NISD adds new center to meet growth From the cover
The growth
What’s happening?
Northwest ISD pre-K enrollment over last 5 years
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.
217.11% enrollment growth
339
2020-21
449
2021-22
565
2022-23
903
2023-24
1,075
2024-25
Northwest ISD enrollment over the last 5 years
26.16% enrollment growth
25,383
2020-21
27,583
2021-22
29,248
2022-23
30,801
2023-24
32,022
2024-25
SOURCE: ZONDA EDUCATION/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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.”
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
“We wanted to create experiential learning opportunities, but lead with play-based learning so that students are
totally hands-on.” RACHEL LAWSON, NISD EARLY LITERACY AND CHILDHOOD COORDINATOR
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