Nearly two months after it was decided South Oak Cliff High School would receive $52 million in Dallas ISD bond funds, W.T. White community members returned to the school board to remind trustees of the campus’ needs.
At Wednesday’s board meeting, alumni and teachers took to the mic once again to share their concerns about recent renovations and ongoing problems.
Michael Sutton — who teaches W.T. White’s Reconnect program — appreciates the district’s efforts to improve the high school, but he is “extremely dissatisfied” with some of the changes, he said during the public comment session.
“The new construction replaced our windows with opaque, semi-translucent plastic panels, which I believe was a mistake,” he said. “The installation of these plastic panels has cheapened the overall aesthetic of the building and depressed the affected classroom environments. … The plastic panels only allow diffused gray lighting to pass through, and quite honestly, they resemble windows intended for a corrections facility.”
Opaque windows that were installed in a science lab at the high school. Photo courtesy of Renovate W.T. White’s Facebook Page
W.T. White alumni Wendy Camarena and Leslie Que now teach for Dallas ISD and reiterated previous complaints about the campus’ lack of safety and its outdated facilities, such as the 52-year-old auditorium. Graduate Justin Bynum added that the high school is “woefully overcrowded,” something he believes is detrimental to student learning.
“We’re asking our students at W.T. White, who are educated in the building that is at 130 percent capacity, to focus and function the same way as their peers who are not educated in those same circumstances,” he said. “This is a disservice to those students.”
There is no quick fix for many of these problems the campus — and other Dallas ISD schools — face, but North Dallas trustee Edwin Flores told the Advocate that the windows’ installation has been halted.
“I’m pushing for the classroom spaces, at least, to have clear windows,” he said, noting that it’s practical for spaces such as the gym to have the opaque version.
“It’s unfortunate that they got this far, and I’m glad community spoke out, and people are listening.”
Scott Layne, the district’s chief operations officer, said he became aware of the issue on Wednesday, and the district will collaborate with the project architect to select different windows.
“The current installation will be placed on hold until a solution can be determined and a time schedule can be established for replacement windows,” he told the Advocate in an email.
