Me and my best friend used to play this on her computer in middle school and we’d always choose random boy students and change their names to that of our current crush, and then proceed to follow said student around the school the next hour or so.
Also the whimsy of the classroom designs in the game has yet to be matched by anything else.

on a quest to play this again without infecting my laptop with a virus

Maybe not quite as fun as RCT2 back in the day, but I remember getting much more of a grasp on School Tycoon's mechanics and making some real progress from the ground up. A really fun management sim with a delightful cartoonish aesthetic.

Nostalgia is a hell of a thing

I am actively trying to find this game again either on disc or through ANY other means - you do not understand this is the BEST tycoon game to play while high.