The Dallas ISD school board is considering changing the name of Cesar Chavez Learning Center after a New York Times article earlier this year detailed allegations of rape and sexual abuse against the late civil rights leader.
Dallas school board president Joe Carreon, whose district includes the campus, said community and school representatives want the new school to be called East Dallas Elementary School “to really kind of honor the history of the area.
“It is right to change the name of the campus and to bring our community together in doing so,” Carreon told KERA.
Trustees are scheduled to officially vote to approve the change expected later this month. The new name would be effective starting next school year.
Carreon said it’s important school names reflect pride and respect in the community, and the Chavez campus no longer does that.
While school name changes are routinely considered and managed by trustees in February and March, Carreon said allegations against Chavez arose later and the community and board wanted to address it now.
He’s confident about the naming process.
“What we are trying to accomplish… as a board is ensuring that that process is as informed as possible, that there's multiple levels of discussion there, that it’s signed off by parent, teacher, and campus kind of leadership,” Carreon said.
He added that trustees had learned from past, successful campus name changes. In 2017, for example, Stonewall Jackson Elementary School, named for the Confederate general, was changed to Mockingbird Elementary. That same year, nearby Robert E. Lee Elementary was changed to Geneva Heights Elementary School.
Last month Fort Worth ISD's state-appointed board of managers approved changing the name of Cesar Chavez Elementary to Esperanza Elementary, after the Spanish word for "hope."
Bill Zeeble is KERA’s education reporter. Got a tip? Email Bill at bzeeble@kera.org. You can follow him on X @bzeeble.
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