Watermark wants a zoning change for its South Dallas church in the historic Pearl C. Anderson School. Neighbors want to know: Why?

By |Published On: November 18, 2022|Categories: South Dallas|
Watermark South Dallas displays the Pearl C. Anderson Learning Center gymnasium emblem at the community meeting on rezoning in the Cafeteria on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. The school emblem used to sit at the center of the gym but was cut out as part of the church’s efforts to preserve the history of Pearl C. Anderson. The church also kept the original floor of the cafeteria where they have their Sunday services at 3 p.m. Photo by Jeffrey Ruiz

Walking the hallways of Pearl C. Anderson Learning Center in South Dallas, Ken Smith, 69, says he can still remember the first time he entered the “big, beautiful new school right down the street” from his home in the historic Rose Garden neighborhood of South Dallas.

More than 50 years later, he still has fond memories of his time there. 

“We had the best teachers I ever had,” he says. “We could have left middle school and gone straight to college. It was that good.”

Dallas ISD’s board of trustees voted to close Pearl C. Anderson in 2012 along with 10 other schools, attributing the decision to old buildings, shrinking enrollment and budget deficits. Four of the 11 schools were located in South Dallas — H.S. Thompson, Julia C. Frazier, and  Phyllis Wheatley elementary schools in addition to Pearl C. Anderson. All of them were named for historic Black leaders in Dallas and constructed as schools to which Black children were segregated. 

In 2019, Watermark Community Church purchased Pearl C. Anderson from Dallas ISD for $211,111. Watermark, which has campuses in Frisco, Dallas, Fort Worth and Plano, spent $2.5 million for asbestos abatement and renovations so the space could be used for Sunday services and ministry partners. Watermark Health’s Mobile Clinic was the first partner on the South Dallas campus, and its Community Development Corporation followed soon after, providing job training, financial empowerment and business development courses.

Board of Trustees Agenda of August 22, 2019 by Dallas Free Press on Scribd

Smith, president of the Revitalize South Dallas Coalition, has returned to his former school campus to participate in a series of community meetings hosted by Watermark South Dallas to help decide what’s next for Pearl C. Anderson. While Smith appreciates being included, he and other neighbors in the community are uneasy about what’s actually in store for their neighborhood.

Watermark submitted a proposal to the City of Dallas for a new planned development district (PD) for the almost 10-acre space on July 12 — less than two weeks before it held its second community meeting.

“It feels like an arranged marriage,” Smith says. “It seems like