Northwest ISD's new Early Childhood Center to meet student growth

Funds from a $2 billion dollar voter-approved bond package will be used to complete construction at Northwest ISD's Dr. David Hicks Early Childhood Center in Fort Worth, with plans to open the center in August 2026.

The center, located off Blue Mound Road between Hillshire Drive and East Bonds Ranch Road, will address a growing student population and serve up to 450 pre-kindergarten students living in NISD.

What's happening?

NISD Superintendent Mark Foust said the centers will go in the north, south, east and west segments of the district. The Hicks Early Childhood Center is considered the southern center.

Rachel Lawson, NISD’s early literacy and childhood coordinator, said half of the 16 classrooms at the Hicks Early Childhood Center will be laid out like a museum for a more interactive learning experience.

She added while this is the first exclusively pre-K building in the district, it will follow the same curriculum taught at other NISD schools. All 13 district elementary schools will continue to have their pre-K programs.

Corrie Hood is an architect with Huckabee, the development company working on the centers. She said there will be themed rooms, like an ocean room and a construction room, to engage students.

“The library is like a campground. We have a [fake] fire and seating all the way around that looks like logs,” she said.

The growth

NISD has more than tripled its pre-kindergarten enrollment in the last five years, according to data from Zonda Education, the district’s demographer. NISD had 339 pre-K students during the 2020-21 school year and 1,075 pre-K students during the 2024-25 school year.

Anthony Tosie, NISD’s executive director of communications, said the district expects more growth in the next 10 years because of active housing developments within the district.

“[The developments] are popping up all around here because we’re only about a third built out,” he said. “We won’t have a problem attracting people to live here because jobs keep coming, the communities keep coming and the buildings keep coming.”

NISD had the second-highest number of new home closings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the first quarter of 2025 with more than 2,900 closings, according to Zonda Education.

NISD board Vice President Lillian Rauch said the early childhood centers will provide the district with an educational foundation as it grows.

“My husband and I have lived in the district for nearly 30 years and we have seen lots of changes through the growth,” she said. “People want to move to this area for many reasons, and a large part of it is because we have such great schools.”

Funding the project

About 60% of voters approved more than $1.6 billion of the 2023 NISD bond package to go toward educational facilities and capital improvements, according to district documents. The bond will cover construction costs for the new facilities.

While the final cost of construction won’t be known until the facilities are completed, the district board last approved a guaranteed maximum price of $36.9 million in November 2024 for building and site work and off-site work with the city of Fort Worth.

Foust said maintenance and operations costs will come from the district’s general budget, which would be approved along with the maintenance and operations of all NISD schools during future budget discussions.

The early childhood centers will also have tuition fees to help with the maintenance and operations budget, which helps pay teachers and staff. Tuition fees will cost the same as other pre-K programs in the district. Tuition-based pre-K costs $700 a month for the 2025-26 school year, according to the district.

“The state provides some funding for students who meet its criteria for state-funded pre-K, and students who do not meet the state’s criteria can receive admission to our pre-K programs through a tuition system,” Foust said.

Looking ahead

Construction for the Hicks Early Childhood Center should be finished by June 2026. The west campus will likely be built near Rhome, northwest of Fort Worth off SH 114 and US 287.

Locations for the north and east centers have not been determined, NISD officials said.

KISD’s Chief of Facilities Sarah Steward said applications for the center would likely open April 2026