Who gets to name the West Dallas STEM School?

By |Published On: March 20, 2024|Categories: Education, Lake West, Victory Gardens, West Dallas|

No one in West Dallas seems to know how their new STEM school is on its way to being named for Oak Cliff power couple Domingo and Elba Garcia.

This is the second Option 2 of the West Dallas STEM School Project Renderings proposed in the Dallas ISD 2020 Bond, but the school might be named after a couple from Oak Cliff. West Dallas neighbors were not notified of the possible name change. Photo courtesy of Dallas ISD.

Residents can’t recall a community meeting where their names were put forward. Parents say they weren’t asked for input at the meeting where the official document was signed by two STEM school principals and a teacher.

Trustee Maxie Johnson won’t answer questions about who recommended the Garcias’ names and how the recommendation made it to the Dallas ISD board docket.

Yet this Thursday, the nine trustees will vote on whether to name the West Dallas community’s only school of choice for the president of LULAC and the Dallas County commissioner.

Los Altos resident Ronnie Mestas says a Facebook post alerted neighbors to the name change, which sparked a series of community discussions over the past several days.

“I think they’re more than qualified,” Mestas says of the Garcias, “but the process wasn’t done with community input and the transparency was lacking.” Domingo Garcia’s name initially was attached to the school more than two years ago, in a January 2022 Dallas ISD presentation to the City Council’s Workforce, Education and Equity Committee.

Even then, West Dallas leaders said the community had been left out of the naming process. Trustee Johnson, who district 5 includes the school, responded to community members via email that it’s “not Dallas ISD policy that community picks the names of schools. That falls within the responsibility of the Trustee.”

How does Dallas ISD name schools?