A weathered red sign stood outside J. Frank Dobie Pre-K School on a recent afternoon, two months after it announced the last day of classes — and the end of the school itself.

Across the street, Victoria Gonzalez, 59, has been keeping an eye on the schoolhouse. Her family has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years, and she worries that the building would sit empty and attract vandals.

“We were pretty upset when they closed it, because we were like, ‘Wow, this is the perfect pre-K building,’ and we were like, ‘I wonder what’s gonna happen next,’” said Victoria’s daughter, Jessica Gonzalez.

But the former schoolhouse could again be bustling when it reopens next month under a new name: Esperanza Community Center at Dobie.

Along the school’s long, straight hallways, some of its classrooms will stay mostly the same but put to different use — for child care, English classes and training in fields like air-conditioning maintenance. Other classrooms will become offices, meeting rooms and clinic space for medical, dental and mental health services.

The center is taking the name of the community it serves — Esperanza is the Spanish word for “hope” — a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood that has long struggled with poverty.

More than a quarter of the area’s population is living below the federal poverty line — and more than one-third of the neighborhood’s children — compared to the county’s 14%, according to the U.S. census.

At a 2023 meeting, members of the Esperanza community shared their concerns about the lack of child care and health care services nearby, as well as the area’s issue with crime, said Dallas County Commissioner Andy Sommerman, who hosted the meeting with then-Dallas City Council member Jaynie Schultz.

The meeting birthed the idea of a centralized hub for “womb-to-tomb” service providers in the community, Sommerman said.

‘Not on my watch’

Soon after, Sommerman said his team heard of Richardson Independent School District’s planned school closures. In March 2024, the school board voted to close five schools, including Dobie Pre-K, after the 2024-25 school year, citing decreased enrollment and a budget shortfall.

Sommerman’s team then approached the school district, and the two agreed that the county would lease the Dobie Pre-K campus.

“These schools would have been abandoned and blighted,” he said as he stood in the empty schoolhouse. “Not on my watch.”

The Esperanza Community Center will provide permanent space for service providers, including the city of Dallas’ Women, Infants and Children program, ChildCareGroup, Parkland Health and Metrocare clinics, and classes by RISD Family Literacy Center and Dallas College. The county’s Health and Human Services will manage the center.

The community center will also have a community kitchen, garden and food pantry, as well as an auditorium and gym for neighborhood gatherings.

Sommerman said renovation for the school-turned-community center will begin within days, and he expects the center to open in August and all service providers to move in by January of next year.

The county has pitched in $5 million for capital improvements, and his team is planning to raise another $3.5 million for the center’s other expenses, he added.

Improve coordination

Beyond a centralized space where residents can receive a wide range of services, Sommerman said he hopes the community center will improve coordination among the providers.

While there are facilities that house multiple service providers under one roof— the Jubilee Community Center in southeast Dallas, for example — the Esperanza Center goes further than other community centers he knows of, he said.

“In 50 years, if the center’s still around, somebody could have been provided services from the time that they were babies to the time they are senior citizens,” Sommerman said.

Jessica Gonzalez, 30, attended Dobie, as did all of her siblings. A teacher for almost a decade, she started her teaching career at Dobie.

Dobie has been a central part of her neighborhood, Gonzalez said. A school during the day, it also offered after-school care. A food pantry operated out of the school during the summer, giving free meals to families in need.

Her mother, Victoria, said the school had helped children of the community, adding that “now, they’re going to give out more help for the future.”

Elda Hudson, Metrocare’s director of care coordination, said the Dallas-based mental health provider has piloted satellite clinics at partnering organizations. But the collaboration with Esperanza is new for Metrocare since it will, for the first time, have a permanent space in the building, she said.