Reagan Elementary in Oak Cliff wasn’t named for The Gipper.
It’s John H. Reagan Elementary, named for a Confederate official.
Reagan served as Postmaster General of the Confederate States of America. He was captured with Gen. Robert E. Lee at the end of the U.S. Civil War and was imprisoned at Fort Warren in Massachusetts. He lived in the East Texas town of Palestine after the war and was a high-ranking Texas politician, serving as the first chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, the agency that oversees the state’s oil and gas industries.
Reagan died in 1905, the year Reagan Elementary opened, and many schools were named after him. Reagan High School in Austin changed its name to Northeast High School in 2018.
Now Reagan Elementary is making the change to reflect its location as well as its status as a Dallas ISD STEAM academy. It’s down to two finalists: Bishop Arts STEAM Academy or North Oak Cliff STEAM Academy.
Voting for the new name ends Dec. 4, so we expect the results to be announced shortly after.
