Coppell Chronicle Bonus Edition: Pinkerton Will Close in May

Future of elementary school’s International Baccalaureate program remains uncertain

Pinkerton and Wilson families rallied outside Coppell ISD’s headquarters before Monday’s Board of Trustees meeting.

A majority of Coppell ISD trustees voted to close Pinkerton Elementary School, but the future of its International Baccalaureate program remains up in the air.

The board took two divided votes during Monday’s meeting. The first was on a motion by Manish Sethi to follow the administration’s recommendations — close Pinkerton, move its IB program to Wilson Elementary, consolidate Wilson’s Dual Language Immersion program with its counterpart at Denton Creek Elementary, and level pre-K enrollment districtwide.

“We have to make some decisions that will not make everybody happy, but we have to move forward,” Sethi said.

Board President David Caviness agreed with Sethi and seconded his motion.

“We’re not going to make everybody happy,” Caviness said. “We’re searching for a perfect answer where there are no perfect answers.”

The motion failed on a 5-2 vote because nobody else supported it.

Jobby Mathew then made a motion to close Pinkerton but give the administration time to explore other options for the IB and DLI programs. Earlier in the meeting, Mathew said he wanted to “kick the tires” on the idea of consolidating DLI at Wilson instead of Denton Creek.

Mathew’s motion was seconded by Nichole Bentley, who began the trustees’ deliberations by saying she was struggling with the idea of consolidating DLI.

“I’m not saying take it off permanently,” Bentley said. “Let’s dive deeper, and maybe we can have this conversation again.”

Mathew’s motion passed on a 4-3 vote. He and Bentley were joined by Caviness and Ranna Raval. Sethi and Anthony Hill dissented because they didn’t want to “send the staff back with their hands tied,” as Sethi put it.

The other dissenter was Leigh Walker, the only former Pinkerton Cowpoke on the board. Earlier in the discussion, while recounting her family’s history on the district’s oldest campus, Walker said she didn’t think she would be able to raise her hand when the time came to vote on Pinkerton’s closure. As it turned out, she couldn’t.

Besides being a former Pinkerton student, Walker is also a former Pinkerton parent. She shares the latter distinction with Bentley and Caviness. Bentley got a little choked up while recounting a recent conversation with her 23-year-old son.

“My Cowpoke told me that it’s OK, and we need to do what we need to do for Coppell now,” Bentley said.

I’ll have more details about tonight’s meeting in Sunday’s edition.