GREENSBORO, N.C. — From just a few dirt piles and equipment to walls up and a design in place, the Foust Gaming & Robotics Elementary School is moving along.
Crews are hard at work to get the school ready for students come January 2025.
The designer of this school is Vincent Spencer. He is the Associate Senior Project Manager of Gensler.
"This is the first gaming and robotics magnet elementary school that we know of in the nation," said Spencer. "You're going to see programming, drone flying, and content creation."
Gensler is the company that has been contracted by Guilford County Schools to design this one-of-a-kind school.
"We want that electricity, we want that vibrancy, and we want that energy to come down these hallways," Spencer said.
Designing this school and being a leader in this project is a moment that has come full circle for Spencer.
He was born and raised in Greensboro, came up through Guilford County Schools and now he is backing into his home district to build a school that is just up the street from where he played basketball with his brother growing up.
"It's surreal to put it in the plainest words, and I would not have imagined that I would have this opportunity within my career to build something and be a part of the design and such an incredible facility that is a one-of-a-kind in the nation right now, so I'm just completely ecstatic about the whole opportunity," he said.
Spencer said the standard size for building an elementary school is 12 acres, but this new school is only on 8 acres.
This prompted the idea to make the school design and layout like a circuit board, one like the students will possibly learn to make.
"These circuit boards, they all have to be compact, and they all have to function in various ways and provide cutting-edge technology, which is what we enjoy every day on our cell phones and tablets," he said.
Not only is the layout of the school unique, but there will be an outdoor learning space within the school, a place to launch drones, and innovation gathering points between classrooms.
It's this innovation that Foust Elementary Principal Kendrick Alston said he and his staff are ready for.
"No other school in the country has this and for our staff that are coming from a building that was 50-60 years old, and to now a brand new space, I'm very excited for this opportunity and for our community, to really think about, again, what teaching and learning is going to look like," said Alston.
Alston said teachers and staff are going through training to learn exactly how to teach the new curriculum.
He said the school will also become a hub for the community, giving people the chance to get training on gaming and robotics.
While it's nearly a year out from completion, both Alston and Spencer said they are ready to see the space come to life and be filled with energetic elementary school students.
"To see where we started this past summer, and where we're at now, I mean, this just brings chills to my body to see how far things have come and to really think about this innovative space that we are getting ready to walk into with our students, just how big this is going to be for our community, we're over the moon," said Alston. "We're ecstatic to really walk into this new space and think about what teaching and learning is really going to transform into this new space."
According to the district, construction has been delayed on this school from Fall 2024 to January 2025.
Also, this is a magnet school so students do have to apply to get into the school.