Walnut Hill International Leadership Academy | |
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Location | |
Coordinates | 32°52′58″N 96°50′23″W / 32.882879°N 96.83958799999999°W |
Information | |
Type | Public, K-8 |
School district | Dallas Independent School District |
Principal | Phillip Potter |
Grades | PK-8 |
Number of students | 425[1] |
Trustee dist. | 1, Edwin Flores, Ph.D.[2] |
Area | 4, Dr. Robin S. Ryan[3] |
Website | Home page |
Walnut Hill International Leadership Academy (WHILA), formerly Walnut Hill Elementary School, is a public K-8 school in Dallas, Texas, and a part of the Dallas Independent School District (DISD). The school's previous campus was located near Walnut Hill Lane.[4] The school has been in operation since 1912, though the building used until 2019 was constructed in 1946.[5] Walnut Hill serves a portion of the Preston Hollow area, including parts of the "Old Preston Hollow" estate community.[6][7]
In 1999, Walnut Hill won the National Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education under the leadership of Principal Jo Anne Hughes. Eileen Gale Kugler, author of Debunking the Middle-Class Myth: Why Diverse Schools Are Good for All Kids, described Walnut Hill as a "successful school" in 2003 due to its dual immersion English-Spanish program and other academic programs;[8] parents from other parts of the school district enroll their children in Walnut Hill due to the immersion program. As of 2003[update] the school has traditional and mixed-age classes available.[8] The school's academic performance reached record highs in 2018 after three years of significant growth under the transformational leadership of Principal Robert Chase McLaurin and was nominated for the 2019 National Blue Ribbon Schools Award for Exemplary Performance.[9] In 2019, exactly two decades after earning its first National Blue Ribbon; Walnut Hill was honored with the rare distinction of a second National Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education
As of 2019[update] the school building had been destroyed by a tornado, so students were temporarily relocated to another school.
The middle school program does not have an attendance boundary but instead is an application school.[10]
Today, real estate agents count the area bordered by Midway and Hillcrest roads, Royal Lane and Northwest Highway as Preston Hollow. But "Old Preston Hollow" - the area that was its own municipality until 1945 - is a smaller enclave bounded by Preston Road, Walnut Hill Lane, Midway and Northwest Highway.- Compare the boundaries stated in the text to the Dallas ISD attendance zone maps.