Coppell Chronicle Vol. 3, No. 25
Coppell ISD Putting Cops on Each Campus • Police Reports Shed Light on Outages • Odds and Ends From Bond Elections • Pickleball Players Plead for More Courts
Did you see that Frisco ISD’s school year began tragically, with a 15-year-old student dying after a vehicle struck his bike? Please keep your eyes on the road and off your phone as you drive anywhere, but especially around schools. Coppell Classical Academy opens tomorrow, and Tuesday is the first day of the fall semester for Coppell ISD and Universal Academy.
Coppell ISD Putting Cops on Each Campus
A new state law requires “at least one armed security officer” on every campus in every school district across Texas. Our local officials are doing what they can to comply.
Coppell ISD already has six Coppell Police Department officers assigned to its secondary schools within the city limits, plus a pair of Dallas County Sheriff’s Department deputies patrolling its campuses in Valley Ranch and Cypress Waters. In a Safety and Security Update issued on Aug. 3, Superintendent Brad Hunt said the district is working with those departments, as well as the City of Irving, to hire and train officers for all of its elementary schools.
Hunt and Chief Operations Officer Chris Trotter met with Coppell City Manager Mike Land and Coppell Police Chief Danny Barton on July 26, when they “finalized a plan of action,” as Land told the City Council. Land said it will cost up to $1.6 million to place officers at the eight Coppell ISD elementary campuses in Coppell. The city and the school district plan to split those costs.
“Because we’re operating under 3.334, it’ll be really tight,” Land told the council during their July 27 budget workshop. “But we can do it.”
Rule 3.334 is Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s proposal to shift the sales taxes on an online transaction from the seller’s city to the buyer’s city. Land’s staff is budgeting as if the rule is already in effect, but the proposal is on hold due to a lawsuit Coppell and a few other cities filed against Hegar. A trial is scheduled for January.
During their July 27 workshop, the council’s consensus was that the “plan of action” sounded good. They’ll take a formal vote on an amended budget for their Crime Control and Prevention District on Aug. 22.
“It is unfortunate that Austin mandates these things, and then they’re like, ‘Well, you go figure out how to pay for it,’” Council Member Kevin Nevels said. “I wish the state would kick in a little bit more.”
The new state law provides $10 per student plus $15,000 per campus to pay officers. The Coppell Police Department’s starting salary for rookies is $67,000.
During last Monday’s Coppell ISD Board of Trustees workshop, Chief Financial Officer Diana Sircar said the district is “very fortunate” to get “very generous” support from the City of Coppell. Even with that support, though, Coppell ISD will have to devote between $750,000 and $1 million to this effort.
“That’s a significant mandate when the state is only providing us with 15,000 dollars per campus to support that mandate,” she said.
Trustee Manish Sethi put it another way: “That mandate is taking almost one teacher away from every campus. That directly affects lowering — or making it more challenging — the quality of education that we’re expected to give to our kids.”
Trustee Anthony Hill said Sircar has previously provided the board with charts that break down all of the Legislature’s unfunded mandates. He requested an updated version to reflect laws passed during this year’s legislative session, plus any upcoming special sessions.
“It’s not just that the district is spending money and running down the fund balance,” Hill said. “These unfunded mandates have a detrimental effect, and have had since I’ve been on the board.”
Police Reports Shed Light on Outages
Hundreds of Coppell residents were powerless last month because one of their neighbors decided to get lit.
After 10 p.m. on July 21, a 29-year-old Coppell man crashed a GMC Sierra pickup into a utility pole at the intersection of West Sandy Lake Road and North Coppell Road. The pole he hit caused an adjacent pole to lean, and two residents called 911 to report “large arcing flashes,” according to a Coppell Fire Department report. An Oncor spokesman told me the resulting outage affected 800 customers, but he also said power was restored within minutes. However, two of my subscribers who live nearby say they went without electricity for 12 hours.
A Coppell Police Department report said the floorboards of the Sierra were littered with 30 to 40 cream charger cartridges. At least one was of the Goo variety, but most carried the Whip-It! brand. These products have a legitimate purpose; chefs use them to decorate desserts and other culinary creations. However, the cartridges “contain nitrous oxide, which if inhaled, can lead to an intoxicating effect,” a Coppell officer wrote in his report.
Although the Sierra’s driver was lying on his back in an ambulance, the officer was able to perform a sobriety test based on the driver’s horizontal gaze. Due to the results of that test — and the large number of Whip-It! cartridges in his truck — the man was charged with driving while intoxicated. A glass bong in the back seat that bore “suspected burnt marijuana residue” may have been a factor as well.
Since I was bothering first responders for their incident reports, I thought I would also try to find out what caused the power outage that led to Coppell issuing a boil water notice in late June. (See “Information Flowed During Water Crisis” in Vol. 3, No. 19.) Unfortunately, those documents weren’t quite as conclusive as the ones from the July 21 incident.
Shortly after 3:30 a.m. on June 28, an officer was dispatched to the Chase bank on North MacArthur Boulevard in response to an alarm. That officer soon discovered that power lines were down on Kimbel Kourt, the street adjacent to the Village Parkway Pump Station. An Oncor employee who assessed the damage told the officer that an 18-wheeler may have snagged a low-hanging wire while pulling into the nearby businesses’ parking lot.
Later that morning, another police officer asked a manager at Marco’s Pizza if the restaurant had received any overnight deliveries. The manager said he typically gets a delivery between 3 and 4 a.m. on Wednesdays, but that day’s supplies were missing, and he had not been able to find out why.
That same day, a third officer who was parked on Kimbel Kourt to block traffic observed an 18-wheeler slowly driving past Marco’s Pizza in the westbound lanes of Sandy Lake. The driver of the semi then turned around and stopped in the eastbound lanes so he could use his phone to take pictures or video of the scene. The officer reported that the trailer bore the logo of the company that usually delivers Marco’s supplies.
Does anybody else think it sounds like our June water crisis might be connected to some misplaced mushrooms and pepperonis?
Odds and Ends From Bond Elections
A list of 67 applicants for the Coppell ISD Bond Oversight Committee has been narrowed down to 19.
A subcommittee of the Board of Trustees — Nichole Bentley, Manish Sethi, Ranna Raval — presented their recommendations to the other four trustees during a workshop on Monday night. The 19 chosen names haven’t been made public yet, presumably because the district wants to inform them and the 48 other applicants first.
The Bond Oversight Committee will provide feedback to the Board of Trustees and the CISD administration regarding the projects funded by the $321.5 million bond package that voters approved in May. However, the committee will have no legal authority to make any decisions.
Monday’s workshop also featured a briefing on the remaining funds from Coppell ISD’s previous bond package. In 2016, a slim majority of voters approved issuing $249 million worth of bonds, and $20.7 million is left in that bucket thanks to project savings and interest earnings.
Chief Financial Officer Diana Sircar told the trustees that if those funds aren’t depleted by next May, then the bonds will lose their tax-exempt status, “which would not make the investors in those bonds very happy.” She said that would also be a ding to Coppell ISD’s stellar reputation among investors.
“Coppell ISD bonds are very sought-after,” Sircar said. “People know we’re going to pay them.”
Chief Operations Officer Chris Trotter proposed a plan to spend $17.7 million on outstanding projects from the 2016 bond package, some projects that were intended to be part of the 2023 bond package, and a few new projects.
Trotter said the bulk of the $844,000 for transportation would go toward new buses. Trustee Jobby Mathew asked how much it would cost to put nine cameras on each bus, an upgrade from the three-cameras plan I wrote about two weeks ago. Trotter said he would get back to the board with that figure.
(See “Coppell ISD Installing Cameras on Each Bus” in Vol. 3, No. 23.)
Trotter also provided some details on the $248,000 worth of needs identified by Coordinator of Fine Arts Gerry Miller: lights and furniture in the Coppell High School auditorium, uniforms for the middle school bands and choirs, and replacement kilns at Austin and Pinkerton elementary schools.
Meanwhile, the Lewisville ISD Board of Trustees also held a workshop on Monday, when that district’s One Vision Task Force recommended a bond package valued at nearly $1.3 billion. Residents of Lewisville ISD — which includes portions of Coppell — should expect to see a series of bond proposals on their ballots in November. A bond election will likely be called during a special board meeting this Wednesday.
Pickleball Players Plead for More Courts
Eleven people spoke during the “Citizens’ Appearance” portion of last week’s Coppell Parks and Recreation Board meeting, and nine of them talked about pickleball.
These pickleballers want the city to build more courts, preferably with air-conditioning or shade. They want more of the city’s tennis courts to be restriped to accommodate occasional pickleball sessions. And they want the city’s existing pickleball courts to have expanded hours.
The speakers included a pair of former elected officials, Candy Sheehan and Barb Schmidt, who stopped by Monday’s meeting on their way to — you guessed it — play pickleball.
Sheehan, who used to be Coppell’s mayor, said you might have expected the pickleball courts at Wagon Wheel Park to have been empty during the city’s Fourth of July parade. But she reported they were all full that morning.
“It just shows the popularity of pickleball and how many people are really joining the sport and enjoying it,” said Sheehan, who added that only one tennis court was in use during the parade.
“We have so much going on with pickleball,” said Schmidt, a former Coppell ISD trustee. “And we don’t want to minimize the tennis stuff at all. We just want to be able to pivot a little bit and accommodate all of the people that are coming out.”
Another speaker, Marcy McGrady, said pickleball has benefits that go beyond physical fitness: “It does bring people in the community together,” she told the board. “I knew one lady out of all these folks, and now I have all these new friends, and that’s really what pickleball does.”
Nobody on the parks board, or the city’s staff, was surprised to hear all this.
“The pickleball community has turned out and been vocal for a very long time,” Director of Community Experiences Jessica Carpenter said during Monday’s meeting. “They’ve been extremely patient.”
Those remarks happened as the board discussed their Project Priority List. Carpenter recommended adding an item to that list — hiring a consultant to “look at every single option” via a feasibility study: “Where can we put additional courts? How can we program what we have? What indoor options could we potentially find? What outdoor options could we potentially find to expand pickleball in Coppell?”
The board seemed amenable to that idea. They will take a formal vote on revising the Project Priority List during their Sept. 11 meeting. In the short term, the Community Experiences Department announced on Friday that The CORE will have expanded pickleball hours starting this week.
One more thing: As you may recall from a recent edition of the Chronicle Crumbs, Vistara Sports — a business that will offer 18 indoor courts for pickleball and badminton — is about to open on a property straddling the boundary between Coppell and Lewisville. Its website previously said the building would be accessible to members around the clock, but it now says the hours will be from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Here’s a Sneak Peek at Next Week’s Edition
The agenda for this Thursday’s meeting of the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission is action-packed. The meeting will include public hearings on …
• AstraZeneca’s proposal to build a 20,000-square-foot “tank farm” on Wrangler Drive, not far from the Coppell High School Ninth Grade Campus.
• Revised plans for a fuel station at Kroger that would place the pumps on the southeast corner of the grocery store’s parking lot.
• A proposal to build a home and an office building on a pair of undeveloped parcels along Denton Tap Road, due south of Bailey Orthodontics.
• An application to operate a short-term rental on Kaye Street.
• A request to build a stone and iron wall in front of a $1.3 million home on Deforest Road, plus a 750-square-foot accessory structure in the backyard.
If any of your friends and neighbors are on the fence (stone, iron, or otherwise) about becoming a paid subscriber, encourage them to sign up before next Sunday’s edition is published.
Chronicle Crumbs
• Here’s when all the cities and school districts that overlap with Coppell and Coppell ISD are expected to vote on their budgets and tax rates for fiscal 2024: Lewisville ISD (Aug. 16), City of Coppell (Aug. 22), Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD (Aug. 24), Coppell ISD (Aug. 28), City of Irving (Sept. 14), City of Dallas (Sept. 20), and City of Lewisville (a date to be determined).
• Coppell Mayor Wes Mays did not read a proclamation recognizing Aug. 8 as National Whataburger Day during Tuesday’s City Council meeting, but Don Carroll apparently celebrated the holiday in his own way.
• For the second year in a row, the Coppell City Council has approved the sale of beer and wine during the St. Ann Carnival, which is scheduled for Sept. 8-10. (See “St. Ann Carnival to Offer Alcohol” in Vol. 2, No. 25.) Before Tuesday’s unanimous vote, a smiling Kevin Nevels told his fellow council members he’d conducted “extensive research” on the drinks offered at last year’s carnival.
• On Friday, I learned of two more Democrats who want to challenge U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Irving) for her District 24 seat in Congress. Joining Francine Ly of Irving in the race are Sam Eppler and Sandeep Srivastava, both of parts unknown. (I emailed each guy to ask where he lives, but neither has responded yet.) There’s plenty of time for other candidates to throw their hats in the ring; Dec. 11 is the filing deadline for the March 5 primaries.
• The Irving Police Department announced that former Chief Benny Newman, who was the city’s top cop from 1978 to 1994, died last Sunday at the age of 91. He was the longest-serving chief in the department’s history.
• Smoothie King, which is headquartered within Coppell ISD, has announced plans to open 15 more stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
• I’m always amused by beauty pageants’ disregard for geography: Haylee Chiariello, who already holds the title of “Miss Sugar Land” despite being a resident of Fort Worth, was bestowed the “Miss Coppell” sash during an Aug. 5 event that was held in … [drumroll] … Arlington.
• If you’d like the author of this newsletter to periodically pester you with questions, consider applying to be Coppell’s Communication Strategist.
Community Calendar
Rounding Third: Theatre Coppell will stage seven more performances of Richard Dresser’s comedy about youth baseball. The next show is set for 2:30 p.m. today in the Wheelice Wilson Jr. Theatre at the Coppell Arts Center.
Blast Ball: The registration deadline for the Coppell Baseball Association’s fall league for boys and girls ages 3 and 4 has been extended until tomorrow.
Teen Back-to-School Celebration: The Cozby Library and Community Commons invites teenagers to enjoy games, food, and activities between 5:30 and 7 p.m. on Wednesday. This is a come-and-go program, so it’s OK if you can’t stay the whole time.
August Paint & Sip: Banana Split: Adults can wine up and wind down between 6 and 8 p.m. on Wednesday at the Coppell Arts Center, where Createria Studios founder Kate Shema will lead you through the painting process.
Locally Sourced: The Coppell Creatives are soliciting submissions for an exhibit devoted to art created by people who live or work in Coppell. The entry deadline is Friday.
Bachelors of Broadway: A “trio of dashing men” will sing showtunes at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday in the Main Hall at the Coppell Arts Center.
Pinslayers Bowling Classic: The Coppell Chamber of Commerce’s annual bowling tournament will get rolling at 1 p.m. on Aug. 25 at Main Event in Lewisville.
Lariettes Spaghetti Dinner: The annual fundraiser for the Coppell High School drill team is set for 5 p.m. on Aug. 25, before the varsity football team opens their season against Sachse.
I had to look up what a “tank farm” was. I found it was a storage facility for petroleum products. Now that doesn’t sound like a business I’d want close to a school!!!
Just arrived today!