Nevada District Approves New Elementary School Construction

Officials from the Nye Country School District recently approved the construction of a new, $15.2-million elementary school in Tonopah, Nev. The 26,000-square-foot space will replace the existing elementary school and move to a 5.5-acre site near the city’s high school.

Local news reports that the move will effectively lead to a centralized academic area for students ages PreK–12 in the town of Tonopah. Tonopah Elementary School currently has an enrollment of 163 students.

The district is partnering with the Las Vegas-based design firm Knit on the new Tonopah Elementary School’s design. “We had two public information meetings where we solicited input from the community,” said Mark McGinty, principal at Knit. These meetings, as well as an online poll conducted by the district, revealed majority support for relocating the school to a new facility. “They want a new school,” he said.

Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in January 2023 and is expected to last about 12 months. McGinty did comment that the integrative design of the two schools will account for the increased traffic flow and will include separate drop-off lanes for elementary and high school students. There will be another dedicated spot for school bus pickup and drop-off.

“Keeping the buses, parents and students separated is the No. 1 goal,” he said.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Montclair State University Starts Construction on $120M STEM Building

    Montclair State University in Montclair, N.J., recently broke ground on a new $120-million Interdisciplinary Science Building, according to university news. The university partnered with HoK Architects for the project’s design, and it’s scheduled to open in time for the 2028–29 academic year.

  • Planning with Clarity: Using AI to Make Better Campus Decisions, Not Just Better Designs

    Higher education leaders are being asked to make increasingly high-stakes decisions about campus facilities amid greater uncertainty than ever before. Social and economic pressures, shifting enrollment, and evolving learning models compete with growing deferred maintenance needs to strain even the most robust infrastructure budgets.

  • DLR Group Hires Three for Higher Education Practice

    Integrated design firm DLR Group recently announced that it has brought three new hires on board to help shape its higher education practice in California and the northeast, according to a press release.

  • Agricultural Sciences Complex

    Agricultural Sciences Complex

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The College of Western Idaho's Agricultural Sciences Complex has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Grand Prize award in the category of New Construction.