An open door at ROBERT E. LEE ELEMENTARY

A new principal with a long history in East Dallas wants this historic neighborhood school to grow into its potential

By KERI MITCHELL

an I tell you about the Fibonacci sequence?” asked a petite 9-year-old at Robert E. Lee Elementary, who held a flower in her hands. She proceeded to count its petals by layer, demonstrating the mathematical order present in nature.

Her father, Luke Rice, stood nearby, helping another group of students look through microscopes. “She loves the Fibonacci sequence,” said the biophysicist. All around them in Lee’s gymnasium were experiments engaging students and their parents — making slime, churning butter, catapulting popsicle sticks.

It was International Baccalaureate (IB) science showcase night at Lee, a chance for families to see the types of work their children are doing in classrooms. The event was right up the alley of Rice and his wife, biochemist Jen Kohler, who both have labs at UT Southwestern. Rice and Kohler live in Vickery Place, and their choice to send their third-grade daughter to Lee still is somewhat of a rarity for homeowners within Lee’s boundaries.

But perhaps not for much longer.

Lee, situated near Lower Greenville at Matilda and Vanderbilt, is a neighborhood school that more neighbors opt out of than into. Only 217 students zoned to Lee attend the school; another 53 transfer to other Dallas ISD schools or charter schools, and a whopping 526 students opt for private or home school.

“There was some loss of faith in the school by the parents. Once you lose that, it is hard to get it back,” says Principal Bert Hart, who took the helm of Lee last summer. “It happened over a period of years, not just one year. People became disillusioned and left.”

Hart has a long history at schools in our neighborhood, dating back to the ’90s when he began teaching sixth-grade at nearby Stonewall Jackson Elementary.