Bonham Elementary won the National Excellence in Urban Education Award in 2009 and the Blue Ribbon School Award in 2010, and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) ranked the campus as exemplary for several years. The school had above 200 students in the 2011-2012 school year, leading Eric Nicholson of the Dallas Observer to wrote that the school was "badly underused". There were 22 students per teacher at that time, which was lower than the common one to 27. The underpopulation was a stated reason to close the school. The student population sharply declined as gentrification occurred, as the inflation-adjusted median income increased by 80% from 1990 to 2010, and fewer children lived in the area, as in the same period the number of residents 18 or younger went was 580 in 2010 when it was 1,187 in 1990. The husband of the president of the Bonham parent-teacher association, Dave Walkington, stated that the district may have additionally selected Bonham as a way of telling the Texas Legislature that it needed additional funds and that high performing schools were in jeopardy. Additionally articles from local publications stated that DISD would have had reductions in federal funding if it closed campuses with poor academic performance. DISD board members stated that deciding to close a small school regardless of its academic performance would be a fair decision. Students were rezoned to Lee Elementary. All of the final teaching employees, including principal Sandra Fernandez, were reassigned to Callejo Elementary, which had opened that year. The physical building, post-closure, had sustained some vandalism. After the closure DISD immigration intake facility opened on the Bonham school grounds, but not in the main building. In 2013 the DCAD appraised the property's value as $6.7 million. The Bonham campus became a female-only STEAM school in 2016. Keri Mitchell of The Advocate Lakewood/East Dallas wrote that the absorption of Bonham students added "engaged families" to the school community of Lee Elementary. References Architectural Styles in Vickery Place at VPNA.org History of the Neighborhood at VPNA.org History of Vickery Place at www.vickeryplace.com External links Vickery Place Neighborhood Association Website