About 600 students will walk through the doors next month to begin their 2012-2013 school year in the county’s newest school. But faculty, staff and community members were given the chance Tuesday to tour P.B. Ritch Middle School before the facility opens Aug. 1 for its inaugural school year.

The school, located on Old Country Trail in Dallas, is named after longtime educator Paul Brown Ritch, whose family was on hand Tuesday to tour the new facility.

The new school bears his name to carry on the legacy of the original P.B. Ritch School in Hiram, which opened in 1985 and most recently operated as an elementary school up until this May. Paulding County School Board members in January voted to close the site due to a significant need for repairs and renovations to keep the school operational; the board that month also unanimously voted to move the school’s name to the middle school.

See highlights of officials’ comments, the ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the facility in the attached video.

The middle school, which will be the district’s ninth, has the capacity for 900 students. Those set to attend the school were put there by a redistricting plan approved earlier this year; the plan faced opposition from some parents and drew to the school board’s Feb. 14 meeting a sizable crowd of opponents—some of whom responded verbally when the board gave their vote of approval.