Where DFW is opening and closing schools in 2026-27

North Texas may be one of the country’s fastest-growing metropolitan areas, but that does not mean every local school district is growing—or even that every neighborhood within a growing district needs more classroom space.

As students return for the 2026-27 school year, districts across DFW are moving in opposite directions. Northwest, Prosper, Celina and Argyle ISDs are opening new campuses to accommodate development along the region’s northern edge. Fort Worth, Frisco, McKinney and Grapevine-Colleyville ISDs are beginning the year with fewer schools after consolidating or repurposing campuses. Denton ISD is doing both: describing itself as one of the region’s fastest-growing districts while repurposing an elementary school in a part of the district where enrollment patterns have changed.

The campus changes provide a more detailed picture of North Texas growth than the region’s overall population numbers. Families with school-age children are increasingly concentrated around newer housing developments, while some older neighborhoods have fewer children than they did when their schools were built.

Where DFW is opening new schools

The region’s most visible expansion is happening along and west of Interstate 35W, and across the northern portions of Denton and Collin counties.

Northwest ISD: Three new campuses

Northwest ISD opens three schools this fall as it continues to add students in Northlake, Haslet and far north Fort Worth.

• Floyd Barksdale Middle School opens near the Pecan Square development in Northlake. The 1,200-student campus is Northwest ISD’s eighth middle school and is designed to relieve Medlin and Pike middle schools.
• Dr. Leigh Anne Romer Elementary School opens in the Madero community. Its attendance zone provides relief for Carter and Prairie View elementary schools.
• Dr. David Hicks Early Childhood Center becomes the district’s first campus devoted exclusively to prekindergarten students.

Northwest ISD approved new attendance boundaries before the school year to make room for the campuses and balance enrollment at other schools. District officials describe Northwest as one of the fastest-growing school systems in Texas.

Prosper ISD: One opening—and one delay

Prosper ISD opens Jim Bridges Middle School near Custer Road and Frontier Parkway in Celina. The district expects the new campus to begin with roughly 700 students and relieve overcrowding at Jones and Rogers middle schools.

But another Prosper campus tells a more complicated story.

The district originally planned to open Watkins Middle School this fall. Instead, Prosper delayed its student opening until 2027 after home construction and projected enrollment growth slowed. The completed building will temporarily house district support services, allowing Prosper ISD to avoid staffing and operating a full campus before the students are there to fill it.

The decision shows that even one of Texas’ fastest-growing districts is recalibrating its plans as economic conditions and housing patterns change.

Celina and Argyle ISDs: New middle schools

Celina ISD opens Willard Middle School, a three-story, 212,000-square-foot campus near the Cross Creek neighborhood. The school includes new fine-arts, athletics and collaborative-learning spaces.

Argyle ISD opens Scott Gibson Middle School on FM 407. The campus serves seventh and eighth grades and has room for 1,200 students. Argyle expects its enrollment to approach 10,000 students by 2030 and is already planning additional campuses.

None of the new DFW campuses opening this fall is a comprehensive public high school. North Texas is beginning a school year without a new traditional high school for the first time since 2019.

Where North Texas schools are closing

While outer-ring districts add classrooms, several established districts are consolidating schools because of declining enrollment, underused buildings, aging facilities and financial pressure.

Fort Worth ISD: Seven campuses close before the new year

Fort Worth ISD enters 2026-27 without seven campuses that served students during the previous school year:

• International Newcomer Academy
• Edward J. Briscoe Elementary School
• Milton L. Kirkpatrick Elementary School
• Charles E. Nash Elementary School
• Riverside Applied Learning Center
• Western Hills Primary School
• De Zavala Elementary School

Students and programs are moving to neighboring campuses. The applied-learning model from Riverside, for example, transfers to Bonnie Brae Elementary.

The closures are part of a larger Fort Worth ISD plan to retire or consolidate 18 campuses between 2025 and 2029. The district says enrollment has declined significantly during the past five years and points to lower birth rates, increased competition from other educational options, homeschooling and families moving from Fort Worth to surrounding suburbs.

McKinney ISD: Three elementary schools repurposed

McKinney ISD has stopped using Eddins, McNeil and Wolford elementary schools as regular attendance-zone campuses. Students have been reassigned to other schools, while the three buildings remain district property and are being repurposed.

The decision followed a review of enrollment trends, operating costs, building conditions and the number of campuses serving southwest McKinney. District officials say the change is expected to save about $3 million, primarily through lower staffing costs.

Grapevine-Colleyville ISD: Two schools consolidated

Grapevine-Colleyville ISD closes Bransford and Dove elementary schools this fall.

Bransford students are being consolidated into Colleyville and O.C. Taylor elementary schools. Dove students are moving to Cannon and Silver Lake. GCISD says the two consolidations will save approximately $2.7 million annually as the district deals with declining enrollment and a projected budget shortfall.

Frisco ISD: A former growth leader closes a middle school

Perhaps the most symbolic closure is Staley Middle School in Frisco ISD.

Few North Texas districts represent the region’s school-building boom more than Frisco, which repeatedly opened campuses as its population surged. Now the district says enrollment is declining. Frisco reported 62,755 students in October 2025—about 2,800 fewer than it had at the end of the previous school year.

Staley’s aging infrastructure also contributed to the decision. Its students are being rezoned to Griffin, Trent and Hunt middle schools as Frisco begins what officials expect to be a broader, multiyear effort to align its facilities and staffing with a smaller student population.

Denton ISD: Growth does not reach every campus

Denton ISD’s decision to repurpose Paloma Creek Elementary School illustrates how uneven growth can be even within the same district.

Paloma Creek no longer serves students beginning this fall. Its former attendance area has been divided among Bell, Union Park, Sandbrock Ranch and Savannah elementary schools.

Denton still identifies itself as one of North Texas’ fastest-growing districts. The Paloma Creek decision is less a story of districtwide contraction than one of students and development shifting from one part of a large school system to another.

How can DFW grow while schools close?

The apparent contradiction disappears when population growth is viewed neighborhood by neighborhood.

A city or school district can add residents without adding children. Older neighborhoods may have fewer young families as longtime homeowners remain in place. Higher housing costs can make it more difficult for families with children to move into established areas. Charter schools, private schools, homeschooling and other educational choices can also reduce a district’s enrollment even when the surrounding population is stable.

At the same time, master-planned communities in Northlake, Haslet, Celina, Argyle and other outer suburbs are attracting families who immediately create demand for elementary and middle-school seats.

Because Texas funds districts largely according to student attendance, the consequences appear quickly. A half-empty campus still requires administrators, teachers, utilities, maintenance and transportation. Closing a neighborhood school is emotional and often contentious, but districts say consolidating students allows them to redirect money toward classrooms and programs.

The result is a new DFW school map. The region is still growing, but its newest classrooms are moving outward—and some of the districts that defined the last school-building boom are now deciding what to do with space they no longer need.