By Bill Zeeble, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-983009.mp3
Dallas, TX – Despite some minor glitches on the first day of school statewide, most North Texas students got to class without incident. KERA's Bill Zeeble visited Wilmer-Hutchins High School, re-opened for the first time since it closed in 2005.
Renovating and getting this school ready has taken a while. The Texas Education Agency shut down the Wilmer-Hutchins School District some six years ago, and this campus closed. Now, The Dallas Independent School District runs it.
DISD Trustee Carla Ranger: It's a great day. We are welcoming students from the Wilmer area, from the Hutchins area, and from Dallas to this school.
Dallas School Board member Carla Ranger serves this region. She says nearby students no longer have to go far to attend school.
Ranger: And to have the renovated Wilmer-Hutchins High School here to serve our students is just a fresh beginning for all of them.
Walking into the high school, R'lexus Collins, a junior, is looking forward to classes.
Junior R'lexus Collins: Yes, it's exciting. It's going to be more challenging. That's a good thing. I get to learn more.
Another student, Lazarius Robinson, says because this school is just up the street from home, getting here will be easy. His mother, Mary Robinson, graduated from Wilmer-Hutchins 16 years ago.
Robinson: As far as the physical appearance of it, it's improved a lot. We couldn't find a decent school for the kids, they were kind of back and forth, here and there for a while.
Parent Robert Washington, with two sons enrolled here, calls this re-opening a very big deal.
Washington: It looks like a nicer school. It really does, compared to back in the day when I used to just drive by. I think it's going to have a whole new thing this year. Just looking so far it's going to be a whole new atmosphere, a whole new everything.
Wilmer-Hutchins Principal Marlon Brooks says the physical structure is functional on this first day, mostly.
Brooks: Just a couple glitches with bells and P.A. systems and stuff like that. We have to do all of our announcements, try to move our students with announcements vs. bells, and when the announcement system is not working properly, we actually got to get out there and "need to move to class!"
Outside, by his work van, Ron Anglin is rounding up parts for last-minute maintenance on some locks. He initially says the school's not ready for students, but he's joking.
Anglin: Just little finishing touches, a little of baseboards and things like that, small stuff. I imagine within a week they'll probably have it all buttoned up. On Twitter, The DISD said the few hundred or so elementary students at H.S. Thompson Leaarning Center were moved to a different school because the air conditioner failed.