While it was a fairly tame evening, as far as school board meetings go, Thursday night’s regular Dallas ISD board of trustees meeting was bookended by discussions about the larger responsibility a school district has to the communities schools sit in, especially once those schools are closed.
It began during the portion at the beginning of the meeting set aside for public comment, when adamant and angry neighbors of the now-shuttered H.S. Thompson Learning Center made impassioned pleas for the district to give their neighborhood its school back.
The school was shuttered in 2013 when the district shuttered 10 other schools to save about $12 million dollars. Speakers last night insisted that the district had promised that the school would reopen or would be rebuilt. Several insisted the district had promised the school would be back in their neighborhood in two years.
“Our kids deserve better. We want our schools,” a speaker said. “Everyone else is getting their schools.”
“It’s been four years,” another neighbor said.
“We decree and we declare, we want our school built,” another said. “All we got is lies, lies, and alibis.”
Another person said that the funds were allocated, but the project was put on hold. “This is our neighborhood school,” she said. “This school is the heart of our community. We are not going away. We are your biggest partners.”
“We don’t have any vanguards, any Montessories, we don’t have anything that shows you want these kids to succeed,” an alumnus of the school and neighbor said.
Several speakers were downright livid, one invoking scripture to chastise the board.
“Somebody said we want to partner with y’all,” a final speaker said. “I don’t wanna partner with y’all. You guys work for us.”
The board voted to close Thompson in 2012, citing low enrollment and the age of the campus. It was the same vote that also closed Bonham Elementary, which was later reopened as the home for Solar Prep for Girls.
Data from 2009-2010 shows that the school had about 225 students and 24 teachers at that point.
In the years following the closure, the school became a target for vandals and copper thieves. The ravaged structure was demolished after bids were collected last Spring.
At the end of the meeting, the trustees took up discussion of what to do with three shuttered campuses – the former Billy Earl Dade building, Pearl C. Anderson Elementary, and Phillis Wheatley Elementary. Both Wheatley and Anderson were closed the same time Thompson was, and both have been the target of vandals as well.
Wheatley Elementary opened in 1929, and sits in the historic Wheatley Place neighborhood, named after Phillis Wheatley, an African-American poet from the 18th century. The entire neighborhood has been designated as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and as a Dallas Landmark District by the city.
The district staff proposed last night beginning the process of possibly selling those three properties, deeming them surplus properties.
Trustee Joyce Foreman pulled the item from the consent agenda, expressing reluctance to part with buildings that — in many cases — mean a great deal to the neighborhoods they are in. She asked why they couldn’t be offered up to a nonprofit organization that would serve the needs of those neighborhoods first.
“We are tearing down everything we can,” she said. “I think there are good opportunities to become partners with somebody.”
Earlier in the week, Foreman asked staffers what had been done to examine potential uses for the properties.
“Over the years we have entertained a handful of requests from groups interested in leasing or buying these facilities but unfortunately nothing ever panned out,” the staff responded, adding that at one point Anderson was considered as a possible replacement for JJ Rhoads Learning Center, for instance.
“Somewhat recently, the Dallas County Community College District has expressed an interested in purchasing these vacant facilities,” the response concluded.
Trustee Justin Henry said he agreed with Foreman’s assertion that the district should be examining potential partnership opportunities, but also acknowledged that the buildings have sat empty for a long time, and safety should also be a factor.
The district was asking the board to allow staff to begin the process of appraising the sites and requesting bids for purchase. Bids must be at or above the appraised value to be considered, but the board can opt to not take the highest bid.
After bids are collected, the staff would bring them back to the board, who could then discuss the options. The whole process takes about six months. The motion to begin the process passed 7-2.
After hearing the public comment about Thompson, Trustee Jaime Resendez said he felt the discussion was an opportunity for the board to be “thoughtful” about the properties and their value not just monetarily, but to the neighborhoods they used to serve.
All three lots are in South Dallas, and the big unknown is exactly how much they would be worth. Wheatley cannot be torn down because it has a historic distinction, and it’s not clear how that would impact interest in the site.
Superintendent Michael Hinojosa pointed out that the fact that all the properties are in the general vicinity of Fair Park could change how much interest people have, too, depending on city plans for the mammoth site. If development and money and development is poured into Fair Park, those sites could become more valuable.
