South Dallas leaders want new career institute at old Billy Dade school site
The original Billy Earl Dade Elementary School, a historic Black Dallas Independent School District property in South Dallas, is being considered as the site for a proposed $50 million career institute, according to DISD Trustee Ed Turner.
Dallas ISD closed Dade in 2013 when it opened the new Billy Earl Dade Middle School at Al Lipscomb Way and Malcolm X Boulevard, kitty corner from the original building. Since then the vacant campus has been in a constant state of disrepair.
“This would be something state of the art,” Turner says of a new career institute. “We need a modern-day trade school in the heart of South Dallas.”
The idea emerged two years ago, when then-school board president Justin Henry formed a committee of South Dallas community members to address the future of the Dade property. Henry did this after neighbors expressed outrage when DISD auctioned off Pearl C. Anderson Middle School to Watermark Church without community input. Turner led the committee with the Rev. Todd Atkins, senior pastor of Salem Institutional Baptist Church, Anne Evans and Marian Williams from SouthFair Community Development Corporation, and community activist and former council member Diane Ragsdale, among others.
After Turner’s election to the school board, Atkins became chair of the committee. Atkins emphasizes the importance of including the community in the decision-making process. The committee has been approached by many people who wanted to buy the land for private development projects like housing, he says, but that wasn’t what the community wanted.
“Our goal was to create something that could bring generational change, a transformative space for all of South Dallas,” Atkins says.
The 2020 voter-approved DISD bond package included hundreds of millions of dollars to build four new career institutes. One is fully operational — the Career Institute North at the former Walnut Hill Elementary School — and DISD is currently constructing the South institute, named for Charmaigne and Robert Price, at Village Fair.
A Career Institute West is proposed for the former Amelia Earhart and Dallas Environmental Science Academy site in West Dallas, and Turner says the current plan is to spend $50 million to transform South Dallas’ historic Lincoln High School into Career Institute East.
However, he argues that the original Billy Dade property is a better investment. He notes that the North and South institutes are large, modern spaces with more than 150,000 square feet, offering programs in trades such as plumbing, HVAC and mechanics.
In contrast, the Lincoln High School project, which is a City of Dallas landmark and therefore architecturally protected, would require expansion and retrofitting a career institute to the current structure. Turner and the committee are recommending that the original Dade building, which isn’t designated as a historical landmark, be demolished to make way for a brand new facility.
“This would be a true investment in trade professions,” Turner says.
Originally founded in 1912 as John Henry Brown School, named after a former Dallas mayor and state legislator, the school primarily served the Jewish community of South Dallas. As the neighborhood changed from a mostly Jewish to a mostly Black neighborhood, it was renamed in honor of Billy Earl Dade, one of Dallas ISD’s first African American principals, who lived on the street where Stanley Marcus, founder of Neiman Marcus, grew up. Principal Dade resided at 2600 South Blvd which was previously owned by Rev J. Von Brown, also known as Father Brown, a South Dallas minister.
While discussions are still preliminary, the committee has even suggested naming the new institute after Adelio Williams, a beloved South Dallas plumber who passed away unexpectedly a few years ago.
“To go through DISD and then go into high paying careers,” Atkins says, “what would that look like for [students] to have those same opportunities at the highest level within their own community of South Dallas proper?” The proposal is gaining momentum, with the school building’s potential demolition scheduled for discussion at this Thursday’s board briefing.
The proposal is gaining momentum, with the school building’s potential demolition scheduled for discussion at this Thursday’s board briefing.
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Sujata Dand is an award-winning journalist who is energized by change brought in communities in response to news stories. She lives in and has spent most of her reporting career in Dallas, with ample experience covering health care, education and public policy.
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Prior to her work with KERA, Sujata was a reporter and anchor at the CBS affiliate in Wichita Falls, Texas. She has worked as a freelance reporter for NPR and Dallas Morning News. Dand is a graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio.
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It would be a marvelous idea to start a earn while you learn. GED/ 6 to 9 month trade.