we want to attract new students?

among the student population than its current demographic — 94 percent Hispanic, 3 percent black, and 1 percent white, with more than 90 percent identifying as having a low socioeconomic status.

Magnet schools, DISD’s most successful solution to desegregation in the 1970s and ’80s, is part of its strategy to lure homeowners back to the district. Located in Uptown, William B. Travis Talented and Gifted Academy has a waiting list of more than 200 students. With Sudie Williams’ capacity at 50 percent, the decision to convert Sudie to a TAG school was pragmatic, according to Elizalde.

“The surrounding community really wanted us to look at a choice school,” Elizalde says. “The challenge here is I don’t have a market feasibility study that tells me what would lure people to that school right now. Not having that information means I would have to wait a year to close it out and operate it inefficiently without meeting the needs of Travis’ [wait list].”

Several Bluffview parents even told DISD they would move their children from St. Monica to Sudie Williams if it was a magnet school. Martha Schwalm is one of the Bluffview residents whose interest piqued after the meeting.

Her eldest children have attended private elementary schools and public high schools. Schwalm says she knows at least seven children from neighborhood families who are transferring from private schools to the magnet.

Elizalde is hopeful for the school’s future but did not expect the backlash she received from the surrounding community.

Jonathan Maples, who attended the December meeting, is still angry at the district. Growing up, he attended a medley of private and public schools, including Sudie Williams and K.B. Polk. His children also attended K.B. Polk, and he’s remained an advocate for the school. Maples is fearful that the district’s decision to rezone Sudie students to K.B. Polk promotes segregation between affluent, white families and poorer, minority families. He’d prefer to expand K.B. Polk’s fourth- and fifthgrade TAG program, the oldest in the district, to include sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

“If I had something that was working for more than 40 years, I’d enhance it instead of starting something new 10 blocks down the road,” he says.

But Sudie doesn’t have room for all of the students who attend Polk, Elizalde says.

“I knew the lens was going to be, ‘Oh, you put the fourth through eighth in the affluent neighborhood,’ ” she says. “First and foremost, we’re wanting to meet the needs of students. Do we want to attract other students? Absolutely. It’s not either-or. It’s both-and.”

The district says 192 students have signed up to attend the revamped Sudie Williams TAG school. When Travis opened in 2000, 350 students enrolled. Eighteen years later, 507 students now attend the Uptown magnet.

Cranshaw, though, doesn’t believe high enrollment at Sudie will determine if DISD made a good decision. Whether both K.B. Polk and Sudie Williams improve is the proof, she says.

STUDENTS APPLIED TO THE TRAVIS TAG MAGNET THIS SPRING 30

STUDENTS APPLIED TO THE K.B. POLK TAG MAGNET THIS SPRING

STUDENTS LIVING IN THE SUDIE WILLIAMS ZONE WILL ATTEND THE NEW SUDIE WILLIAMS TAG MAGNET

Source: Dallas ISD