A former school in Salina could soon be remembered as a historic site.

On Monday representatives from the Dunbar School Alumni Association proposed to Salina City Commissioners that the former segregated school’s  building be considered an historic site. Chief Operations Officer of CKF Addiction Treatment Jessica Eckels has been a leading proponent  for getting the school to be part of the National Register of Historic Places and the Register of Historic Kansas Places. 

In 1920, the Salina school board voted to establish Dunbar School. It also served as a center of community activities for African Americans in Salina. By 1922, it was established by the Salina Board of Education as a modern facility which served black children from kindergarten – 8th grade. The school opened with six black teachers and a principal. It was named after poet and author Paul Lawrence Dunbar.

The Dunbar School was closed in 1955. The Dunbar School Alumni Association Inc. was formed in June of 1993. This association helps to preserve and promote the special legacy that was, and is, Dunbar.

According to the Dunbar Alumni Association, this legacy is embodied in a living statement by those who graduated from, attended, or were touched by Dunbar School. The need to promote educational achievement, strength of character, and positive self-esteem is as real today, perhaps more so, as it was in 1922. This uniquely segregated educational experiment produced a quality of achievement, character, and productivity that appears to be a passing value today and Dunbar passed into history after the 1955-56 school year.