Melissa Archer gets on a bus at 6:45 a.m. each morning in Oak Cliff to attend classes at
After a full day of school and a return bus ride, the eighth-grader arrives home at 4:20 p.m.
“It’s a long ride,” says her mother. But Carol Archer believes the education her daughter receives at Dealey is worth the inconvenience.
“It’s an amazing school. You wouldn’t think it was a public school,” she says. “It’s a gem.”
And then there’s that alumni connection.
“I kind of like the idea of her going to the same school as I did,” Archer says.
Archer attended Dealey from 1969 to 1971, when it was a neighborhood elementary school.
“It’s pretty much a lot like it was then,” she says. “It hasn’t changed much.”
Dealey, celebrating its 50th anniversary this month, almost didn’t last long enough for Melissa to attend. The
DISD re-opened Dealey in 1992 as a Montessori program, which groups three grade levels into classes together and encourages independent learning.
“The idea is by grouping these ages together, they teach each other, they learn from each other,” says Susan Roe Jernigan. “My kids love it, but it’s not for everybody.”
About 550 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade currently attend Dealey, but Archer and Jernigan want to find alumni dating back to the school’s first days for an anniversary celebration April 30.
“It’s amazing what word of mouth will do, how many people know each other,” Jernigan says. “It just keeps snowballing.”
More than 100 former Dealey students have registered on the anniversary website, dealey50.com, including some who attended during its inaugural years. Dozens posted memories on the site’s guest book, and a few submitted photos.
Marcy Prager, who attended in the early ’60s, wrote that she remembers her fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Glass, because she signed her named with a graphic of eyeglasses.
“The librarian gave out lemon drops for returning books and helping in the library,” she wrote in her guest book post.
Pete West wrote that he recalls moving from the temporary buildings into the new school and how cold it was for the dedication ceremony in November 1955. The school was named for former Dallas Morning News publisher George Bannerman Dealey.
The first students started at Dealey in September 1953, attending classes in relocated Army barracks buildings while the school was constructed, Archer says. Those first students called themselves the Dealey Pioneers.
A Dealey Pioneers button, given to the students by the Morning News, is among the memorabilia gathered for the anniversary. The collection also includes photos, news clippings, the building’s original blueprints and early school newspapers.
“Things are turning up all over,” Jernigan says.
The celebration, which marks 50 years since the building’s dedication, will be the afternoon of April 30 at the school. A specific time has not been decided (check the website for details). Students, alumni, staff, neighbors and friends are invited.
Students will perform a short program about George Dealey’s life, followed by an outdoor reception. Archer says neighborhood residents also are welcome to attend.
“It was their rec center. They’re part of the history of Dealey as well,” she says.
Archer has invited members of the Dealey family, including George Dealey’s grandson John, who attended the school in the 1950s. Archer says everyone she contacted expressed happy memories about the school.
“It seems like the school has had a good vibe for all these years,” she says.
