Coppell Chronicle Vol. 2, No. 41
Trustee Brands Herself a Team of One • Traffic-Directing Cops Aren't on Duty • Plan for Fry’s Site Gets Rewired • More and More Kids Are Having a Ball
Trustee Brands Herself a Team of One
The Texas Open Meetings Act says, “A governmental body shall give written notice of the date, hour, place, and subject of each meeting held by the governmental body.” The word “subject” is key. The public should know in advance what their elected officials are going to discuss, so they can decide whether or not to pay attention.
When the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees got together for a workshop on Tuesday evening, the only item on their posted agenda was a “budget discussion.” Based on that agenda, the public would not expect to hear one trustee advocate for the ouster of another. However, as Superintendent Brad Hunt was describing how the workshop was going to go, Neena Biswas tried to make a motion to reverse the appointment of Jobby Mathew.
As you may recall from recent editions of this newsletter (“Mathew’s Term Has Dramatic Start”), Biswas was not present on Nov. 7 when the rest of the board unanimously voted to appoint Mathew as a temporary replacement for Tracy Fisher. When Mathew was sworn in on Nov. 14, Biswas called the process a “sham.”
After she made her motion on Tuesday, Board President David Caviness banged his gavel a couple of times and said, “This is not on our agenda, so we cannot have this discussion.” Nonetheless, Biswas kept discussing it. She tried to say that Mathew’s service on Coppell ISD’s Bond Steering Committee disqualified him from becoming a trustee, a point that makes zero sense to this longtime observer of the district and the board.
Caviness and Biswas talked over each other for several seconds before Nichole Bentley made a motion for a 10-minute recess — notably, less than five minutes into the workshop. That recess had little effect, because as Caviness tried to steer the trustees back to the budget, Biswas asked, “Is Jobby going to be sitting in?” (Adding to the awkwardness, Mathew and Biswas were sitting side by side.) Caviness said, “Jobby is a duly sworn member of this body,” to which Biswas replied, “Then you need to unswore him.”
Mathew and Biswas had a brief exchange, but Caviness and Manish Sethi both warned that their discussion could not happen legally. Biswas eventually gave in after Caviness told her, “You are violating the Texas Open Meetings Act.”
Later in the workshop, consultant Julie Thannum of the Center for Effective School Operations was leading the trustees through an exercise that involved ranking their overarching budget priorities. “The goal is transparency and engagement,” Thannum said. “It’s not making unilateral decisions that you’re stuck with for the rest of the time.” Biswas couldn’t resist saying that Coppell ISD lacks both transparency and engagement.
“When we send out a survey to the community about what they would like, we don’t send it back to the community, so the community never gets the results,” Biswas said. “And people sit on the board and they make decisions, or they overrule the community voice.”
Thannum suggested that the board’s “team of eight” training would probably be a better venue for expressing those concerns. “Team of eight” – a reference to seven trustees plus one superintendent – is one of the continuing education requirements for trustees that are mandated by the Texas Education Code.
“I can appreciate that you have concerns about some of the processes,” Thannum told Biswas. “I would encourage you to visit with the administration about those, and to make sure that you’re working within the guidelines of the operating procedures of the board and the Texas Open Meetings Act when raising those.”
Biswas then brought up the “appointment” of Mathew, and I put quotation marks around that word while typing it because she did the same with her fingers while saying it. That led Caviness to say, “We’re going beyond our budget discussion now,” and he had to bang his gavel a couple of times to get things back on track.
Eventually, Hunt discussed options for the board’s January workshop, and one of those options was “team of eight” training. Biswas interrupted him to say this:
“I’m just saying, ahead of time, that I’m not going to participate in team of eight, because the team of eight trainings that we have had has divided the group more than brought it together. So you can count me out if this going to be team of eight.”
Biswas said it’s impossible for her to get an item placed on an agenda, due to the board’s operating procedures requiring support from a second trustee. “No one values what I am saying,” so her agenda requests are ignored. She concluded by saying, “I don’t believe this functions as a team of eight, but if you want to train the rest of the people who is already a merry gang, that’s fine with me.”
The only response to her diatribe was a “thank you” from Hunt.
This is as good a time as any to remind everyone that the candidate filing period for the May elections opens on Jan. 18. The seats held by Biswas, Caviness, and Mathew will all be on the ballot.
Traffic-Directing Cops Aren’t on Duty
Because I am not yet making enough money off this newsletter to finance my family’s extravagant lifestyle — [cough] sarcasm [cough] — I still have a day job outside of Coppell. During my commute home, I often encounter police officers who are directing traffic in and out of one of the Amazon properties on Bethel Road.
I was curious: Is this part of these officers’ official duties, or are they being paid to do this by Amazon when they’re off the clock? So I put that question to the ever-helpful Officer Kelly Luther, who handles public affairs for the Coppell Police Department.
Luther informed me that Amazon does pay for that law-enforcement presence during shift changes, but the presence is not provided by Coppell officers these days. She said the officials who slow me down on Bethel are deputies from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
When I tried to confirm that with Luther’s less-helpful counterpart in Tarrant County, the response I got amounted to “I don’t know. Ask Amazon.” While Amazon may be known for its speedy shipments, I have my doubts that anyone at the behemoth’s corporate office would promptly reply to a query from a community newsletter.
On a related note, the officers you see near Universal Academy on school days are Coppell cops. Luther said the charter school pays three off-duty officers to direct traffic in and out of the parking lot on Sandy Lake Road each morning and afternoon. She said Coppell officers used to perform the same work for Amazon on Bethel, but that arrangement ended years ago.
“They may occasionally call us and ask if we have someone who would like to work it because they might be short,” she said, “but that is pretty rare.”
Plan for Fry’s Site Gets Rewired
A proposal to build 200 townhomes along LBJ Freeway was met with disdain by Irving’s Planning and Zoning Commission over the summer. (See “Plan for Fry’s Site Gets Short-Circuited” in the June 26 edition.) This week, the commissioners will consider a completely new concept for the same property.
The agenda for their meeting tomorrow includes a proposal to convert the large building that used to be a Fry’s electronics superstore into a self-storage facility. The warehouse would be augmented by outdoor storage spaces for cars, trucks, trailers, recreational vehicles, boats, and other watercraft. The plans call for the construction of smaller storage facilities along the property’s perimeter, so people who live nearby won’t have a view of all those vehicles.
Everything in the previous paragraph pertains to the property’s north half. The developers hope to attract unnamed retail tenants to the property’s south half along the freeway. This setup would be similar to the arrangement on the property next door, where a Home Depot shares space with a Texas Roadhouse restaurant and a Red Cross donation center.
Assuming the Planning and Zoning Commission recommends approval tomorrow, the Irving City Council will take the matter up just three days later. I’ll let you know how things go in next week’s edition.
More and More Kids Are Having a Ball
Despite the addicting lure of TikTok and YouTube, statistics show that Coppell kids are going outside to play.
During last month’s meeting of the Coppell Parks and Recreation Board, Coppell Girls Softball Association Vice President Tom Hargrove said his organization had 254 players in the recently concluded fall season. That’s a 46 percent increase relative to the 174 players in the final pre-COVID season of 2019.
“Once the restrictions were lifted, people were just excited to get back out and play,” Hargrove said.
That trend has been reported by the leaders of other youth sports organizations. In August, Coppell Baseball Association President Josh Floren told the board that nearly 500 kids had signed up to play ball this fall, exceeding the participation level in the autumn of 2019. In June, Coppell Youth Soccer Association President Angela Lancaster said her registration numbers have been steadily climbing, with nearly 1,600 players going for goals last spring.
Hargrove said the Coppell Girls Softball Association typically sees a big influx of players at its youngest level, which is for girls ages 4 to 6, but the numbers then drop off significantly.
“They either like it or they don’t like it,” he said. “And so that’s our biggest challenge, is to get those girls engaged to where they fall in love with the sport.”
Like all sports leagues that use city facilities, the Coppell Girls Softball Association is supposed to ensure that 75 percent of its players reside in 75019. Hargrove reported that his organization averages between 60 percent and 65 percent in that regard. He said players — and entire teams — from Carrollton and Lewisville are drawn to the Coppell Girls Softball Association because of the way the league cooperates with its peer organizations in Flower Mound, Grapevine, Roanoke, and Southlake, and because of the outstanding facilities here in Coppell.
To wit: Last spring, the Coppell Girls Softball Association hosted a tournament for 32 advanced teams, many of which traveled from as far away as Midland, Lubbock, and Arkansas. Most of the games were played at the four-field complex at Andrew Brown Park West, which drew rave reviews. Hargrove said he heard the phrase “This is unbelievable” over and over.
“That’s a testament to the work that the city’s done — the Park Board has done — reorganizing and reengineering that,” he said.
In other sports news …
• Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott was at Coppell’s Whataburger on Tuesday to raise money for the Salvation Army. Here’s what that looked like for drive-thru customers:
• The Coppell Cowboys Baseball Booster Club is raising money via a silent auction through Thursday.
• Construction of a cricket pitch at Wagon Wheel Park is nearly complete. A ribbon-cutting ceremony has been tentatively scheduled for late January.
• I’m pleased to report that the Coppell High School varsity girls basketball team is undefeated through its first 17 games. The Cowgirls’ next home game is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.
• I’m even more pleased to report that all three of Coppell Middle School North’s eighth-grade boys basketball teams won on Wednesday, when they played their first home games in their newly renamed gym:
Chronicle Crumbs
• Fox 4 (KDFW-TV) has sent cameras to Coppell twice in recent weeks. The first story was about the Rakesgiving tradition at Mockingbird Elementary. The second story was about the fate of the dormant church on Bethel Road.
• The Coppell City Council got together for a special called meeting on Thursday, when they had a 75-minute discussion with the city attorney behind closed doors. According to the posted agenda, the aforementioned church was one of three topics they discussed. The others were “short term rental regulations” and “tax credit programs and senior housing.”
• There are two Fridays left in Coppell ISD’s fall semester. Students will be dismissed early on both of them. Don’t be caught by surprise, parents.
• The Biodiversity Education Center will be closed through Thursday this week, and the Cozby Library and Community Commons will be closed on Dec. 15 and 16. Conduct yourselves accordingly.
• Chillicious Thai has opened on the southeast corner of Sandy Lake and Denton Tap, in the space formerly occupied by Which Wich. Meanwhile, I’m overdue to report that Jiro Sushi has taken over the space on the northwest corner of MacArthur and Belt Line that was formerly known as Mua Sushi.
• If you’re a fan of Fogo de Chão, take note: This week, Irving officials will consider a proposal from the Brazilian steakhouse chain to build a new restaurant on the northeast corner of Ranch Trail and Interstate 635.
Community Calendar
Slamming for a Cause: New Tech High will host a poetry slam from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday. The entrance fee is $5, and the proceeds will benefit The Defensive Line. Founded by the late Ella Thomas’ family, the organization aims to end the epidemic of youth suicide, especially for people of color, by changing the way we communicate and connect about mental health.
A Little House Christmas: Theatre Coppell will stage several more performances of a Christmas story based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s series of Little House on the Prairie books. Shows are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Sundays and 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays at the Coppell Arts Center through Dec. 18.
Madrigal Feast: The 28th annual edition of the Coppell High School choir’s dinner and show, which is called “Cinder Ella-Phant” this year, will take place on Friday and Saturday. Seating begins at 6:30 p.m., and the feast starts at 7.
Holiday Craft Fair: Crafters from the Coppell Senior and Community Center will have a variety of gifts — including knitted and crocheted items, tote bags, and ornaments — at the Cozby Library and Community Commons from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Dec. 11.
Tidings and Tinsel: The Coppell Community Chorale and Coppell Children’s Chorus will perform Christmas tunes at 5 p.m. on Saturday at the Coppell Arts Center.
Holidays at Heritage Park: You can sip hot cider and eat a German cookie between 6 and 8 p.m. on Saturday while learning about the families that lived in the Kirkland House, Wilson House, and Ihnfeldt House.
A Cartoon Christmas: The Coppell Community Orchestra will celebrate timeless holiday cartoons at 3 p.m. on Dec. 11 at the Coppell Arts Center.
Greeting Christmas: The Variations of the Coppell Community Chorale will perform at 3 p.m. on Dec. 11 at Rejoice Lutheran Church.
Teen Craft: Ugly Holiday Sweater: Teenagers are invited to drop by the Cozby Library and Community Commons between 4 and 6 p.m. on Dec. 14, when paint, buttons, glitter, and other supplies will be provided to make your own ugly holiday sweater. Note: This is a BYOS (bring your own sweater) event.
A Merry Cirque: The Lone Star Circus will stage five shows at the Coppell Arts Center between Dec. 15 and 18.
Thank you for the news update. I was disappointed to read about a single
member causing controversy on our school board and not following g the rules it’s very disappointing.
Go Cowgirls!
Good grief. It’s unfortunate that a member seemingly voted for by name recognition only has contributed nothing more than being a disagreeable and disruptive member at every turn without real merit or cause, and no regard for following set Rules. I hope more qualified and constructive candidates are on the ballot in May and considered by more than a “name”.