were joined on their tour by their son and School Board member Mike Floyd and his wife Deanna, a teacher at Manse Elementary.

The new elementary school is proof academic facilities have changed a lot in the past decade.

Remember when teachers or students would cart a projector or television down the hall and into the classroom to show an educational video?

Those days are long gone at Floyd Elementary, where each classroom includes a multi-purpose projector that can show everything from DVDs to television shows right on the room's two whiteboards. Teachers can even write on their screen and have that displayed for the whole class, too.

Sitting in the back of the room won't be a viable excuse for students not paying attention in class, either, given the built-in speakers in the roof that enhance sound.

In addition, each classroom will have three computers (including the teacher's) but will have the capability to hook up to 11.

Not to mention the computer lab, housed off the multimedia center (which some of us used to call a library).

"What's nice about this is that one person can sit here and see everyone in the room," Dave Wonderly, project manager, said about the strategically-placed circulation desk.

That's just one example of how school safety measures have evolved, however.

Floyd will be a closed campus, meaning the front of the school is designed to usher visitors into the spacious administration office before giving anyone access to the student wings, which will remain closed.

In addition, all the entrances are equipped with surveillance cameras that incorporate computer logic.

"If a window gets broken, the cameras all focus on that area," Wonderly explained. "They 'think' about where the person would go next and follow them."

The students will be physically separated by grade level. Kindergarteners, first through fourth-graders, and fifth graders all have their own wing of the school with its own color scheme.

Kindergarteners also will have their own, fenced-off playground, which is one of three.

Assemblies and lunch will be offered in a large multipurpose room equipped with a full-service kitchen and a stage.

The stage has an overhead movie screen that slides down from the ceiling for school movies.

And just to ensure visitors and students receive a warm welcome to the campus, the school's main sign was designed with previously conducted sun studies in mind.

In the late afternoon, the sun will cast a shadow of the school's name on the ground.

The icing on the cake for the Nye County School District is the entire project's being completed under budget.