Coppell Chronicle Vol. 2, No. 35
Fisher Forgoes Coppell ISD Position • Superintendent Quits in Middle of Semester • Library Reconsiders Reconsideration Requests • Silver Line Project Inching Along
Fisher Forgoes Coppell ISD Position
The Coppell ISD Board of Trustees has a vacancy to fill.
On Monday evening, the board accepted Tracy Fisher’s resignation, effective today. The timing is dictated by the fact that early voting for the Nov. 8 elections begins tomorrow. Fisher is seeking a seat on the State Board of Education, and a 1957 ruling from then-Attorney General Will Wilson says the following:
“A person seeking election to the State Board of Education who holds the office of trustee of a local school district, may qualify for election to said Board by resigning as school trustee at any time prior to the date of the general election.”
Before accepting Fisher’s resignation, the five other trustees in the room (Neena Biswas was absent) and Superintendent Brad Hunt took turns thanking her for her 10 years of service. You can watch that lovefest at the 3:01:15 mark of this video, and you can read Fisher’s prepared remarks on her campaign’s Facebook page. (For the sake of fairness, here’s a link to the Facebook page of Evelyn Brooks, Fisher’s rival for the State Board of Education seat.)
Later in Monday’s meeting, the trustees consulted with their attorneys behind closed doors about how to fill the vacancy. When they returned to the dais after more than 90 minutes, Board President David Caviness said the district would “seek community input in consideration of a possible appointment process.” On Wednesday afternoon, Caviness sent a message to district parents with more details:
Coppell ISD residents who wish to replace Fisher in the Place 7 seat will be able to submit an application between 8 a.m. tomorrow and 5 p.m. on Nov. 5. (CORRECTION: The deadline is 5 p.m. on Nov. 1.)
At their Nov. 14 meeting, Caviness and the other trustees will decide whether to appoint a temporary replacement or leave Fisher’s seat vacant for seven months.
No matter what they decide, Fisher’s seat will be on the ballot next May (one year ahead of schedule), when voters will also decide who gets the Place 4 and 5 seats currently held by Biswas and Caviness, respectively. Whoever wins the Place 7 seat in May will have to run again in 2024 to secure a full three-year term.
As I see it, the board has two options:
Appoint someone who wants to fill the seat temporarily: Five years ago, Jill Popelka resigned from the Coppell ISD board because her job took her overseas. The trustees appointed Susie Kemp, who had 12 years’ experience on the board but no interest in running again, to fill Popelka’s seat for seven months until a special election could be held the following May.
Appoint someone who wants to compete for the seat: Less than a year ago, the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees filled a vacancy by inviting district residents to apply for the job. They received nine applications and chose to appoint Carolyn Benavides, who went unchallenged in a special election last May. Two of her fellow applicants, Kim Brady and Ileana Garza-Rojas, were victorious that month in the district’s regular election.
Speaking of Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD …
Superintendent Quits in Middle of Semester
Late Friday night, I was looking at Twitter when I should have been looking at the backs of my eyelids. This tweet from Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Superintendent John Chapman halted my mindless scrolling: “Had a great time celebrating our National Merit Scholars from Smithson Valley High School this evening.”
“Smithson Valley High School,” I muttered. “Where’s that?”
Smithson Valley High is in Spring Branch, a tiny town northeast of San Antonio. It’s one of six high schools in Comal ISD, a district that sprawls across nearly 600 square miles, covering 10 cities in five counties.
And that’s how I found out Chapman had resigned from Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD — which includes portions of Coppell and Irving — effective last Sunday, after four years at the helm. On Monday morning, he officially started serving as the superintendent of Comal ISD.
So how did we get here? Here’s a timeline:
June 7: Andrew Kim, who had been Comal ISD’s superintendent for 10 years, resigned for “personal reasons.” He had reportedly received a $48,000 raise, as well as a contract extension through 2027, just four months earlier.
Sept. 19: The Comal ISD Board of Trustees named Chapman as their “lone finalist,” a song and dance that the state makes school districts go through, delaying the official hiring of a new superintendent by 21 days.
Sept. 29: The CFB school board convened a special meeting. After talking behind closed doors for two hours, the trustees took no action on these agenda items:
Consideration and possible action regarding all matters concerning the superintendent’s contract and employment status
Consideration and possible action concerning all matters regarding the appointment and naming of an interim superintendent
Consideration and possible action considering all matters regarding the selection process for a search firm to facilitate in hiring a new superintendent
Oct. 6: After a 90-minute private discussion at the end of their regularly scheduled meeting, the CFB trustees again took no action on those items.
Oct. 11: The Comal trustees convened a special meeting to make Chapman’s hire official. His new contract sets his base salary at $315,000. According to the Superintendent Salary Report on the Texas Education Agency website, Chapman’s base salary in CFBISD was $311,596. His Comal predecessor was making $232,000 — presumably before that aforementioned $48,000 raise.
Oct. 13: The CFB board held another special meeting. After a 50-minute conversation behind closed doors, Board President Les Black convened a public hearing to discuss a resignation and release agreement. Black said Chapman intended to resign effective Nov. 18, which would have been 60 days’ notice, but the agreement called for him to resign effective Oct. 16 and be paid $15,000 more than what he was contractually owed for working up to that date. Black said the agreement, which the board approved unanimously, would ensure a smoother transition and would prevent the district from incurring “additional substantial expenses over and above” the $15,000.
The trustees then voted unanimously to promote Associate Superintendent Brian Moersch to the role of Interim Superintendent. Black said the board had been having “difficult discussions” behind closed doors because CFBISD has so many qualified administrators who could have been tapped to fill Chapman’s shoes. “We know there are a number of people who are capable of serving in this capacity,” Black said.
For the third straight meeting, the board took no action regarding a search firm.
Oct. 20: A short YouTube video was posted to introduce Chapman to Comal ISD, the fifth district in which he has been hired as a superintendent. Later that day, he presided over a Comal ISD Board of Trustees meeting for the first time. During the “public comment” portion of that meeting, an organization known as the Bulverde Spring Branch Conservative Republicans donated “In God We Trust” signs to each of the district’s 32 schools.
Library Reconsiders Reconsideration Requests
If you’re going to ask the Cozby Library to reconsider a book in its collection, you’ll first have to assert that you’ve read the whole thing.
That’s a new aspect of the library’s Collection Development Guidelines, a revised version of which the Coppell Library Advisory Board approved this month. The revisions were prompted by last spring’s controversy over the graphic memoir Gender Queer.
(Board Chair Frank Gasparro jokingly said he had no memory of those debates. If you genuinely can’t recall them, see “Board Votes to Retain ‘Gender Queer’” in the March 13 edition.)
Director of Library Services Dennis Quinn said the discussions of Gender Queer led his staff to spend more time with their Collection Development Guidelines document than they had in a while. Consequently, they saw opportunities to clarify some wording and to improve some processes.
“We understood the intent of the policy, but it wasn’t necessarily clear from the language,” Quinn told the board.
Under the revised policy, a person who wants the library to reconsider a book or film must “read or view the material in question in its entirety.” The policy goes on to say “decisions regarding the material’s suitability for inclusion in the collection will be based on a consideration of the work as a whole, and not on any part(s) taken out of context.”
The Coppell resident who filed the reconsideration request regarding Gender Queer wrote that she learned of the book’s existence via social media. Another person who spoke against it back in February said he looked into whether the Cozby Library owned a copy of Gender Queer after reading about its content in the news. The American Library Association named Gender Queer the most challenged book of 2021.
Speaking of multiple challenges, Quinn and his staff also added this disclaimer to the guidelines: “The Library is not required to reconsider Library materials that have been the subject of a previous request for reconsideration.” During the board’s discussion of the revisions, Vice Chair Martha Garber pointed out that the library is not prohibited from honoring a second reconsideration request (a re-reconsideration?); the revised policy just says it’s not required.
Quinn brought the board’s attention to one particular paragraph “that got a lot more spelling out” as a result of the Gender Queer debates:
“The Library recognizes and affirms the right of parents and legal guardians to guide the reading, viewing, and listening choices of their children, but also acknowledges that this right does not extend to other children or community members. Selection or exclusion of Library materials will not be influenced by the possibility that they would be accessible to minors.”
Silver Line Project Inching Along
DART and contractor Archer Western Herzog host periodic community meetings in Coppell regarding the construction of the Silver Line, which will carry trains between DFW Airport and Plano with a stop in Cypress Waters. The last time I attended one of these meetings, I summed it up by telling you what I learned. (See “DART’s Silver Line Taking Shape” in Vol. 2, No. 1.) I attended another such meeting last week, and rather than reinvent the wheel, I’m going to stick with that format.
For the second time in as many meetings, I learned that a building had been demolished because it stood in the future path of the train tracks. Back in February, it was the Paramount Global Solutions building on South Belt Line Road. Last week, it was the Soto’s Automotive building on Southwestern Boulevard.
This photo I took on Southwestern, directly in front of the Soto’s site, makes it pretty clear where the tracks will cross that road.
Here’s what that same stretch of Southwestern looks like from across the street — way across the street.
I learned that the first pieces of the Cypress Waters Station platform have been erected. Here’s an up-close view of one of those pieces, directly across East Belt Line Road from the YKK AP America facility.
Because I was out snapping pictures, here’s a look at the pillars that are being built on either side of South Belt Line Road. That’s the only spot in Coppell where the Silver Line tracks will be elevated.
I learned that access to the neighborhoods along Moore Road and Mockingbird Lane will be limited when it’s time to improve the tracks’ crossings of those streets. Marvin Jackson, the Archer Western Herzog employee who ran Tuesday’s meeting at the DFW Sports Garden, said the project shouldn’t reach Moore and Mockingbird until next summer.
When I sent a follow-up question via email, Jackson connected me with Niko Cantu, an Archer Western Herzog project manager who happens to be a Coppell resident. Cantu said Moore will be fully open whenever Mockingbird is reduced to one lane and vice versa. However, he said there will be one three-day period when all of the crossings will be fully closed; this will likely overlap with a weekend to reduce the strain on commuters. (CORRECTION: Each crossing will have its own three-day shutdown.)
Finally, I learned that Coppell is a home away from home for Seattle Seahawks fans. I had never been to the DFW Sports Garden before Tuesday, and its semiprivate room in which the meeting happened was decorated with several flags touting the Dallas Seahawkers, which member Ric Andrews told me is “the only official Seahawks booster club in the DFW area.” Andrews said anybody who wants to watch a Seattle game with a group of passionate Seahawks fans is welcome to join them.
Chronicle Crumbs
• Early voting for the midterm elections begins tomorrow. I broke things down in a bonus edition that went out earlier today, in case you missed it.
• Oct. 31 is the deadline to participate in the Coppell ISD Education Foundation’s Give for Grants campaign. Teachers throughout the district have submitted grant requests, and you can choose which one (or ones) you would like to fund. Click here to peruse the proposals.
• If you patronize the Park ’N Fly on the northeast corner of Royal Lane and LBJ, I have some bad news for you: On Thursday, the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission approved a plan to convert that remote airport parking facility into a couple of warehouses.
Halloween Calendar
Halloween is on a Monday this year. Every time it lands on a day other than Saturday, at least one Coppell resident asks whether they should expect trick-or-treaters to ring their doorbell on Oct. 31. The answer is always “yes.”
However, if you don’t want to send your costumed kid out in search of candy on a Monday evening, you have other options:
You’ve Been Pumpkined: For a $30 fee, the staff of The CORE will deliver two dozen miniature pumpkins filled with candy to your front yard.
Outdoor Halloween Storytime: Families with young children are invited to the Storybook Walk between the YMCA and the Cozby Library at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The Friends of the Coppell Public Library will pass out treats.
New Tech Fall Festival and Haunted House: The Fall Festival for younger kids is scheduled from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at New Tech High. The haunted house, which is appropriate for secondary students only, will be open from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Trick or Treat on the Trails: Costumed characters can collect candy at the Biodiversity Education Center between 5 and 7 p.m. on Friday.
Scare on the Square: Businesses in Old Town will welcome trick-or-treaters between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Trunk or Treat: Community groups, businesses, and families will give out candy in The CORE’s parking lot between 6 and 8 p.m. on Saturday.
Community Calendar
Work in Coppell Virtual Job Fair: If you’d like to work closer to home, sign up for this event featuring a variety of Coppell employers — from AAA to Vari — that is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday.
DEA Prescription Drug Take Back Day: Coppell police officers and volunteers will collect your unused medications between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Coppell Justice Center.
Spamilton: An American Parody: If you’ve watched Hamilton more times than you can count — [cough] Mrs. Koller [cough] — then you may enjoy this sendup that will be performed at the Coppell Arts Center on Nov. 4 and 5.
Indie Author Fair: Local writers are hoping to meet some potential readers between 1 and 4 p.m. on Nov. 5 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.
Taste of Coppell: For $35 in advance (or $40 at the door), you can sample food and beverages from at least a dozen Coppell restaurants during this annual event, which is scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel at Belt Line and 635.
Date Night in the Park: Casablanca will be screened at Andrew Brown Park East at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5. This is intended to be an adults-only event, so be sure to book a sitter.
Let’s Dance!: The Coppell Children’s Chorus’ annual fall show is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Nov. 6 at the Coppell Arts Center.
First Name Basis: The Coppell Community Chorale will celebrate famous names — from Jolene to Asaka — on Nov. 12 and 13 at the Coppell Arts Center.
Yea, Coppell Library Board!
Very informative Chronicle! It was nice if you to mention Tracy’s opponent, but anyone who pays attention to our Coppell School Board would know that Tracy is the BEST choice for state school board! She’s our hometown favorite in my mind!