By Julia James
Reprinted – by Texas Metro News
Website: https://www.dallasnews.com/
George Woodrow has been setting records most of his life.
He was the first Black quarterback at Kilgore College in East Texas, and the first Black person to start the position at North Texas State University, now the University of North Texas.
Why This Story Matters
George Woodrow is the first Black person elected to the Sunnyvale Town Council. He said he ran, in part, because he wanted African American community members to be represented.
One year after becoming principal at Carpenter Elementary School in Dallas ISD, which had been struggling to perform, every single fifth grader passed the state assessment.
And now at age 74, he’s the first Black person elected to the Sunnyvale Town Council.
Sunnyvale, about 15 miles down Highway 80 east of downtown Dallas, has a population just under 8,000. Its demographics have been shifting in recent years: in the 2010 census, the town’s population was 62% white. In 2020, that figured had dropped to 49%. In that same period, Black residents in Sunnyvale have increased from 6% of the population to 10%.
Woodrow, a native of Orange, said he ran, in part, because he wanted African American community members to be represented.
“I felt, and feel, that the council should reflect the community,” he said. “I wanted to make that happen. I wanted an African American to sit at the table. … I was hoping I would bring a different perspective.”
He also said he had solved the world’s problems from his kitchen table, and his wife encouraged him to run for something to put that passion into practice.
George Woodrow has kept up with his constituents using the rolodex he developed while campaigning, letting them know when an issue they raised comes up at council meetings. (Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer)
He ran for the first time in 2021 but said it was harder to challenge an incumbent without much knowledge about campaigning. This time around, he took a more practiced approach — he made a campaign website and spent about six hours a day door-knocking.
Woodrow said he knocked on “virtually every door” in Sunnyvale, looping back to some of them multiple times to ensure he caught someone. He answered questions and made notes in his phone about people’s concerns, taking down phone numbers to follow up and remind them to vote.
“I would just sit down and — I don’t know how to send one text to 300 people, so I had to text each one individually,” Woodrow said laughing. “Once I developed my statement, then I would copy, paste, copy, paste.”
Since getting elected, he’s kept up with his constituents using the rolodex he developed, letting them know when an issue they raised comes up at council meetings. Woodrow said some people are disappointed when an issue isn’t resolved immediately, but most appreciate his efforts and his updates.
Woodrow and his wife, Sherry, have lived in Sunnyvale since 2000. They built a home there after about 15 years in Dallas’ Buckner Terrace neighborhood in Pleasant Grove.
Woodrow got his first teaching job after college at DISD’s W.T. White High School in northwest Dallas, and moved all around the city as he moved up the ladder — teaching, coaching, an assistant principal, principal, then on the superintendent’s staff.
He said district leadership frequently moved him into new roles because of his successes in improving student performance, something that came as a result of his ability to help teachers grow.
He briefly left the state for an opportunity in Georgia after 32 years with DISD, but came back a year later and started teaching night classes on educational leadership in the University of North Texas System in 2005. He’s still teaching classes as an adjunct, just remotely from his home office.
Over the years of developing course materials, Woodrow got interested in the study of leadership, a passion he let overwhelm him. He spent about 18 months intensely researching and combined the theory with his practical experience to write a textbook — The Pyramid Approach: A Framework for Raising Student Academic Achievement.
Woodrow cherished those three hours in the classroom each night. He’d interrupt students to elaborate on their presentations, which he said initially threw them off their rhythm, but they came to enjoy the back and forth.
“In my personal life I’m very quiet, very introverted, but if you put me in a classroom, I take on a different personality,” he said.
Woodrow also said he’s noticed that classroom persona coming out in council meetings, asking lots of questions and trying to keep his eye open for new opportunities. While it initially caught him by surprise, he’s proud to be an active participant in the process.
He says as a new voice on the council, he hopes to shake things up and bring in new perspectives. But he joked he still learning to do it within the confines of parliamentary procedure.
“The only thing that constrains me is Robert’s Rules of Order,” he said.
| This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas. |
