Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District
Encyclopedia
Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District (WHISD) was a school district
School district
School districts are a form of special-purpose district which serves to operate the local public primary and secondary schools.-United States:...

 in southern Dallas County
Dallas County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,218,899 people, 807,621 households, and 533,837 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,523 people per square mile . There were 854,119 housing units at an average density of 971/sq mi...

, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 serving the cities of Wilmer
Wilmer, Texas
Wilmer is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,393 at the 2000 census. A July 1, 2008 U.S. Census Bureau estimate placed the population at 3,576...

 and Hutchins
Hutchins, Texas
Hutchins is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,805 at the 2000 census.Union Pacific's Dallas Intermodal Terminal is located partly in the city of Hutchins and partly in the city of Wilmer . The shipping facility, was built by AUI Contractors LP, Prime Rail Interests...

, a portion of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

 (the district was last headquartered at 3820 East Illinois Avenue in Dallas ), and a small portion of Lancaster
Lancaster, Texas
Lancaster is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. The population was 25,894 at the 2000 census.Lancaster is a suburb of Dallas, Texas and is part of the Best Southwest area, which includes Lancaster, Cedar Hill, DeSoto, and Duncanville. Most of the city is in Dallas County. But a...

. The district served urban, suburban, and rural areas. Some unincorporated areas with Ferris
Ferris, Texas
Ferris is a city in Dallas and Ellis Counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 2,175 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Ferris is located at ....

 addresses were served by WHISD.

The Dallas subdivision of College Terrace http://www.kbhome.com/Community.aspx?CommID=00874076 is within the former WHISD boundaries.

History

Wilmer-Hutchins ISD
Student enrollment by year http://www.tea.state.tx.us/
School Year Total Students
1988-89 3,870
1989-90 3,708
1990-91 3,792
1991-92 3,886
1992-93 3,967
1993-94 4,017
1994-95 4,007
1995-96 3,837
1996-97 3,381
1997-98 3,495
1998-99 3,651
1999-00 3,444
2000-01 3,283
2001-02 3,025
2002-03 2,902
2003-04 3,070
2004-05 2,916

Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District was established in 1927 as a consolidation of four smaller school districts Wilmer-Hutchins High School was established in 1928.

Around 1939, Wilmer-Hutchins Colored High School burned down in a fire. After that occurred, children were bused to Dallas ISD schools such as Booker T. Washington High School
Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts
Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts is a public secondary school located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas . Booker T. Washington High School enrolls students in grades 9-12 and is the Dallas Independent School District's arts magnet school...

 and Lincoln High School.

In September 1954, more than 100 African-American students and parents went into Linfield Elementary School, then an all-White WHISD school. They were tired of the district's periodic closing of Melissa Pierce School, an all-Black school, so students would pick crops. The district turned the students away.

In 1958, WHISD had 1,746 White students and 577 African-American students. The number of African-American students increased rapidly over the next decade as the United States government established housing policies that concentrated many African-American families in the northern part of the district. The district, still clinging to its policy of segregation, spent millions of dollars building new schools for black students - Alta Mesa Elementary School, Bishop Heights Elementary School, Milton K. Curry Junior High School and John F. Kennedy High School were all opened in the early 1960s. The more rural southern portion of the district remained predominantly white - Linfield, Wilmer and Hutchins Elementary Schools were reserved for white students, as was Wilmer-Hutchins Junior High and High School. In February 1970, WHISD was forced to implement desegregation busing
Desegregation busing
Desegregation busing in the United States is the practice of assigning and transporting students to schools in such a manner as to redress prior racial segregation of schools, or to overcome the effects of residential segregation on local school demographics.In 1954, the U.S...

.

The mayor of Hutchins, Don Lucky, formed a group of followers and hijacked Hutchins Elementary School for a period. Two out of three White people in WHISD moved away from the district in the early 1970s. WHISD became predominately economically poor and African-American; WHISD became controlled by African-Americans. In 1996 around 17,800 people lived within the district. U.S. Census figures stated that the area was about 70% African-American and mostly blue collar
Blue collar
Blue collar can refer to:*Blue-collar worker, a traditional designation of the working class*Blue-collar crime, the types of crimes typically associated with the working class*A census designation...

. One in five people lived in poverty. One in fifteen adults held one or more university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

 degrees. Most residents were homeowners. The Dallas Observer
Dallas Observer
The Dallas Observer is a free alternative weekly newspaper distributed around the Dallas, Texas . At its inception, it was conceived as a weekly local arts and cinema review publication, with the credo "Advocate for Excellence in the Arts" on the cover. For a time during the early years, the paper...

described the district, which had "urban demographics" and a location "a few minutes from downtown Dallas
Downtown Dallas
Downtown Dallas is the Central Business District in Dallas, Texas USA, located in the geographic center of the city. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally been defined as bounded by the downtown freeway loop: bounded on the east by I-345 Downtown Dallas is the Central Business District...

," as having an "incongruous rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 feel" with "pig farms sit cheek by jowl with burglar-barred houses in sprawling subdivisions built 25 or 30 years ago" within the Dallas portion of Wilmer-Hutchins ISD.

In 1999 the school district had 3,651 students. In April 2003 it had 3,060 students and had gained 35 students from the start of the year. By 2004 it had about 2,900 students. It was the only Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolex school district to have lost population between 1999 and 2004. Many WHISD parents left the district, putting their children in Dallas Independent School District
Dallas Independent School District
The Dallas Independent School District is a school district based in Dallas, Texas . Dallas ISD, which operates schools in much of Dallas County, is the second largest school district in Texas and the twelfth largest in the United States.In 2009, the school district was rated "academically...

 schools or charter schools.

Performance

Throughout its existence, the district was historically recognized as one of the poorest-performing school districts in Texas, in terms of both student test scores and managerial oversight. The Texas Education Agency
Texas Education Agency
The Texas Education Agency is a branch of the state government of Texas in the United States responsible for public education. The agency is headquartered in the William B...

 (TEA) had, on several occasions, appointed monitors to oversee the district, with no long-term success. The district's buildings were in poor shape. Large trees grew out of the bleachers of the Wilmer-Hutchins ISD football field. Wilmer-Hutchins High School
Wilmer-Hutchins High School
Wilmer-Hutchins High School is a public secondary school in Dallas, Texas . A part of the Dallas Independent School District, Wilmer-Hutchins High was formerly part of the now defunct Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District....

 failed fire inspections twice in a row. This led to the decrease of the student body in the district. The district shrank by more than a third of its student size in the 2000s, and, by the 2000s, the district's boundaries had more charter school
Charter school
Charter schools are primary or secondary schools that receive public money but are not subject to some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each school's charter...

 students than any other district in the state of Texas.

Around 1996, according to the district's accounts, 600 students in the WHISD attendance zone attended school in other school districts, such as Dallas ISD and Lancaster ISD, by using false addresses or addresses of relatives, since many of the families in the WHISD attendance zone did not make enough money to enroll their children in private school.
In 2004, the district closed Wilmer-Hutchins Performing Arts High School, A.L. Morney Learning Center, and Hutchins Academic Elementary School. The board also voted to eliminate the district's police department and fire the police chief, Cedric Davis.

Closure

After a series of investigative stories in The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...

found evidence of cheating on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills
Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills
The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills is a standardized test used in Texas primary and secondary schools to assess students' attainment of reading, writing, math, science, and social studies skills required under Texas education standards. It is developed and scored by Pearson Educational...

 in Wilmer-Hutchins, the Texas Education Agency
Texas Education Agency
The Texas Education Agency is a branch of the state government of Texas in the United States responsible for public education. The agency is headquartered in the William B...

 (TEA) began an investigation into the findings. That investigation found sufficient evidence of educator-led cheating for TEA to retroactively declare the school district "academically unacceptable
Texas Education Agency accountability ratings system
The Texas Education Agency accountability ratings system rates all public schools, charter schools, and school districts in the State of Texas.The criteria are the same for schools and districts, and are discussed below...

" (the lowest possible ranking). The retroactive ranking was the second consecutive "academically unacceptable" rating, which gave the TEA authority to close WHISD and transfer its students to another school district. After WHISD voters overwhelmingly defeated a proposal to increase the property tax rate (many citing the district's shoddy recordkeeping), the TEA elected not to attempt yet another monitoring effort, and instead ordered the district closed for the 2005-2006 school year. The Lancaster ISD
Lancaster Independent School District
Lancaster Independent School District is a public school district based in Lancaster, Texas . The district serves most of the city of Lancaster and a small portion of the city of Hutchins....

 was given first opportunity to absorb the district, but declined. Instead, the Dallas Independent School District agreed to absorb WHISD. The United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

 approved the closure on December 13, 2005. The district held its final meeting on June 30, 2006. Dallas ISD elected to close all of the Wilmer-Hutchins schools and sent students to existing Dallas schools. The entire senior class of Wilmer-Hutchins High School
Wilmer-Hutchins High School
Wilmer-Hutchins High School is a public secondary school in Dallas, Texas . A part of the Dallas Independent School District, Wilmer-Hutchins High was formerly part of the now defunct Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District....

 went on to South Oak Cliff High School
South Oak Cliff High School
South Oak Cliff High School is a public secondary school located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas...

. Other students were divided into several different schools. Marlon Brooks, the principal of Wilmer-Hutchins High School as of 2011, said that some students had commutes of over one hour. Some students were over 12 miles (19.3 km) away from their zoned schools.

The Dallas Observer
Dallas Observer
The Dallas Observer is a free alternative weekly newspaper distributed around the Dallas, Texas . At its inception, it was conceived as a weekly local arts and cinema review publication, with the credo "Advocate for Excellence in the Arts" on the cover. For a time during the early years, the paper...

, an alternative newsweekly, argues that DISD agreed to absorb the district because of the significant tax revenue to be gained from the recently-completed US$70 million Union Pacific Dallas Intermodal Terminal, which is located partly in the city of Wilmer and partly in the city of Hutchins, but wholly within the WHISD district boundaries.

After the closure of WHISD property values in the district increased.

Use of former WHISD campuses and material by Dallas ISD

In January 2007, Dallas ISD removed 5,000 boxes with more than one half million personal records and placed them in the DISD administration building. The district also removed the trophies, banners, and plaques from the WHISD campuses.

As a result of the merger, Dallas ISD will hold the titles to the former WHISD campus facilities. For the 2008 bond proposal DISD plans to demolish the former Kennedy-Curry Middle School campus and renovate the Wilmer-Hutchins High School
Wilmer-Hutchins High School
Wilmer-Hutchins High School is a public secondary school in Dallas, Texas . A part of the Dallas Independent School District, Wilmer-Hutchins High was formerly part of the now defunct Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District....

 campus. In addition DISD plans to build a new elementary school campus within the former WHISD territory.

In 2011 DISD re-opened Kennedy Curry and Wilmer-Hutchins High School and opened Wilmer-Hutchins Elementary School in the Wilmer-Hutchins area. The district had renovated Kennedy-Curry and expanded it by almost 60000 square foot. Funds from the 2008 $1.35 billion bond were used to overhaul the schools.

Movement to reopen WHISD

Faye Gafford started a group aiming to re-establish Wilmer-Hutchins ISD. Some WHISD residents missed the small-town country feel of WHISD schools and schools close to their houses. Some residents feel that the next preferable option is to have DISD open schools in the former WHISD territory.

Gafford stated that "There have been predominantly White schools in this area whose students have done far worse on test scores than our children have. They are allowed to continue with their neighborhood school. Why is that?" Gafford did not state which schools performed worse than WHISD schools.
High schools

Middle schools
  • Kennedy-Curry Middle School (Dallas) (known as KC) (Opened August 1968)
    • Located at 6605 Sebring http://web.archive.org/web/20030812070521/http://wilmerhutchins.ednet10.net/campuses/kcms/img0.gif, named after President of the United States
      President of the United States
      The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

       John F. Kennedy
      John F. Kennedy
      John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

       and Dr. Milton K. Curry, the former president of Bishop College
      Bishop College
      Bishop College was a historically black college, founded in Marshall, Texas, and later moved to Dallas, Texas, that operated from 1881 to 1988.-History:...


Primary schools


Secondary schools


Primary schools


Preschools

  • A. L. Morney Learning Center (Hutchins) (Opened 2003, Closed 2004)
    • Morney was a preschool that, in April 2003, served 29 students. It had a capacity of 120. It had had 82 students at the time WHISD announced it would close the school.

Headquarters

The district headquarters were located in Dallas, in a former elementary school. Thomas Koroesec of the Dallas Observer
Dallas Observer
The Dallas Observer is a free alternative weekly newspaper distributed around the Dallas, Texas . At its inception, it was conceived as a weekly local arts and cinema review publication, with the credo "Advocate for Excellence in the Arts" on the cover. For a time during the early years, the paper...

said that the building, which does not have windows, "at times resembles an education ministry in some Third World country."

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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