When people go past J.O. Davis Elementary, they probably just see another generic mid-century elementary school. However, the J.O Davis School had its start as a segregated school for black children living in the freedmen's town of Bear Creek. Founded in 1951, the J.O. Davis School opened in its current building in 1960, according to tax records. This means that the current building that students currently learn in was the same building that only educated black children just a few decades ago.

Irving ISD wants to completely demolish and rebuild the entire Davis building as part of their 2026 bond. The problem is that for their bond, they only published two pictures of each school. One picture is the gym building with cracks on the ceiling. While this is bad, does one image of the damaged gym ceiling warrant the entire school to be demolished? The other is of soil erosion that has caused someone to place bricks where there is a small gap in the fence that allows a small animal such as a cat to get into. I feel like the soil erosion can be fixed without demolishing the entire building, and the district will fix the erosion if the bond passes, which will of course demolish the school. 

Proposition A, which will replace J.O. Davis, will cost taxpayers $552.2 million. For contrast, for their 2026 bond, Dallas ISD provided a full transparent overview of how much each school will cost to receive renovations or be rebuilt (example: John Neely Bryan Elementary will cost $58 million to be replaced) along with how much of the $5.9 billion bond is going towards district-wide renovations ($2,385,000,000 for 228 schools). We don't know how much of the $552.2 million is going towards renovations. 26 Dallas ISD campuses will be demolished and rebuilt for $1.88 billion. We also don't know how much of that is going towards J.O. Davis or the three other schools being replaced. Additionally, the tax rate will be much lower at DISD ($33.48 per year on a $550,000 house in Dallas vs. $249.96 per year on a $340,000 in Irving)

Irving ISD just finished three of their 2023 bond school buildings, and instead of waiting a few more years for another bond, are having another one just three years after the previous one. We have yet to see if the new schools have reversed declining enrollment trends in the districts, and those numbers will not be publicly available until next year's school report cards. Parents think more than just the shiny new community college-esque building when it comes to their child's education. Remember that schools do not need to be fancy, they just need to do their purpose of educating the children in our city.

Irving ISD previously closed two schools--Britain and Elliott Elementary--due to declining enrollment. They have already demolished the Britain Elementary campus with seemingly no effort to sell the building or repurpose it, nor any input from the community or alumni. Had they sold the Britain building, the school could've used the money from the sale to renovate the schools. Demolition isn't cheap either.

Irving ISD has a new superintendent named Dr. Dorian Galindo. Based on her bio, she has no teaching experience in a public school setting. Her jobs before becoming superintendent were chief of staff and a few data and research roles. Most superintendents in other DFW districts have at least taught. Additionally, the board did not look for outside candidates, and she was named the lone candidate for the job. This  didn't just start with Galindo. After three propositions of the 2023 bond were passed, the board immediately started to think about a new bond under Magda Hernandez' leadership.

There is a real thing called "demolition by neglect" where property owners neglect a building to the point where it has to be demolished due to the poor condition. While J.O. Davis is not a historically recognized building by either the city, state, or nation, we have already lost tens, maybe hundreds of black schools across the state following integration when districts chose not to integrate black schools, but to close them. Irving ISD closed Davis after integration, but renovated it and made it into a regular elementary school in 1990.

If we are unable to save the school from demolition, we ask Irving ISD to at least save some of the building and have a room or wall in the new school building where children can learn about the school's origins and namesake, Josye Ophelia Davis, who was a black educator in the Bear Creek area.