Central Market donates $1M to help Dallas schools a year after tornado destroyed campuses
Dallas #Dallas
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of a tornado that ripped through North Dallas and destroyed three of its neighborhood schools, Dallas ISD received another sizable donation to help those schools get back on their feet.
During a presentation at its Preston and Royal location that was damaged by the storms, Central Market — the upscale division of the H-E-B grocery chain — presented $1 million to the district’s burgeoning non-profit arm, the Dallas Education Foundation.
“Hope’s on the way,” said Dallas ISD superintendent Michael Hinojosa.
The non-profit has raised nearly $6 million in contributions over the past year, garnering similar $1 million donations from Mark Cuban and Mary McDermott Cook.
Around half of those funds are earmarked to be spent at the 10 DISD campuses affected by the storms, including the three schools still shut down because of damage: Thomas Jefferson High School, Cary Middle School and Walnut Hill Elementary.
The district hopes to reopen TJ and a new kindergarten-to-eighth grade campus that will absorb Cary and Walnut Hill students by Fall 2022.
Mita Havlick, executive director of the foundation, said H-E-B did not place any encumbrances on its current contribution. The foundation’s board will decide how to allocate that money to programs across the district.
Havlick praised H-E-B and Central Market for its commitment to education and Dallas ISD. In May, the district was honored as the top large school district in the state at the H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards, receiving a $100,000 grant in the process.
“We have 150,000 students in this school district that need all of us, and we’re so fortunate to have Central Market as our neighborhood partner in this long-term commitment,” she said.
Central Market also donated 50 native trees to RETREET, a non-profit that replants trees following a disaster.
Stephen Butt, president of H-E-B’s Central Market Division, recalled what the neighborhood looked like not long after the storm.
“The street, the corner was decimated,” Butt said. “It looked like it went through a war zone and a battle. Power lines, telephone poles, trees, wires, mangled together.”
The Central Market location at Preston and Royal is still under construction, slated for completion in mid-April to early May 2021. Butt said that the store could have reopened in December, but instead pushed that timeline back to add 4,000 square feet of space and enhanced amenities.
“Today, we hope to re-energize and refocus the community on the important work of rebuilding the corner of Preston and Royal,” Butt said.
Patrick Krejs, the Managing Director of the Central Region for Regency Centers, said that the projected construction completion date for the rest of the shopping center is in June 2021, giving business tenants enough time to finish the interiors of their stores for the holiday season.
Businesses slated to return include Hollywood Feed and Talbots.
Dallas City Councilmember Jennifer Staubach Gates, whose council district includes the shopping center, said that one single entity could not successfully bring a community back from such a disaster.
“It’s not just the government that can get us through this,” Gates said. “It’s not just the businesses. And it’s not just the non-profits. It really is all of us, working together.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Communities Foundation of Texas, The Meadows Foundation, The Dallas Foundation, Southern Methodist University, Todd A. Williams Family Foundation, The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, and the Solutions Journalism Network. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
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