History
As with many of the early community colleges, NCTC began as an extension of the local school district. In NCTC's case, a branch of the Gainesville Independent School District known as Gainesville Junior College was proposed by Superintendent Randolph Lee Clark, who previously started a junior college that later became Midwestern State University. The Gainesville college was established May 20, 1924, and held its first classes in the fall of that year.
For the first 22 years of the school's existence, it shared the same building with Gainesville High School, also sharing teachers and administrators (not until 1957 were separate teachers hired for the college). In 1946 a building located next to the high school was purchased and the college had its own building.
However, by the mid-1950s the college grew to the point that sharing space with the high school was no longer practical. Local citizens passed a bond issue to build separate facilities for the college. However, discussions took place as to whether a separate entity, apart from the Gainesville ISD, should be created (including assessment of a property tax to support it). With the support of citizens such as W.T. Bonner (who donated the first 5 acres (20,000 m2) of the current campus and later sold 45 acres (180,000 m2) more to the college), Cooke County voters approved the creation of the new district, and Gainesville Junior College became Cooke County Junior College (the Junior was later dropped in the 1970s). In 1994, the institution's name was changed to North Central Texas College to reflect its increasing instructional offerings in two Denton County cities--Lewisville and Denton.
During this time, NCTC operated under a "gentlemen's agreement" with the other junior colleges, and thus no separate schools were formed in neighboring Denton and Montague Counties.
In 1992, president Ronnie Glasscock led the school to two major accomplishments. First, the "gentlemen's agreement" was codified into state law (however, neither Denton nor Montague are included in NCTC's tax base). Second, Glasscock lobbied for a name change, realizing that Cooke County College would handicap the college's effort to be a true regionally focused college. He was successful, and on June 1, 1994, the Regents voted to change the college's name to its current designation.
In January 2000, NCTC opened a branch campus in Bowie (to serve Montague County). The citizens of Bowie voted a 1/2 cent sales tax increase to build the 16,000-square-foot (1,500 m2), $2.196 million facility. NCTC also opened the Corinth campus (to serve Denton County) at the same time.
Read more about this topic: North Central Texas College
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