Coppell Chronicle Vol. 2, No. 38
Irving Resident to Join CISD Board • Pinkerton Parents Are Riled Up • Council Asked to Save Old Church • How Did Coppell Vote in Midterms?
Irving Resident to Join CISD Board
The Coppell ISD Board of Trustees is about to have its first member who is not a resident of Coppell.
Last week, the trustees voted to appoint Jobby Mathew, president of the Coppell ISD Education Foundation and a resident of Irving, as a temporary replacement for Tracy Fisher. As the Democratic nominee for the District 14 seat on the State Board of Education, Fisher had to vacate her Coppell ISD seat before early voting began for Tuesday’s midterm elections.
After the trustees emerged from a closed session that lasted more than two hours on Monday morning, Nichole Bentley made a motion to leave Fisher’s seat vacant until the next scheduled election in May. Anthony Hill seconded that motion, which failed on a 3-2 vote, with Neena Biswas being absent. (She was present before the trustees went into their closed session.)
Leigh Walker said she didn’t relish the idea of having an even number of trustees when the board has major decisions to make about a potential bond election.
“There’s a reason that there’s seven of us,” she said. “If we have a great field of candidates and can move the business of the board forward, I think it’s important to have that seventh.”
Manish Sethi then made a motion to appoint Mathew, one of 14 applicants for the open seat. David Caviness seconded that motion, which passed 5-0.
The other applicants were Kevin Chaka, Kenny Conoley, Jason Jones, Jocelyn Kincaid, Todd Lancaster, Paula Lewis, Timothy Marquart, Whitney Munro, Samit Patel, Becky Rainbolt, Maria Strehlow, Ashley Wallace, and Julie Waters. Many of the trustees commented on the quality of the field.
“There were so many good applications, which made it tougher,” Sethi said.
Whoever wins the Place 7 seat next May will serve the remaining 12 months of Fisher’s vacated term, then have to vie for a full three-year term in 2024. The Place 4 and 5 seats held by Biswas and Caviness will also be on the ballot in May 2023, and it’s highly likely that a multipronged bond package will be too.
Mathew will be the third member of the current board who also served as president of the Coppell ISD Education Foundation, joining Bentley and Sethi. He will also become the third trustee of South Asian descent in the board’s history; Sethi was the first, followed by Biswas.
Mathew is scheduled to take his oath of office tomorrow evening, when the board’s “Open Forum” session will likely be lengthy for reasons you’re about to read.
Pinkerton Parents Are Riled Up
Back in March, in an article called “Coppell ISD Due for New Bond Election,” I predicted that the days of Pinkerton Elementary, the district’s oldest campus by far, may be numbered.
“That particular facility may cost us more to renovate and/or expand than it would be to start fresh,” Chief Operating Officer Dennis Womack said then, “but that doesn’t mean that we can’t renovate it. We can still do that. The cost would just exceed what a new campus would cost.”
Many Pinkerton parents want their kids’ school to remain standing, no matter the cost. Dozens of them wore matching “Protect Pinkerton” T-shirts when they attended the Bond Steering Committee’s “Community Dialogue” session on Thursday, and they brought a few TV cameras with them. (Click these links for reports from Channel 5 and Channel 11.) The parents also plan to rally at the Board of Trustees meeting tomorrow.
The group has been organized by Julie Waters, an attorney who was among the applicants for the vacancy on the school board. When asked why they’re so riled up, she pointed to language about closing or repurposing one unnamed elementary school that was included in a slide deck prepared for the Bond Steering Committee’s Nov. 1 meeting. She also noted that Pinkerton is isolated from the other campuses when all of the district’s elementaries are listed in that deck.
“The most troubling piece of this bond is the lack of transparency,” Waters said in a press release issued by the Pinkerton Parent Coalition. “No matter who we ask, we cannot get a straight answer. Why are you closing Pinkerton? Is there no other solution?”
Pinkerton is unique among CISD’s elementary schools because it was built in 1940, which makes it 47 years older than its oldest peer, Austin Elementary. Another reason that Pinkerton stands alone is that all of the district’s other elementaries — except for the two newest ones, Canyon Ranch and Lee — are architecturally identical. Those eight “footprint” schools each have a capacity of 600 students, while Pinkerton can accommodate 400.
Besides its age and size, another thing that makes Pinkerton unique is its status as the only Coppell ISD elementary school affiliated with the International Baccalaureate program. If the building were knocked down, Waters said, it could take five years to revive the IB program elsewhere.
Knowing that the Pinkerton parents had reached out to the media, Coppell ISD’s Communications Department released a statement that said, in part, “These parents are making assumptions that are simply not true. … Any final decision regarding the closure of a particular campus will solely be made by the Board of Trustees and would be separate and apart from the need to hold a bond election in the future.”
The Bond Steering Committee is scheduled to meet twice in December before presenting their recommendations to the Board of Trustees in January. In the meantime, its second survey will be open to community input until Thursday. Click here to participate.
Council Asked to Save Old Church
Not far from Pinkerton Elementary, another old building has a definite date with a wrecking ball — unless the City Council decides to move it.
This coming Thursday, the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission will conduct a public hearing on a proposal from developer Chris Collins, who is building a second set of live-work units along Coppell Road. (See “It Turns Out We Can Live-Work in Harmony” from October 2021.) Collins plans to buy the long-dormant church at 509 W. Bethel Road, as well as the attached Createria Studios building, and replace them with a third set of multiuse properties. The designs from architect Greg Frnka look like this:
Last Tuesday, Coppell Historical Society President Chris Long asked the City Council to consider preserving the church building by moving it down the street. As envisioned by Long, the vacant lot in front of the Coppell Senior and Community Center would become a village of affordable spaces for artisans’ shops and pop-up businesses. City Manager Mike Land compared the idea to the famous Shops at the Silos in Waco.
“It is NOT the Silos, but if you’ve been to the Silos, it’s kind of the same concept,” Land said.
Long wants this little village to be anchored by the former church building, but it would also include the house at 532 S. Coppell Road — which Long had previously proposed moving to Heritage Park — as well as the Cottage Salon building across Bethel Road from the church. Like the church, the Cottage Salon sits on land owned by Steven Chadick, and Long theorized that Collins will soon be buying that property from Chadick as well. Frnka drew up a schematic that includes three new 800-square-foot buildings:
The church building has not hosted Sunday services for at least 40 years, but it has been an antiques store, a home goods store, and the original home of the Coppell Chamber of Commerce, per historian Jean Murph, former publisher of the Citizen’s Advocate, who happens to own the aforementioned house at 532 S. Coppell Road. Long told the council that former City Manager Clay Phillips’ grandfather helped build the church, and the namesake of Richard J. Lee Elementary School went to Sunday school there.
“Everyone has very strong memories about this church,” Long said.
The question is, how much are those memories worth? Frnka estimated this project’s price tag as $3.3 million.
Long is married to City Council Member Cliff Long, who recused himself from Tuesday’s discussion. If the rest of the council chooses to run with this idea proposed by their colleague’s wife, it would be possible to pay for it. Land said an upcoming audit will show at least $15 million worth of undesignated funds in the city’s coffers.
“I’m not saying the money’s not important,” Land said. “I’m just saying you have flexibility — that’s what it’s there for — if you support the concept.”
Land did not ask the council to say “yea” or “nay” to the village concept on Tuesday. But he wanted to plant the idea in their heads, and elicit questions, before they meet on Dec. 13. That’s when Collins’ zoning case should be on their agenda, so it would be tidy to decide on Long’s vision at the same time.
How Did Coppell Vote in Midterms?
Faithful readers of this newsletter are well aware that our city government is suing Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar. The litigation is an attempt to stop Hegar from shifting sales taxes on online transactions from sellers’ cities to buyers’ cities. If his proposed changes go through, Coppell could lose up to 18 percent of its annual revenue.
Given that situation, I was surprised to see that 54 percent of Coppell voters chose Hegar over Democrat Janet Dudding in this month’s election. (This proves that the Chronicle needs more faithful readers.) Hegar, who won 56.4 percent of the statewide votes, fared better in our little suburb than any of the three Republican incumbents leading Texas’ government.
As you can see from these charts breaking down the results of those top three campaigns, Coppell skews a little to the left of Texas, and Coppell ISD skews even further.
Governor: Greg Abbott was the preferred choice of 54.8 percent of Texas voters and 50.5 percent of Coppell voters, but 53.2 percent of Coppell ISD voters supported Beto O’Rourke.
Lieutenant Governor: Dan Patrick was favored by 53.8 percent of Texas voters, but Mike Collier was the leading candidate in Coppell (49.6 percent) and Coppell ISD (54 percent).
Attorney General: Embattled incumbent Ken Paxton may have been the choice for 53.5 percent of Texas voters, but Rochelle Garza outpaced him in Coppell (48.8 percent) and Coppell ISD (53.3 percent).
Local yokels: Two Coppell residents were on the ballot this fall, and each of them fared better locally than they did in their overall losing efforts.
Longtime Coppell ISD Trustee Tracy Fisher was the Democratic nominee for the District 14 seat on the State Board of Education. That district dips into the northwest corner of Dallas County while sprawling from the Red River to Fort Hood. Fisher won only 35.2 percent of the overall tally to Evelyn Brooks’ 64.8 percent, but she was supported by 50.3 of Coppell voters and 54 percent of the Coppell ISD voters who saw her name on their ballots. (While the entirety of Coppell is within SBOE District 14, not all of Coppell ISD is.)
First-time candidate Shelly Akerly was the Republican nominee for Dallas County Treasurer, going up against incumbent Pauline Medrano, whose family has been winning elections in Big D for decades. A countywide campaign in Dallas is a tough challenge for any Republican, even if you’re not taking on a political dynasty. Akerly ended up with 38.7 percent overall, but she was the preferred choice of 54.9 percent of Coppell voters.
Carry on, Coppell: Finally, the two Coppell propositions on the ballot were landslides. Proposition A, which authorizes the city to keep using one-fourth of 1 percent of sales taxes on street repairs for four more years, was supported by 81 percent of voters. Proposition B, which called for continuing to use one-fourth of 1 percent of sales taxes on crime-reduction programs for 10 more years, got support from 78 percent.
Chronicle Crumbs
• Yesterday was the anniversary of The Battle, a televised basketball tournament at the Coppell High School Arena that featured a team from Donda Academy, a school founded by Kanye West. All of the rapper’s negative news lately — including shuttering his school on short notice — sparked memories of the Chronicle’s first Bonus Edition, in which I theorized that the tournament’s promoter must have paid at least $3,900 to rent the arena. So I filed an open-records request to find out the actual amount and was surprised to learn that it was just $1,000.
• The Coppell Cowboys football team lost to McKinney in the opening round of the playoffs by a score of 44-26 on Friday.
• The Coppell High School band finished eighth among the 42 entrants in the biannual Class 6A State Marching Band Contest on Tuesday.
• A business-owning subscriber emailed me to say she couldn’t figure out how to apply for the $10,000 and $5,000 grants that I most recently wrote about it in the Oct. 16 edition. I pointed her to this webpage.
• If Jersey Mike’s, Jimmy John’s, and Subway aren’t satisfying your sandwich cravings, you may be interested to know that Firehouse Subs is eyeing a vacant space in the shopping center anchored by Victor’s Wood Grill.
Community Calendar
Coppell Holiday House: A variety of gifts and crafts will be on sale from noon to 6 p.m. today at Coppell High School. Proceeds benefit Project Graduation for the senior class.
First Name Basis: The Coppell Community Chorale will celebrate famous names — from Jolene to Asaka — at 3 p.m. today at the Coppell Arts Center.
Introduction to Allyship: Allies in Community ambassadors will be at the Cozby Library and Community Commons from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday to explain what being an ally means, why it is important, and how it applies to everyday life.
Friends Big Book Sale: If you want the first crack at the books, comics, magazines, and videos offered by the Friends of the Coppell Public Library, admission to Friday’s session from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Cozby Library and Community Commons will cost you $10. But admission to the weekend sessions — 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. next Sunday — is free.
My Warhol: Young artists between the ages of 5 and 14 are invited to submit Andy Warhol-inspired works for an exhibit that will hang at the Coppell Arts Center from Nov. 21 through Dec. 10. The Arts Center will host a related workshop from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.
A Little House Christmas: Theatre Coppell will stage nine performances of a Christmas story based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s series of Little House on the Prairie books. The first show is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Dec. 2 at the Coppell Arts Center.
Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting: The parade down Samuel and Parkway boulevards will begin at 6 p.m. on Dec. 3, and the tree lighting will follow at Andrew Brown Park East. If you’d like to have a float in the parade, you need to register by 5 p.m. on Nov. 25.
HarpEssence Holiday Concert: You can listen to four concert grand harps at 3 p.m. on Dec. 4 at the Coppell Arts Center. Admission is free.
Holiday Craft Fair: Crafters from the Coppell Senior and Community Center will have a variety of items — including knitted and crocheted items, tote bags, and ornaments — at the Cozby Library and Community Commons from 1 to 4 p.m. on Dec. 10 and 11.