By Joe Farkus, NDG Contributing Writer
The Dallas ISD Trustee Board discussed a proposal to partner with the organization After8toEducate to house unsheltered students in the district at their board briefing Thursday, Oct. 12 and will vote on the measure this Thursday at the next board meeting. The district has received an estimate of more than 100 unsheltered students currently sleeping on park benches or in abandoned buildings who can’t go to homeless shelters, because they are not yet adults. With homelessness serving as a clear detriment to a child’s likelihood of staying in school and moving into successful careers, After8toEducate – along with partners Promise House and City Square – are convinced they have found a solution.
The proposal discussed would include converting the currently abandoned Fannie C. Harris Elementary School building (closed in 2006) into a shelter for up to 35 unsheltered students at a time. A “drop-in shelter” would also be able to assist students on a temporary emergency basis. All shelter volunteers would be required to pass a federal background check, a Child Protective Services (CPS) background check, and a sex offender background check. Meals would also be provided to students at the shelter. To qualify for placement in the shelter, a student would have to be between the ages of 14 and 21.
The overall cost to renovate Fannie C. Harris is estimated to be roughly $2 million, while the total yearly cost of maintaining the program would be about the same. As After8toEducate and its partners intend to raise the majority of the funding from private donations, Dallas ISD, which owns the building, would only be expected to contribute $133,000 a year for operational, maintenance, and other costs.
Despite apparent support for the proposal, Trustee Joyce Foreman led the board in its concerns over the wording of the contract presented during the Oct. 12 briefing. Her concerns were related to ambiguity in the wording of the contract and the total absence of some of the district’s proposed obligations to the project.
The contract, as proposed during the briefing, would commit the district to the project for seven years with two 5-year renewal options at the district’s discretion. If the district were to eventually commit to the full 17 years, the cost is estimated at a total of $2.29 million dollars.
The Board intends to vote on whether to approve this proposal during its Oct. 26 board meeting this Thursday.
Now what are they going to do for the homeless students without family that are 13 and under?
One does wonder what happens to them…