North Texas principal, removed after racially-exclusive assembly, appointed principal at another DISD school
Chandra Hooper-Barnett served as principal of Woodrow Wilson High School for three years. (An archived webpage from Dallas ISD)
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The former principal of Woodrow Wilson High School, who was removed after holding a meeting last year with only Black students, was appointed principal of another North Texas school in the same district.
Chandra Hooper-Barnett will be principal of Lincoln High School, Dallas Independent School District officials confirmed. They declined to comment further.
Hooper-Barnett was dismissed from Woodrow Wilson in October 2025 after she held a meeting with only Black students about their academic performance. Black students made up 6% of the school’s nearly 2,000 student population in the 2024-2025 school year, according to district data.
A student at the school told his mother, Jennifer Bush, that Hooper-Barnett stated “the Black students were the reason why the school had a B rating,” Bush previously told The Dallas Morning News.
The high school had received a “B” in the 2024-2025 academic accountability ratings, the same letter grade given the previous three academic years.
“The decision to hold that meeting and subsequent discussion that transpired was not appropriate. I take full ownership and responsibility for what occurred, and I want to assure you that it was never my intent to single out or cause harm to any group of students,” Hooper-Barnett wrote in a letter sent to families Oct. 27.
A day later, Oct. 28, Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde notified families that Hooper-Barnett would not be returning to the school. Danielle Petters stepped in as interim principal after Hooper-Barnett was removed.
This May, Alex Merritt was selected as principal of Woodrow Wilson.
Hooper-Barnett has been an educator for 22 years, and won “Teacher of the Year” multiple times for her work teaching reading to special education students. Before working at Woodrow Wilson, she served as principal of J. L. Long Middle School.
Lincoln received a “B” in the 2024-2025 academic accountability ratings. Black students made up 70% of the schools enrollment, according to 2024-2025 school year data.
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