25 May 2006
Ceremony for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts Showcases Student Performers
DALLAS–DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, District 5 Trustee Lew Blackburn and representatives from the Arts Magnet Building Campaign joined community leaders, elected officials and student performers today at the groundbreaking ceremony for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts at 2501 Flora Street.
The total cost of construction for rebuilding and expanding the school is $47 million. In an innovative public/private partnership between DISD and the Booker T. Washington Advisory Board, the construction will be financed with $15 million from the 2002 Bond Program and $32 million to be raised by the Arts Magnet Building Campaign. About $24.5 million has been raised to date.
Commending the partnership formed to expand the school, Trustee Lew Blackburn called the project, "a win-win effort for our school district, our city, and future Booker T. Washington students. This partnership has allowed the school to enhance faculty enrichment opportunities, involve the community, increase resources and scholarship opportunities and supplement public dollars to build a facility that would not have been possible with only public monies."
The corner of Flora and Routh streets has been a school site since Colored School No. 2 opened there in 1884. A historic landmark built in 1922, Booker T. Washington will receive renovations and remodeling to the entire original construction. The school also is scheduled to receive a 168,000 square-foot addition, featuring 47 teaching spaces including classrooms, laboratories, performance areas, a performance hall, dining area, kitchen, media center, and black box theatre.
"This groundbreaking is a celebration of the community-wide building campaign led by The Advisory Board, staff and volunteers to raise the $40 million dollars that has been committed to date," said I.D. (Nash) Flores III, Arts Magnet Building Campaign Chairman. "The campaign committee is vigorously pursuing its final phase to raise the remaining $7 million for construction and hopes for continued community support."
Student singers, dancers, musicians and mimes performed at the groundbreaking including the Booker T. Washington Jazz Trio, the Cantabile Quartet, the BTWHSPVA Mime Troupe, theatre students and members of the 2006 Repertory Dance Company I.
With its dual emphasis on arts and academics, Booker T. Washington produces a stellar list of alumni including Grammy winners Norah Jones and Erykah Badu, jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove and members of the gospel group God's Property. Other noted graduates are dancer Jay Franke, cellist John Koen, visual artists Christian Schumann and Chris Arnold, drummer Aaron Comess, and Edie Brickell of the New Bohemians.
Located in the Dallas Arts District near the heart of the city, the magnet school attracts students from throughout the metropolitan area. The multi-ethnic student body includes approximately 700 students in grades 9 through 12 who attend the school fulltime enrolled in a full range of arts and academic classes.
The Advisory Board of the Booker T. Washington High School is a private, community-based organization with a mission to support the students, faculty, programs, and facilities of the school, and promote arts education in DISD. The board is comprised of 45 elected members from business, community, and education, as well as 34 members appointed by arts organizations throughout Dallas.
The board has raised money for scholarships, special projects, equipment, and academic programs; established an endowment; created a mentoring program; secured distinguished artists to teach master classes; and assisted most other activities at the school with their time and resources.
In January 2002, DISD passed the largest education construction bond program in the history of Texas. The $1.37 billion program is funding 21 new schools (12 will open this fall) and almost 60 additions that include early childhood additions to present schools, and renovations to nearly every campus in the district. Contractors are working on more than 140 school facilities, including new schools, additions to schools, and renovations to schools.
For more information on the bond program, go to www.dallasisd.org/bond.