Dr. L.G. Pinkston Sr. High School honors influential alumni and community members with named spaces

Alumni and community leaders of Dr. L. G. Pinkston High School in West Dallas have spearheaded efforts to name spaces within the new campus for individuals who have contributed to the school and its students.

The Pinkston site-based decision-making, or SBDM, committee is composed of around 10 individuals which include staff, community members and parents who collectively advise the principal on decisions regarding the campus. Earl D. Thomas, a 2002 Pinkston graduate and pastor of The Mountain Top Dallas church in West Dallas, is the current SBDM committee president.

George Castro and Clifford and Joyce Sherman also are members of Pinkston’s SBDM committee alongside West Dallas residents Starlet Ramirez, Jeff Howard and Debbie Solis. 

At the December 2024 SBDM meeting, the committee’s agenda featured items ranging from the campus improvement plan to committee responsibilities, but their main focus was renaming current spaces on campus for people who have contributed to Pinkston and its students. 

These included:

• The Charles Fisher Administrative Offices, named for the school’s principal from 1987-2000, who also served as a coach, teacher and assistant principal in 1964 (died in 2024);
• Coach Donald Evans “Burger” Football field, for the Pinkston coach who taught basketball, track and football for more than four decades;
• Eddie Lee Washington “Prop” Band Hall, named after the band director and music teacher at Pinkston who spent more than three decades at the school and spent money out of his pocket to rent instruments and band uniforms (died in 2013);
• Clifford and Joyce Sherman Auditorium, after the 1969 Pinkston graduate and his wife, who have contributed their time and financial resources to Pinkston students for more than two decades.

At a DISD board meeting on March 20, 2025 eight of the nine members (Trustee Ben Mackey was not present) voted to approve the four name changes. 

The SBDM committee’s next steps are to meet with DISD District 5 DISD trustee, Maxie Johnson, to begin the process of curating plaques for each of the approved renamed spaces. (Johnson is running for City Council in the May 3 election; whoever is elected as his successor will complete the work.)

“At the old Pinkston, we went about 50 years without having anything named,” Castro says of the former campus that opened in 1964 and now houses the West Dallas STEM school and Dallas Environmental Science Academy. “Since 2020 the committee has put in the work of remembering those who have been important to Pinkston.”

The Pinkston SBDM committee’s submitted changes began in March 2022, when the DISD board approved naming the Fine Arts Department at Pinkston after two-time Emmy-nominated actress and 1977 Pinkston graduate, Regina Taylor, as well as the LTC. Retired Raymond Castillo ROTC Wing named for a Hispanic lieutenant colonel and 1973 Pinkston graduate. 

A ribbon-cutting and unveiling ceremony was held to celebrate the renaming of the Regina Taylor Fine Arts Wing. West Dallas District 6 Council Member, Omar Narvaez and DISD District 5 DISD trustee, Maxie Johnson were in attendance. 

Last year the board also approved changing the name of the STEM school to the Dr. Elba and Domingo Garcia STEM school, despite community opposition to the change.

A fifth name change was suggested by the committee this spring — to name the campus’ legacy hall near the school’s entrance for George Castro, a Pinkston 1973 graduate who is actively involved in supporting students and devoting efforts to fundraise for the campus. Castro also is a member of the Pinkston SBDM committee.

Board policy, however, requires that facilities be named only for people who have been deceased for at least 18 months or are at least 70 years old by the deadline submission, unless the name change is the result or condition of a significant financial gift to DISD. Castro wasn’t at least 70 years old by the submission deadline.

He celebrated that milestone on Feb. 28 of this year, and the committee plans to submit the renaming request to the board by the next annual deadline to solidify the name change to George Castro Legacy Hall.