New ‘West Dallas Junior High’ sign at the entrance of former Thomas Edison school

Dallas ISD’s West Dallas Junior High School will open this fall to seventh- and eighth-graders for the 2024-45 school year, and a new sign bearing its name is now in front of the former Thomas A. Edison Junior High School on Singleton.

Exterior modifications to the school were discussed in design update community meetings held in the spring, where community members were able to voice their preferred options. Dallas ISD has a $13 million budget for the redesign.

During the meetings, community members gave feedback on everything from environmental safety concerns to the lack of outdoor recreational space for the students. The timeline for renovations estimate that they will be complete in fall 2025, depending on city permit approval. 

Dallas ISD closed Thomas Edison in 2018, and Thomas Jefferson High School students used the building after a tornado demolished parts of their campus. West Dallas’ seventh- and eighth graders were moved to the old L.G. Pinkston High School campus in 2018, and the plan was to incorporate all of them into the new West Dallas STEM school, housed in the former Pinkston building.

Last fall, however, the school district changed course and created the West Dallas Junior High. Those 300-plus seventh- and eighth-graders have moved out of the STEM school building and will start the fall semester at their new campus.