The students were visiting Golden Oak Elementary School, the newest school in the Sulphur Springs School District, which will open this fall in Canyon Country with around 330 students.

The new campus has two, two-story classroom buildings with interior hallways, a library, computer lab, playgrounds and a multipurpose room, where the school's future students met for an assembly to learn what it will be like to be the Golden Oak Owls.

"We're going to start out small, so you're going to know everybody and everybody is going to know you," Principal Gail Abril told the students. "You're going to have lots of friends."

The school, located at the end of Via Princessa, is built to hold 510 students, with the ability to add three portable buildings. Valley View fifth-grader Emily Abbate is looking forward to becoming a member of Golden Oak's first graduating class next year.

"I'm really excited to come here with all the new stuff," Emily said.

"I'll miss Valley View, because I've been there since kindergarten, but it will be cool to have Mrs. Abril as my principal again."

Abril spent several years as principal of Valley View before transferring to Golden Oak, and was a familiar face to many of the students visiting the school Tuesday.

Outdoor amenities at the school include full-size and kindergarten playgrounds, volleyball and basketball courts, a running track and a regulation baseball field. Fair Oaks Ranch fifth-grader Ryan Pfenning is looking forward to playing on the baseball field and to planting an oak tree on campus with the other new sixth graders next year.

"We'll be able to plant the oak tree - that's going to be very cool," Ryan said.