Young Women's Leadership Academy Moves to Downtown

March 13,2013

Yesterday, by a split vote, the Tarrant County commissioners approved the $4.45 million sale of a the Tarrant County Education Center building at 401 8th Street. The building was purchased by Fort Worth Indepdendent School District and will serve as the new campus of the Young Women's Leadership Academy. The grade 6-9 all-girls school recently began looking for new and larger location for the growing school. The YWLA has outgrown their current campus located along Magnolia Avenue, which opened in August 2010. As a Fort Worth school district "school of choice," enrollment is open to all female students in the district.

Renovation on the new campus is expected to begin immediately with an expected open date of fall 2013. Fort Worth school district trustees last month agreed to pay $5.8 million for renovations to the four-story building once the sale was complete. The funds are left over from a 2007 bond program for capital improvements. The campus will get a "complete makeover of the interior," incorporating sunlight in most classrooms, a first-floor library, second-floor workout facility and labs on the third floor.

Enrollment is expected to expand to about 250 students this year and 375 students in 2013-14, and reach an eventual capacity of 525.