Fifty years after the district absurdly declared itself "completely desegregated," Dallas ISD took two significant steps acknowledging and addressing its turbulent racial past.

DISD's board of trustees unanimously passed a sweeping resolution that recognized the intergenerational effects of racial and economic segregation on its students, pledging to confront inequities and "relentlessly pursue" improvements to fix them districtwide.

Trustees also unanimously approved new names for three elementary schools that honored Confederate generals: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and William L. Cabell.

"These changes says something about DISD and where we are as an institution," trustee Miguel Solis said. "This is bold leadership by Dr. [Michael] Hinojosa guiding us through this process. This is bold leadership by this board. And it's going to lay the path for not just acknowledgement of the history ... but also a path for remediation, and for real conversations about equity and equality and how to move our city forward for every single child to feel like they matter in this city, regardless of circumstances."

The Dallas ISD board of trustees is considering renaming four schools named after Confederate generals: (from left) Robert E. Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Albert Sidney Johnston and William L. Cabell.

The resolution, co-authored by trustee Joyce Foreman and Solis, is largely symbolic but draws outlines where the district might target its efforts after a racial equity audit, conducted by a group from San Diego State University, is presented to the district in early 2018.

"We must directly confront inequities in school and teacher quality, resource allocation, socioeconomically and racially segregated enrollment patterns, and issues of programmatic access and effectiveness," the document reads.

It took over 30 years of litigation and judicial oversight for the district to finally achieve desegregation that then-superintendent W.T. White boasted of in 1967. But a formal examination of the effects of decades-long segregation and how to redress them has never happened in DISD.

The district is now overwhelmingly composed of people of color — 70 percent Hispanic, 22.5 percent black — and poor, with nearly 86 percent of its students considered by DISD as economically disadvantaged.

Foreman, who's fought hard on issues of equity since joining the board in 2014, said "the community is excited that we are having this conversation" but added that words alone won't fix the district's imbalances.

"I'm hoping all the banter that we hear on racial equity is not just banter," she said. "Because to me, actions speak louder than words."

William L. Cabell Elementary School at 12701 Templeton Trail in Dallas. (Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer)

For the new school names, the three campuses chose geographical markers instead of historic figures.

William L. Cabell Elementary will become Chapel Hill Preparatory, named after the surrounding community in Farmers Branch.

Stonewall Jackson Elementary will become Mockingbird Elementary, named after the street the school faces.

And Robert E. Lee Elementary will become Geneva Heights Elementary, named after the plat of land where the school is built.

Superintendent Michael Hinojosa thanked chief of school leadership Stephanie Elizalde, campus administrators and the community members who took part in the renaming process.

"They all rallied behind this, and followed a process, they came back with a product [where] they involved the stakeholders to find something that everyone could support," he said.

Trustees lauded the efforts of the schools' principals in negotiating the oft-contentious process.

Dustin Marshall praised Stonewall principal Melanie Mans, saying she "really did a spectacular job in a difficult situation."

Earlier in the week, Mans explained her school's decision-making process, guiding a 54-member committee through five meetings and 56 suggestions to eventually settle on three finalists: Mockingbird, Olivia Henderson — a 22-year principal at the school — and East Dallas Elementary.

"It's very important to me and our school that it was very inclusive and that people had a voice," Mans said. "Mockingbird was the one that the committee felt was the best fit for our school."

Marshall also acknowledged the early work done by parents and administrators at Robert E. Lee. That school's leadership had already selected "Geneva Heights" prior to September, when trustees created a fast-track process to rename the Confederate campuses in response to white nationalist violence in Charlottesville, Va.

Principal Bert Hart said his school community, in the midst of being authorized as an International Baccalaureate campus, started the discussion about changing the name in the spring because Robert E. Lee wasn't "an all-encompassing name for our school."

Schools in the IB program tailor academically challenging curricula around globally significant topics, tying instruction between various subjects.

"The great thing about the new name is that ... we're becoming an International Baccalaureate school, and well, its headquarters is Geneva, Switzerland," Hart said. "We are a very diverse school, with a diverse population. I think Geneva Heights, in conjunction with the International Baccalaureate designation, I think it's a natural fit."

Trustee Edwin Flores credited Cabell principal Fabian Hypolite for garnering "very broad-based input on the possible name."

"We had outreach through every conceivable electronic method that we could pursue," Flores said.

Hypolite said Wednesday that a survey of three finalists received 386 responses from adults and students, from 30 different ZIP codes. Chapel Hill Prep won the majority of the votes, over Templeton Prep and Ridgeoak Prep — the two cross streets for the campus.

The renaming committee considered the possible financial impacts that the name change could have on families, and adjusted the implementation of the new name accordingly, Hypolite said.

"Our uniforms, for example, carry a logo that contains the name 'Cabell,'" he explained. "We have decided to grandfather those uniforms in, so students can wear those uniforms until they are ready to get a new uniform. The change won't have an economic impact on students."

The fourth Confederate-named campus, Albert Sidney Johnston Elementary, selected its new name at the end of last week, not early enough to be included in the December board meeting.

"Almost weekly, we were doing something," principal Michele Martin said. "We've been busy."

The new name, Cedar Crest Elementary, was chosen over icons Katherine Johnson and Rosa Parks, because, as the selection committee said: "We wanted students to know that their possibilities are endless, and that they do not have to look to movie stars, athletes or other professionals in other places — but they can look to the people in their own community."

"We feel like we need to tell the story of the people who lived here in Cedar Crest, for our kids to know that they can reach the same success," Martin said.