Coppell Chronicle Vol. 3, No. 46
Is an H-E-B in Store for Coppell ISD? • Pump Problem Temporarily Displaces Swimmers • District to Add Courses in Robotics • White Nationalist Free to Wreak More Havoc
What do you think the going rate for a fire truck is these days? Think about it as you enjoy this edition, and I’ll reveal the answer in the Chronicle Crumbs.
Is an H-E-B in Store for Coppell ISD?
Let’s make something clear up front: I am not reporting that Dallas County’s first H-E-B grocery store will be built in Coppell ISD. However, should that news ever come to pass, I want you to remember reading this article.
In December of 2022, the Irving City Council approved a zoning change requested by LaTerra Development that will allow the Los Angeles firm to turn the former Fry’s building on Interstate 635 into a storage facility. When making their case, LaTerra representatives promised they were luring a high-end retail client to the south end of the Fry’s property — which is within Coppell ISD — but they did not name any names.
“Once the neighborhood learns of the tenant that we’re talking to, I think you’re going to say, ‘Wow! My home value just went up,’” LaTerra managing director Chris Tourtellotte told the council back then. “I think you’re going to be very, very pleased.”
(See “Storage Units OK’d With Promise of Store” in Vol. 2, No. 42.)
Since then, I’ve heard whispers that the supposedly very-pleasing tenant will be H-E-B, the San Antonio-based grocery chain that began opening stores in the Dallas area a couple of years ago.
Last Tuesday, the Irving Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of a zoning change proposed by LTFI Investors — a firm that shares a mailing address with LaTerra — that would allow the still-unnamed retailer to include a restaurant with alcohol sales. This schematic shows how the restaurant would be incorporated into the building’s northwest corner.
When that image was shown during the commission’s work session, Chair Joshua Skinner asked, “Do we have any idea what the larger chunk there is going to be?” Planning Manager Ken Bloom replied, “We do not have any information that’s been submitted to us.”
Documents prepared for the commissioners said the retail building will be about 121,000 square feet. That’s just a bit larger than the four H-E-B stores that have opened in Collin and Denton counties in the past couple of years:
Sept. 21, 2022: An H-E-B opened at 4800 Main Street in Frisco.
Nov. 2, 2022: An H-E-B opened at 6001 Preston Road in Plano.
July 19, 2023: An H-E-B opened at 8700 Eldorado Parkway in McKinney.
Oct. 4, 2023: An H-E-B opened at 575 E. Exchange Parkway in Allen.
Those four stores are either 117,000 square feet or 118,000 square feet, according to The Dallas Morning News, which covered all four openings and has reported that eight more are in the works. The article linked in the previous sentence does not mention Irving.
Each of the four stores listed above includes a restaurant called True Texas BBQ that sells beer and other adult beverages. And all but one of those restaurants is on the far left as you face the H-E-B’s front doors, just like the schematic of the retail building shown to the Irving commissioners on Tuesday. (The exception is Allen, where True Texas BBQ is on the far right.)
Nobody mentioned the future occupant of the Irving building during Tuesday’s public hearing, when LTFI Investors was represented by Joe LaCroix, a civil engineer with Fort Worth-based Baird, Hampton & Brown. So I emailed LaCroix on Wednesday to see if he could provide any clarity.
“We appreciate your interest in the property,” LaCroix wrote. “However, we are not at liberty to disclose any information about the future development or occupants at this time.”
The Irving City Council will have the final say regarding alcohol sales at the I-635 site. That decision should be on the agenda for their Jan. 25 meeting.
Pump Problem Temporarily Displaces Swimmers
Coppell High School’s swimmers and divers have temporarily lost their pool.
The Cowboys and Cowgirls train at the Coppell YMCA’s pool, which is out of commission for at least three weeks. The motor in the pool’s pump did not live to see 2024. Willie Lees, the Y’s vice president of operations, said he hopes to have a replacement installed by Jan. 22.
“Unfortunately, it is not a quick turnaround for this fix,” Lees said.
Time is of the essence, because the district meet is happening this month. Until the YMCA pool is available again, the Coppell swimmers and divers are practicing at the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Natatorium, where they’re being charged a per-lane rental rate.
“We’re pretty desperate for lanes, and they had availability,” Coppell ISD Athletic Director Kit Pehl said.
Under normal circumstances, the 100 or so athletes in the CHS program use the YMCA pool in every period throughout the school day. Because CFBISD understandably prioritizes its own students, the Coppell ISD swimmers and divers have to practice in Carrollton before and after school. Misty Moreno, president of the Coppell Swim & Dive Booster Club, said the CHS athletes can’t all fit in the pool at once, so there’s been a lot of logistical juggling.
“We are just trying to make the best of the tough situation,” Moreno said. “It will be a loss of training time for sure for the majority of our team.”
A dedicated swimming and diving facility was not part of the $321.5 million bond package that Coppell ISD voters approved last May. On behalf of the district, Austin-based Baselice & Associates surveyed 300 voters in November and December of 2022. Some people were asked about spending $4 million to build an outdoor pool, while others were surveyed about spending $28 million to construct a natatorium. Initially, 64 percent of the respondents were against those proposals. Baselice then offered a bit more information:
“The district currently uses limited pool space at the YMCA for the swim program. An outdoor athletic swimming facility (or a natatorium) would allow for more effective and efficient practice space to accommodate the large number of swimmers, and could be used for swim safety lessons and by the community.”
That extra information didn’t make much of a splash. After hearing those statements, 55 percent of those surveyed were still against spending tax dollars on a pool or natatorium. Consequently, the Bond Steering Committee didn’t include an aquatics facility in its recommendation to the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees.
“Our team is just so large now, and we need space,” Moreno said via email. “It is just a very difficult situation for both our team, coaching staff, AND the YMCA (and their patrons) to share this space as our team continues to grow and be a competitive force in the district.”
The District 6-6A meet is scheduled for Jan. 26 and 27 at the Westside Aquatic Center, a natatorium owned and operated by Lewisville ISD.
District to Add Courses in Robotics
Coppell ISD announced last week that Robotics and Automation Technology will be offered as a program of study at Coppell High School this fall.
The Board of Trustees got a preview of this news on Dec. 11, when they were briefed by Josh Howard, the district’s Director of Career and Technical Education (CTE). That’s a new role for Howard, who taught computer science at Coppell High School and CHS9 before serving as an assistant principal at three CISD campuses.
Robotics and Automation Technology will join the following CTE programs of study already offered by CISD. These are course sequences that are designed to prepare students for particular career fields.
Howard reminded the trustees that the Texas Education Agency determines which programs, courses, and certifications are available. School districts can then decide which ones to offer. Howard said there are three key factors when Coppell ISD decides whether to offer a new program of study:
Labor market data
Feedback from the district’s CTE Advisory Committee
Interest from students
“Student interest is critical, and when it comes to robotics in Coppell ISD, our students are definitely interested in that,” Howard said. “We have robotics clubs [from] elementary school all the way up.”
As for the labor market, Howard cited data provided by Texas Instruments and the University of Texas at Dallas: Between now and 2028, the growing field of robotics and automation will need 700 high school graduates each year to work as operators in the region plus 700 people with associate’s degrees each year to work as technicians. Additionally, the local industry will hire 2,500 new college graduates annually to serve as engineers.
Howard talked about more than robotics and automation when he addressed the trustees last month. He told them the district added four new certification opportunities this school year (each is followed by its program of study):
Python Level 1 (Programming and Software Development)
Social Media Marketing (Marketing and Sales)
Broadcasting and Journalism (Digital Communications)
Digital Video Production (Digital Communications)
Howard offered some other key CTE statistics. He said nearly 1,200 CISD students belong to career-focused organizations such as HOSA, which is for future health professionals, or DECA, which is for students interested in marketing or finance. And he said enrollment in the district’s CTE courses increased by more than 35 percent in the past year. Howard attributed much of that growth to new high school credit offerings at the district’s three middle schools and the addition of new computer science, engineering, and health science sections at CHS9.
Howard was excited to present all of this information, and the trustees were excited to receive it. In fact, Nichole Bentley told him, “In my six years on the board, this is the most excited I’ve been about CTE.”
That said, Bentley wanted to make sure the community understands that a district the size of Coppell ISD can’t offer courses in all careers. She specifically cited culinary arts and automotive technology as fields that aren’t among the district’s programs of study.
In response, Howard said the programs of study are designed to provide paths to a variety of careers. For example, he said a student in the healthcare program could get a job in that field right out of high school, or get additional training to become a nurse, or go to medical school and become a doctor.
Trustee Leigh Walker said people regularly point out to her how much money welders, plumbers, and HVAC technicians can earn, and they ask her, “What are we doing as Coppell ISD to set up our kids for those trades?” Howard told Walker he’d invited the coordinator of the Construction Technology program at Dallas College’s Coppell Center to join the CTE Advisory Committee.
“It’s all about building those relationships,” Howard said. “It’s one of our core values, and one of my strengths and something I enjoy doing.”
White Nationalist Free to Wreak More Havoc
This next story is about a Coppell High School graduate who didn’t take long to make a mark in his chosen career field.
Thomas Rousseau earned his diploma in May of 2017. By August of that year, he was leading a group of white nationalists at the infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., according to a lengthy profile of Rousseau published by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
That profile says Rousseau founded a group called Patriot Front shortly after the deadly Charlottesville incident. In June of 2022, he and 30 other Patriot Front members were arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where they were allegedly planning to disrupt a LGBTQ Pride event. According to a report by the Coeur d’Alene Press, their plot was foiled after a tipster noticed them all loading into a U-Haul van with metal shields and “abnormally long” flagpoles.
I’m bringing this up now because a judge recently dismissed the charges against Rousseau. Coeur d’Alene is not far from Spokane, Wash., and its Spokesman-Review newspaper published a detailed account of the Nov. 3 dismissal. It says Judge John Cafferty dismissed the charges because prosecutors supposedly withheld evidence from Rousseau’s attorneys.
I’ve been trying to get in touch with those prosecutors for the past month. I wanted to know more about their appeal of the dismissal, and I was hoping they’d provide a document that might confirm where Rousseau calls home these days. (Reports at the time of his arrest said he resided in Grapevine.) Alas, they did not reply to multiple emails and phone messages.
I did, however, make contact with Matthew King, a reporter who covered Rousseau’s case for KREM-TV in Spokane. King told me Rousseau would have faced little more than a slap on the wrist if he’d been convicted: a few days in jail, a $1,000 fine, and a one-year ban from the Coeur d’Alene park where the Pride event took place. He said those were the consequences for the Patriot Front members who were convicted.
So now Rousseau is free to plan more disruptive activities if he so chooses. With all signs pointing to another contentious presidential election, I’m betting he and his cronies will be back in the news before long.
Chronicle Crumbs
• TRAFFIC ALERT: A stretch of Royal Lane between Interstate 635 and Freeport Parkway Bethel Road will be completely closed for four days (Jan. 12-15) due to DART’s Silver Line project. That closure may boost attendance at DART’s next biannual Silver Line community meeting, which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 16 at Town Hall in Cypress Waters.
• The filing period for May’s municipal elections doesn’t open until Jan. 17, but martial artist Kevin Nevels delivered a preemptive roundhouse kick to any potential rivals last week by announcing that he’s seeking a second term on the Coppell City Council. Next week’s Chronicle will include a complete roundup of all the local offices that will be up for grabs this spring.
• Six days after “Several Homes Evacuated Due to Gas Leak” was published, a pair of vapor extraction units were still blowing and going on Plantation Drive yesterday morning.
• To kick off the celebration of its 50th anniversary, the Cozby Library and Community Commons is inviting artists of all ages to submit designs for a new library card. Designs are due by the end of this month.
• Irving’s Housing and Redevelopment Division is seeking volunteers for the Point-in-Time Count. The annual census of unhoused residents across Dallas and Collin counties is scheduled for Jan. 25.
• One of the items on the agenda for Tuesday’s Coppell City Council meeting is a $2.36 million contract for a Pierce Enforcer fire truck. The base price is about $1.8 million, but this truck will come with more than $554,000 worth of options.
• Tuesday’s agenda does not include a public hearing on the property I wrote about in “Permit Request Has Coppell Greens Seeing Red.” I assume that means Delon and Faith Onsin have dropped their request for a short-term-rental permit, which was opposed by dozens of their neighbors, their homeowners association, and city planners.
Community Calendar
Four Day Weekend: The acclaimed improv comedy troupe will return to the Coppell Arts Center for their monthly engagement at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Health Expo: Alloy Personal Training will host a health expo between 1 and 2:30 p.m. on Friday featuring a few other Coppell businesses — Fleet Feet, Free Form Chiropractic, Project Lean Nation, and Stretch Lab.
Meditative Drawing: No art experience is necessary to attend this class scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons, but registration is required.
Darren Nicholson: The Grammy-nominated bluegrass musician will perform at the Coppell Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Bluebonnet Trivia Night: Elementary school students can test their knowledge of the 2023-2024 Bluebonnet Books at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 16 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.
Assistance League of Coppell meeting: Is your New Year’s resolution to become more actively engaged in Coppell? Come to the next Assistance League meeting and see how you can easily connect. Members and guests will gather at 11:15 a.m. on Jan. 18 in Room 236 at Valley Ranch Baptist Church for a two-part program. First, Atmos representative Jan Rugg will present a donation that will bring the company’s three-year total to $8,000. Then, Lynne Ryan will lead attendees in putting together games for goody bags that will go to “Night to Shine” participants on Feb. 9. After the meeting, members and guests will go to lunch at a nearby restaurant.
Coffee With a Cop: Coppell Police Department officers will be hanging out at Gas Coffee between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 20, when Frost Bank will pay for your cup of joe.
Puzzle Swap: The Cozby Library and Community Commons will accept your gently used jigsaw puzzles — with all of their pieces accounted for, mind you — between 2 and 4 p.m. on Jan. 20.
9 to 5: Coppell High School’s Cowboy Theatre Company will present five performances of Dolly Parton’s musical based on the 1980 film. The first show is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Jan. 20.
Dallas Symphony Orchestra: The musicians from Big D will venture to suburbia for a performance at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 24 at the Coppell Arts Center.
Recycling Fundraiser: The Coppell Community Chorale will happily accept your unwanted items between 9 a.m. and noon on Jan. 27 in the Coppell Arts Center’s parking lot.
KCBY Film Festival: Productions by Coppell ISD students will be showcased at 7 p.m. on Jan. 31 in the Coppell High School auditorium.
I would definitely support an indoor pool for our CISD swim/dive team. I have often said I think a swimming test must be passed for all to graduate high school. Out team needs a place to practice and hold swim meets!
WOW! This was a very interesting edition of The Coppell Chronicle!
I hope you’re correct about an H.E.B. grocery store being built near us.
I was sorry to read about our swim team having to scramble for a practice pool. I was never asked if I’d support a natatorium for CISD- I would! Coppell should have their own swim practice pool.
I was happy to know that CISD was looking at the best way to support our students who want to be involved with the trades. A national teacher of the year once said, “It’s not how smart you are, but how you are smart!” I hope we always are able to help students find --how they are smart!
As our community grows, I’m happy we are considering upgrading our life and property saving equipment. I’d be interested in the upgrades the council chose to add to the new fire engine.
The report on the former Coppell graduate is unsettling.
Thank you for your great reporting!