Crowley ISD will not name its next elementary school after a prominent Tarrant County figure.
After considering names such as Opal Lee Elementary School and Vivian J. Lincoln Elementary School, trustees ultimately decided on the name Crowley Montessori Academy during a board meeting March 7.
Enrollment in Crowley Montessori Academy, which will open for the 2024-25 school year and will house the district’s Montessori program, is available for all kindergarten through fifth grade students within the district, though parents have to apply for their children to be admitted.
Students at Crowley ISD’s current Crowley Montessori Academy have been housed inside a wing in the district’s Mary Harris Elementary School since the academy’s opening in August 2022.
“We are all so excited to be moved to our own building next year,” Crowley Montessori Academy Parent Teacher Organization president Maggie Fieseler said.
In 2022-23, the academy enrolled 163 students. Fieseler estimated enrollment is now closer to 220 students.
Students at the makeshift school have had trouble finding places to sit, navigating clogged hallways and accessing adequate space for student testing, she said.
“We have outgrown the space,” Fieseler said. “In a Montessori school, keeping the little ones quiet is always interesting.”
When Crowley Montessori Academy opens, it will have a capacity of 484 students. Almost every student at the academy’s makeshift campus will move to the new school, Fieseler said.
Construction for the school was funded through a $416 million bond package passed by Crowley ISD voters in 2007. Back when the bond was passed, the district had no plans to make the school a Montessori campus.
The Montessori method of teaching differs from other elementary schools in that it focuses on individual and small-group learning, using teachers as guides. Open space and tables are common in a Montessori classroom instead of individual desks.
Students may sit on the floor to do their work, for example.
Features in the new school include collaborative learning and study spaces throughout the campus and an indoor amphitheater for presentations and group learning, according to the district. Teachers will be Montessori-certified.
The new $33.3 million elementary school sits inside the 565-acre Karis housing community in the city of Crowley, between Interstate 35W and Chisholm Trail Parkway.
While Mary Harris Elementary is located a little more than 5 miles from the development, parents aren’t worried about the distance, Fieseler said.
Crowley ISD does not provide transportation to and from Crowley Montessori School.
“We already transport from across the district. We apply to the school knowing that we’re responsible for that,” she said. “Students are already spread out across the district.”
Fieseler expects this to remain the same. Student enrollment should be completely unrelated to the Karis housing development, Fieseler said.
Students at the district’s current Crowley Montessori Academy already know they will be learning on the new campus next school year. While applications have closed for other students across the district, families who applied should know if their students will be going to the new campus in the next few months.
Applications for the 2025-26 school year will open later this year.
Fieseler is excited her first grader at the academy will have his own campus next year, with ample space to do his work.
Her son, on the other hand, is just excited about the new playground, she said.
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @MatthewSgroi1 on X. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.