Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District

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Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District (WHISD) was a school district in Texas serving the cities of Wilmer and Hutchins, a large portion of southern Dallas (the administration building was located in Dallas), and a small portion of Lancaster. Some unincorporated areas with Ferris addresses were served by WHISD.

Contents

[edit] History and closure

Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District was established in 1927 as a consolidation of four smaller school districts [1]. 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 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 [2]. 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 because the United States government established housing policies that concentrated many African-American families in the northern part of the district [3].

In 1967 Wilmer-Hutchins ISD was forced to desegregate. In February 1970, WHISD was forced to implement desegregation busing.

The cities of Wilmer and Hutchins attempted to form a mostly-White breakaway district in the 1970s, but failed. The mayor of Hutchins, Don Lucky, formed a group of followers and hijacked Hutchins Elementary School for a period. Many of the White people in WHISD moved away from the district. WHISD became predominately economically poor and African-American; WHISD became controlled by African-Americans.

Throughout its life, 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 (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 [4]. Wilmer-Hutchins High School failed fire inspections twice in a row [5]. This lead 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 students than any other district in the state of Texas.

Around 1996, according to the district's own 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 [6].

In 2004, the district closed Wilmer-Hutchins Performing Arts High School, A.L. Morney Learning Center, and Hutchins Elementary School. The board also voted to eliminate the district's police department and fire the police chief, Cedric Davis [7].

In 2004, deciding that yet another round of oversight would accomplish nothing (and after the district's citizens overwhelmingly defeated a proposal to increase the property tax rate; the district's records were so shoddy that it could not provide evidence that property tax rate increases had ever been approved since the late 1950's), TEA ordered the district closed for the 2005-2006 school year. TEA allowed the Dallas ISD to take over responsibility for educating students in the area for the 2005-2006 school year (Lancaster ISD was given first opportunity, but declined). Dallas ISD elected to close all of the Wilmer-Hutchins schools and sent students to its own schools. The entire senior class of Wilmer-Hutchins High School went on to South Oak Cliff High School. Other students were divided into several different schools.

After WHISD was ranked "academically unacceptable" (the lowest possible ranking of a school district in Texas) for the second consecutive year, TEA exercised its authority to close WHISD and to have DISD absorb it, which it agreed to do [8]. The United States Department of Justice approved the closure on December 13, 2005. [9] The district held its final meeting on June 30, 2006 [10].

One local newspaper, the Dallas Observer, argues that DISD agreed to absorb the district not because of any desire to improve the educational improvement of the students, but 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 [11] [12].

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 the trophies, banners, and plaques from the WHISD campuses [13].

As a result of the merger, Dallas ISD will hold title to the former WHISD campus facilities. It is not known at present whether any of the former facilities (primarily the elementary schools) will be reopened; due to WHISD's poor maintenance of the facilities any such reopening may be economically infeasible. Dallas ISD may demolish the old facilities and replace them with new facilities, or sell them all toghether.

[edit] Former Schools

[edit] Schools operating at the time of closure

[edit] Secondary schools operating at time of closure

[edit] High schools
  • Wilmer-Hutchins High School (Dallas) (nicknamed "The Hutch")

[edit] Middle schools operating at time of closure
  • Kennedy-Curry Middle School (Dallas)

[edit] Primary schools

  • Alta Mesa Learning Center (Dallas)
  • Bishop Heights Elementary School (Dallas)
  • C.S. Winn Elementary School (Hutchins)
  • Wilmer Elementary School (Wilmer)

[edit] Schools previously operated by the district, closed prior to dissolution

[edit] Secondary schools previously operated by the district, closed prior to dissolution

  • Wilmer-Hutchins Colored High School
  • Wilmer-Hutchins Performing Arts High School (Closed 2004 [14])

[edit] Primary schools previously operated by the district, closed prior to dissolution

  • Hutchins Academic Elementary School (Closed 2004 [15])
  • Linfield Elementary School
  • Melissa Pierce School
  • A.L. Morney Elementary School (Dallas) (Closed 2004 [16])

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../w/i/l/Wilmer-Hutchins_Independent_School_District_f77f.html"