Construction is underway on a new Carrollton City Schools campus that district leaders say is designed from the ground up to meet the needs of littlest learners. Located off Cottage Hill Road, the Carrollton Early Learning Center will serve children ages 3 through kindergarten and is scheduled to open for the 2027–28 school year.
Design built around young children
District officials have described the building as a departure from a traditional elementary school. Instead of a single cafeteria and gym, the center uses a community-centric pod layout made up of six connecting classrooms that share interactive common spaces. The campus’ circular footprint is intended to make wayfinding easier for young children and to enhance safety by simplifying sight lines and movement within the building.
Key elements highlighted by Carrollton City Schools include large windows for natural light and flexible classrooms meant for hands-on exploration. The design emphasizes movement and play as tools for early literacy and social development, an approach the district says is backed by research linking early learning experiences to long-term academic outcomes.
“The Carrollton Early Learning Center sets a foundation for lifelong learning that benefits our entire community,” said Dr. Mark Albertus, superintendent of Carrollton City Schools. “From its inception, this school has been planned to put educational needs at the forefront and create a space that helps students thrive, beginning at 3 years old.”
Play and safety: indoor and out
One of the center’s standout features is a large play footprint. The indoor play area measures 9,500 square feet and sits within a larger, fully enclosed outdoor playground totaling 62,000 square feet. That combination is meant to provide secure space for gross-motor activity, social interaction and unstructured play while keeping children within a single, monitored campus.
| Feature | Size |
|---|---|
| Indoor play area | 9,500 sq ft |
| Enclosed outdoor playground | 62,000 sq ft |
Dr. Ryan McKinnon, cited by the district as the school’s principal, said the spaces were intentionally designed to support communication, collaboration and imagination. “Innovative spaces focused on elevating engagement are designed to target skills development,” the district quoted him as saying.
What families can expect
Carrollton parents and caregivers will see a departure from large, centralized experiences. Instead, the pod approach plans to have students eat meals, collaborate and take part in group activities within their pods — creating a smaller, household-like daily rhythm for preschoolers and kindergartners. The intent is to make transitions gentler and to give adults clearer responsibility for smaller cohorts of children.
- Age range served: 3 years old through kindergarten
- Campus layout: Six connecting classrooms sharing interactive common space
- Opening: 2027–28 school year
For Carrollton families, the new facility represents both an expansion of district services and a renewed emphasis on early childhood education within the community. The district has framed the center as part of a long-term strategy to build early literacy and social skills that set students up for success in later grades.
Construction timelines can shift, and the district has not disclosed enrollment capacity or tuition and fee details for programs yet. Parents planning for preschool or kindergarten in 2027 and beyond should watch for enrollment announcements and open-house dates from Carrollton City Schools as the project progresses.
Locally, the center may change day-to-day routines in neighborhoods near Cottage Hill Road, where traffic patterns, drop-off loops and commuter flows could be altered once the school opens. The district typically works with the city on traffic and safety plans around new campuses; residents should expect public meetings about those logistics as construction proceeds.
Built for the small scale of early learners, the Carrollton Early Learning Center aims to blend safety, play and focused instruction. If the district’s vision holds true, the new building will be less like the big-box schools parents knew as children and more like a series of connected living rooms where toddlers take their first organized steps toward reading and working with others — though with bigger windows, and a lot more rubberized playground surface to catch the spill when a child decides crayons taste interesting.
