Dallas (1080 KRLD)- Dallas ISD will soon start construction on a project to transform W.W. Bushman Elementary into a school whose focus is science, technology, engineering, the arts and math. The project is expected to cost about $31 million, and construction should take two years.
"Many of these buildings are kind of aged, and so we will have a state-of-the-art school with STEM equipment to make it first class for the students of the future," says Superintendent Michael Hinojosa.
The school will be renamed for Albert Black, a businessman from the area and chief executive officer of On Target Supplies and Logistics.
"This community has held me up and pushed me forward. You've led me, you've tolerated, you've loved me," Black says. "Dallas has been short on producing African American business leaders, but in the future, that won't be the case."
Black says Dallas ISD has been working to ensure kids learn a skill they can use to "contribute to the economy before they quit school."
"We'll all celebrate this as a launching pad for future leadership," he says.
"In that leadership will be business people, also."
In addition, Dallas ISD will transform nearby Pease Elementary into a pre-K center for parents who cannot afford childcare.
"We're going to look after this community," says Dallas ISD Trustee Maxie Johnson. "This is something we promise when we first become a school board trustee: advocate for equity in our community."
