Coppell Chronicle Vol. 1, No. 15

Extracurriculars Can Broaden Horizons • Board Says No to Nana’s Place • Carroll Bests Bernstein in Runoff • Oh, Say, That Star-Spangled Banner Does Yet Wave

Jun 07, 2021

I apologize for emailing you at this hour, but this was an especially busy weekend at the Koller household. Because of that, this edition will not only be late but also short and sweet. Let’s get right to it.

Extracurriculars Can Broaden Horizons

Each spring, the Coppell ISD Education Foundation hosts a banquet to honor the top 5 percent of the graduating classes from Coppell High School and New Tech High @ Coppell. If an honoree knows where he or she is going to college, his or her future school is listed in the banquet’s program.

Gerry Miller, Coppell ISD’s coordinator of fine arts, has been poring over those programs and recording those college choices since 2017. He’s also noted whether those 5 percenters had a “major activity” listed in the banquets’ programs. He classifies the following as major activities: any varsity sport (UIL-sanctioned or not), cheerleading, drill team, debate team, band, choir, theater, or UIL-award-winning visual art.

I know all this because Miller presented the following slide during a recent Board of Trustees meeting:

As you can see, the students who participated in a major activity went on to a much wider variety of colleges and universities than the students who concentrated solely on academics. During his May 24 presentation to the trustees, Miller said he brings up this data when parents tell him they are thinking of pulling their brainiac out of fine arts. This is how he responds to such parents:

“Do you know what choices you’re taking away from your child? I know that you want them to focus on straight academics, but the numbers don’t bear out. In order for your child to be highly successful, and to see that success come to fruition, it’s going to be more than a GPA and more than an SAT score.”

Miller offered a few caveats when I emailed him to ask about this research. One of them was that the pandemic affected this data set.

“Understandably, in the spring of 2020, not all students had checked in on college plans,” he wrote. “I included as much data as I could find at that time. I'm hoping, with some time this summer, I can go back through and fill in the gaps on that part of the research.”

Miller also told me that some people have asked him how many students in total are represented on each side of the slide. On average, he said, about 70 percent of the honored students have a major activity on their resume in the banquet program.

Miller told the trustees that, across all grade levels, students enrolled in fine arts courses attend school more regularly. High school students experience the greatest impact, with a 3.3 percent greater attendance rate, which he said is the equivalent of an additional week of school each year.

Miller’s presentation to the board followed a similar briefing from the man that Superintendent Brad Hunt jokingly called Miller’s “unofficial partner in crime.” Athletic Director Kit Pehl told the trustees that athletes have higher grades, better attendance, and fewer discipline problems than non-athletes. I’ve heard all that before, but he touted another benefit of athletics that never occurred to me: improved race relations.

“It’s just an organic opportunity to work through elimination of oblivious or ignorant attitudes and behaviors,” Pehl said.

If your student is not engaged in any extracurricular activities, I encourage you to watch the presentations by Miller and Pehl. But if you don’t watch, here are two nuggets regarding potential new options for well-rounded students.

Miller told the board that Coppell ISD will add an orchestra program “in the near future,” but he didn’t put a specific timeline on it. “We want to make sure that we launch it as successfully as possible,” Miller said. “When we do it, we’re going to do it the Coppell way.”

Meanwhile, Pehl informed the board that the UIL plans to sanction water polo as an interscholastic sport in 2022. But don’t expect the Cowboys to be among the first in the pool. “In terms of staffing and in terms of facilities, that would be something that we would have to look at down the line,” Pehl said.

Board Says No to Nana’s Place

Nana’s Place is a senior-care facility that operates from a corner house on Parkway Boulevard. According to its owners, Jack and Jan Leathers, it’s one of only two such care homes in Coppell. But they may be closing it soon.

In February, the couple applied for a building permit so they could convert the two-car garage at Nana’s Place into an additional bedroom. In documents prepared for a Board of Adjustment hearing on Thursday, they portrayed the garage conversion as a make-or-break prospect for their business.

“We can’t operate this care home if we can’t allow and accommodate more residents into the home,” Mr. Leathers told the board.

The couple opened Nana’s Place when they needed a home for Mrs. Leathers’ mother and were unsatisfied by the traditional senior-living facilities they toured. The Leatherses told the board that the state doesn’t regulate senior-care homes if they have three or fewer residents. The same rules (or lack thereof) apply, they said, if you go up to four residents but one of the four is a relative.

Once Mrs. Leathers’ mother died, the couple started making improvements to the home so they could meet the state’s standards and continue to have four residents. The cost of those improvements is one of the main reasons why they want to convert their garage.

In making their case for the variance regarding the city’s rules about off-street parking, the Leatherses focused on the aging Baby Boom population and the dearth of small facilities like theirs in Coppell.

“From the city’s standpoint, it’s one less home that you’re already at a deficit on as well,” Mr. Leathers said. “So the hardship’s not just on us; we believe the hardship’s on the city.”

“No one knows about these,” he said of senior care homes. “Until you have that aging parent, we’re off your grid; we’re not on your radar.”

The couple told the board that eliminating the two parking spaces in the garage would not be an issue because none of their tenants drive (obviously) and the staff who provide 24/7 care often use ride-share programs such as Uber. They said the rear-facing garage would look no different from the outside, and they promised to renovate it in such a way that it could be easily reverted to a garage if the house became a single-family home again.

“We live in Coppell. We understand the concerns,” Mr. Leathers said. “We wouldn’t want some garage remodel to happen next door to us if it’s going to impact us.”

However, the variance request was opposed almost from all sides. Three neighbors spoke in opposition during Thursday’s hearing. One lives across Parkway from Nana’s Place, another lives across the side street, and the third lives across the alley. They cited concerns about the number of cars they see parked on the street already, and they worried about seeing more of them.

Without even taking the neighbors’ concerns into account, the board members’ hands were tied. They were told before the hearing by City Attorney Bob Hager that economic considerations are not a valid reason for granting a variance. Before unanimously voting to deny the request, the board members said the following to the couple:

Rhett Hickey: “I want to commend you guys on the good work you’re doing.”
Michelle Anderson: “It’s such a valuable need; the need has been demonstrated amply for this type of business.”
Mark LeGros: “You are presenting a valid need, but the way the zoning ordinance is written, and our constraints on the board, kind of make it difficult.”

I called Mr. Leathers on Saturday to ask whether he and his wife would indeed be closing Nana’s Place. He told me they’re still digesting the board’s ruling and considering their options.

Carroll Bests Bernstein in Runoff

I know all of my readers are engaged and well-informed — not to mention intelligent and good-looking — so I’m probably not breaking any news to you regarding Don Carroll’s victory in Saturday’s runoff election. The unofficial totals were 1,801 (or 54 percent) for Carroll and 1,509 (or 46 percent) for Davin Bernstein.

Once the votes are canvassed, Carroll will assume the Place 3 seat on the Coppell City Council, which Wes Mays vacated by winning the mayoral election on May 1.

This was Bernstein’s fourth attempt to join the City Council, and it was his first campaign that wasn’t against an incumbent. He got 33 percent of the vote when he challenged Gary Roden for the Place 4 seat in 2012, 35 percent when he went up against Mayor Karen Hunt in 2018, and 45 percent when he took on Mays for the Place 3 seat last year. Over the long term, Bernstein’s results keep trending up. So will he give it a fifth try?

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he won’t have a chance next year. As I told you in the May 9 edition of the Coppell Chronicle, our council elections are on a schedule that skips every third year. The Place 1, Place 5, and Place 7 seats — which are held by Cliff Long, John Jun, and Mark Hill, respectively — will be on the ballot in 2023, as will the Place 3 seat.

Two more election items for your edification: Dorotha Michelle Ocker, who came within 50 votes of replacing Matt Rinaldi as our state representative in 2016, lost her bid for a seat on the Carrollton City Council on Saturday. She got 48 percent of the runoff votes to Rusty Pendleton’s 52 percent.

Meanwhile, Rinaldi — who was defeated by Julie Johnson in 2018 — announced last week that he’s running for the chairmanship of the Texas Republican Party. That job will be open soon because Allen West is resigning, presumably so he can mount a primary challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott.

Oh, Say, That Star-Spangled Banner Does Yet Wave

Two Saturdays ago, the Boy Scout who lives in my house and I planted 50 U.S. flags in front of houses as part of the Coppell Rotary Club’s flag program. The schedule called for us to collect those same flags yesterday morning.

So we hopped out of bed at the dawn’s early light, donned our Class A uniforms, and got to work. As we were rolling up the first of the 50 flags in a light sprinkle, I thought, “Hmm. This flag is really damp. I wonder if we’re supposed to be doing this right now.” That’s when I looked at my phone and noticed I had a voicemail from another Scout’s dad: “Hey, Dan, I just wanted to make sure you saw the email about us leaving the flags in place because of all the rain.”

Oops. We immediately put that flag back up, gave it a proper salute, and headed home.

Because the next holiday on the flag program’s schedule, Flag Day, is just a week away, all of the broad stripes and bright stars that were distributed in advance of Memorial Day will be gallantly streaming until June 19.

In other patriotic news, the Independence Day festivities known as Celebrate Coppell are returning on July 3 after a pandemic-induced hiatus. Click the link in the previous sentence for more details on the Parade Down Parkway and the Party in the Park. Meanwhile, the Valley Ranch Popsicle Parade is scheduled for July 2.