Dover: Oh, My, How You Have Changed!

by Anne Foster

category: Parent Voices

Published August 05, 2009 @ 06:04PM PT

It was the late 1950’s, and Richardson, Texas, was a shiny new suburb north of Dallas. The area was building up with nice single family homes, as well as desirable apartments. Hundreds of young, energetic families were moving in with jobs at nearby Texas Instruments. For many years, Dover reflected the school district – mostly white and fairly affluent.

That all began to change in the 1980’s, as federal laws changed that had allowed apartments to discriminate against families with children. Aging apartments began accepting more minority and immigrant families, many poor and without English skills. The influx of refuges and immigrants brought an era of new challenges, diminished community support, and lower performance as the school struggled with how to teach and succeed with the new students. Having originally opened with 300 students, the school eventually reached an enrollment of 600 children, speaking 29 different languages.  It didn’t take long for many families to either move from the area or withdraw their children and send them to other schools. Dover began to experience a certain stigma, as in “You don’t want to send your children to school there” or “That school has changed.”

But Dover didn’t give up.

The school district and school board ushered in a new era of belief that all schools and all students could succeed and achieve. There was strong instructional leadership at the school, as educators and parents became determined to be successful with all students – clearly the hallmark of a quality public school! Current principal Fernando Medina, who identified with many of the students from his early life and who was himself the recipient of a quality education, brought new skills of determination, hard work, and dignity and respect for each student. Academic expectations and results began to rise, bringing with it amazed looks from those who had long ago written off the school. Visits to the school found students returning the dignity and respect that was shown to them, as they exhibited behavior traits that advanced their education profoundly. Those students who could not behave successfully were not allowed to disrupt the others.

A young parent named Larry Breazeale stepped up several years ago from the homeowner population of the attendance zone, which sent practically no students to the school, and declared that his children could get an education second to none at Dover. He and his wife enrolled their daughter, and he began to tell his neighbors that they, too, should consider Dover as their children’s school. His confidence, courage, and vision cannot be overstated.

Working to always improve, the school has continued to excel academically and is expected this year to garner the state’s highest academic rating, Exemplary. It may well be in the top performers of the school district of 34,000 students. Stigmas can be hard to erase; however, the hard work and commitment to excellence has begun to draw back some families who had previously not sent their children to school there. The school population is beginning to be more reflective of every part of the community, apartments as well as single family homes. It has become a school that the community has embraced again! The school recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, throwing a party that included many former students as well as a 50s style sock hop. Each grade collected and displayed relevant items from each decade Dover has been open.

Dover, the little campus that could, stands today as an example of how a public school can change to become successful with a diverse mix of students, while meeting the needs of all students. It is proof that schools whose performance goes down can get up again. It shows what can happen when a school has the right staff development, high standards, and community and parental support/engagement. Dover, you have shown that when schools have adequate resources, they can get the job done. You have proven that when parents are trained, encouraged and treated with dignity, they can be successful partners in their children’s education. You have lifted up the importance of community support. May your example be an inspiration to many to go and lend a hand to a school that needs it.

Congratulations, Dover, the school so many wrote off. May you excel for the next 50 years and beyond!