Original Research by School Decision on Haynes Head Start
Haynes Head Start is a prekindergarten program in Wichita Falls, serving children in the year before kindergarten. The program enrolls a substantial number of students, nearly all of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is diverse, with roughly equal shares of Hispanic and Black students, along with smaller numbers of White, multiracial, and Asian students, and a very small number of Native American students.
Because Haynes Head Start serves only prekindergarten, it does not administer state assessments, produce graduation data, or generate proficiency metrics. State testing and college-readiness measures do not apply to this grade level, so comparisons to other school entities in the county are not available. What parents should understand is that Head Start is a federally funded early-childhood program designed around school readiness, social-emotional development, and family engagement rather than academic testing.
Haynes Head Start is part of Wichita Falls Independent School District. The district has undergone significant structural change in recent years. In August 2024, it opened two new high schools, Memorial and Legacy, built to identical specifications and located on separate west and east campuses. This followed closure of the oldest high school in the district and conversion of two others to middle schools, consolidating a system that had included buildings spanning multiple decades. The district is headquartered in a mid-sized North Texas city of about twenty-three thousand to twenty-four thousand people, historically anchored in agriculture and oil and gas but now diversified into healthcare, manufacturing, aerospace supply, and a substantial military and government presence through Sheppard Air Force Base.
Housing in the Wichita Falls area is notably affordable compared to state and national mediums. Median home values are well below both Texas and national benchmarks, making the area one of the more affordable markets in the state. Rental rates sit squarely within the range of monthly mortgage payments for many buyers. The city itself has both older, established residential neighborhoods on the west side, such as West Floral Heights near downtown, and newer subdivisions clustering at the edges and near the base. Downtown Wichita Falls, though small in residential population, is the city's walkable core and has seen recent investment in pedestrian infrastructure, including conversion of one-way streets to two-way and replacement of aging traffic signals with new crosswalks.
The city is experiencing modest population stability with new residential development concentrated at its edges, in areas such as Bridge Creek and Lake Wellington Estates. A data center project confirmed in early 2025 may bring workforce demand to the area, though housing supply is not yet certain to keep pace. The city has launched neighborhood revitalization efforts in older central areas and downtown, with public art, a vacant structure registry, and street improvements intended to draw housing and new businesses back to the city core.
For families considering Head Start in Wichita Falls, the program sits within a district that has made substantial recent capital investments in high school facilities and a city with affordable housing and a stable, diversified economy. Prekindergarten enrollment here reflects high need, with nearly universal participation in the federal lunch program, and the program's role is to prepare young children for school entry in a setting that emphasizes development and family partnership.
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