Thursday, May 21, 2009

Dallas ISD officials dedicated renovated Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts on Saturday

By Pegasus News wire

DALLAS — Dallas Independent School District officials were joined by community leaders, parents, students and elected officials Saturday, May 16 for the dedication ceremony of the recently renovated Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts. The ceremony marked the final school to be dedicated from the 2002 Dallas ISD Bond Program.

A historic landmark built in 1922, Booker T. Washington's original structure remained in place and received renovations to offices, hallways and classrooms. The school also received an addition of about 168,000 square feet that artfully wraps around the old structure, with the two buildings connected through a central amphitheatre. The new addition enhances the school’s unique academic curriculum, which features four arts clusters-music, theater, dance, and visual arts. The new and renovated spaces provide for each of these and feature nine music studios, seven art studios, seven theater studios and classrooms, five dance studios, a recording studio, an art gallery, and an outdoor sculpture and ceramics studio. In keeping with the school's impressive reputation for outstanding music education, the new building features an auditorium equipped for professional caliber performances.

The school’s $51.7 million expansion and renovation is the product of a historic public and private partnership led by the Booker T. Washington Advisory Board and financed by the Dallas ISD 2002 Bond Program and private donations from citizens throughout the Dallas community.

The school, which accommodates 700 students and is located in the arts district near the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and the Dallas Museum of Art, bears the name of educator, author and orator Booker T. Washington.

Opened in 1922 as the only high school for African American students in Dallas, Washington has been designated an historic landmark and boasts a number of well-known graduates in the world of entertainment and the arts. From its inception, the school has developed a reputation for producing graduates who went on to successful careers as educators, professionals, artists and community leaders, including several for whom Dallas schools are named.

Principal Tracie Fraley formally opened the dedication and thanked the voters of Dallas as well as the many donors for making the new facility possible. The ceremony included student performances by the Arts Magnet Waltz Orchestra and the Minnesingers. Several former and current students spoke during the event.

Dallas ISD Superintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa thanked the capital campaign organizers and the hundreds of private donors for their support. Dallas ISD Trustee Ron Price addressed the historic importance of the school and encouraged faculty, parents and students to continue the school’s legacy of excellence.

The district’s 2002 bond program funded 20 new schools, more than 33 major additions and renovations to nearly every campus. Fifteen hundred forty-seven new classrooms have been added across the district with the capacity to serve more than 30,000 students.

Source: DISD

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