Coppell Chronicle Vol. 1, No. 38

Brother, Can You Spare a Kidney? • Coppell ISD Faces Stiff Competition • City to Launch New Billing Site • Sleepy Corner Will Get Makeover

Hello from the other side of that Adele special on CBS. I’m sending this week’s edition to everybody on my mailing list because the first article is too important to put behind a paywall, and because my partners at Substack just introduced a new feature that allows writers to put only a portion of a newsletter behind a paywall. Let’s see if it works.

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Brother, Can You Spare a Kidney?

Coppell resident Sunchee Chandra is in dire need of a kidney donation.

Coppell residents Aabhas and Savita are living every parent’s worst nightmare. Their 14-year-old son, Sunchee, needs a new kidney.

Sunchee was diagnosed with end stage kidney disease in May. If the family can’t find a donor, dialysis might keep him alive for another five to seven years, Aabhas told me. Even with a successful donation, Sunchee would likely need another kidney 15 years down the line.

“We are hopeful that technology improves in the next 15 years,” said Aabhas, who maintains a blog called Hope for Sunchee. “Just before this news hit us, I did not know anything about kidneys. And now I know all the research.”

The donor must be a non-smoker with type O blood who is younger than 45, due to Sunchee’s age; such a young recipient needs a relatively young kidney. Both of his parents are too old to donate one of theirs.

Sunchee, who is a student at the Coppell High School Ninth-Grade Center, was always a typical kid who appeared perfectly healthy until this past spring.

“It’s a genetic condition that’s very good at hiding itself,” his dad said.

When Aabhas got some unusual readings while taking Savita’s blood pressure, he decided to test the device on Sunchee. The off-the-charts results were the first sign that something was wrong. Another early symptom was Sunchee drinking an abnormal amount of water, and then producing a correspondingly abnormal amount of urine.

Even if you aren’t a match for Sunchee, you should consider becoming a kidney donor period, if your age and stage make it possible. According to the Kidney Fund, nearly 100,000 people are waiting for a transplant. That’s supposedly longer than the waiting lists for all other organs combined.

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Coppell ISD Faces Stiff Competition

I get genuinely excited whenever the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees receives a report from demographer Bob Templeton, because I’m a big nerd and because he is a fount of interesting information.

His latest report to the board happened on Monday, and these were what Templeton called the key takeaways:

• Coppell ISD will continue to experience enrollment growth due to COVID bounce back, the strength of the local economy, and the regional housing market.

• The district has approximately 80 lots available to build on, and ground work is underway on 74 other lots.

• The district can expect an increase of approximately 570 students during the next five years.

• By fall 2030, the district is projected to enroll 13,785 students, which would be a nearly 5 percent increase from the current enrollment of 13,154.

Here are some statistics from his report that should interest Coppell ISD residents whose only connection to the district is being taxpayers:

The average price for a newly built home in the district is more than $596,000. That’s among the highest prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Templeton said. The aforementioned 74 future lots are in the Blackberry Farm development off Sandy Lake Road (see Coppell Chronicle No. 21), and Templeton said the homes on those lots will cost about $800,000, which is comparable to California prices.

“These price points, while they may seem crazy to us, do not seem crazy for folks that are moving from other parts of the country,” Templeton said.

Here are some encouraging stats for parents, teachers, and others who have more than dollars invested in the district. Templeton showed a slide that indicates Coppell ISD has bucked the declining-enrollment trend in Dallas County, a trend he largely attributed to the expansion of charter schools.

Coppell ISD is outlined in blue in the middle of the map.

The Texas Education Agency tracks how many students transfer between districts (and between districts and charters) each year. For the past six years, Coppell ISD has averaged a deficit of about 475 students in that statistic.

However, Templeton said it could be much worse. He works with about 100 school districts across the state, and he said only a few in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are bringing in more transfers than they’re losing. He cited Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, Lewisville ISD, and Plano ISD as districts that have larger transfer deficits.

“The reality of it is, in the scheme of the DFW region, you’re in a pretty good spot compared to the majority of the districts,” he said.

That said, Templeton did seem concerned about the fact that Coppell ISD’s current crop of 776 kindergartners is so much smaller than the high school classes: 1,116 freshmen, 1,109 sophomores, 1,054 juniors, and 986 seniors.

“There is a pretty good delta between the 12th grade and the kindergarten class,” he said.

He projects Coppell ISD’s enrollment will level off in the next several years, if the district can avoid “the Plano-Lewisville model” of tanking enrollment. He lauded the “I ♥ CISD” marketing efforts, but he said new strategies are necessary due to the competition from charter schools.

“You’ve got to change the game,” Templeton said. “You know, 10 or 15 years ago, we didn’t think we needed to pat ourselves on the back and promote ourselves, but now we have to.”

As an example of a new strategy, he cited geofencing, which he admitted was a relatively new term to him. In case you’re not aware, geofencing involves targeting people with online ads — on both websites and social media — based on their physical location.

Superintendent Brad Hunt assured the board that geofencing is already part of the Communications and Community Engagement Department’s arsenal. He also said his administrative team is well aware of who their competitors are, and he even talked a little smack.

“Competing with private schools that have a religious focus? That’s a different take,” Hunt said. “But some of these charter schools? They’re not offering anything more than we are. In fact, I would say that we’re offering it at a much better level across the board.”

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City to Launch New Billing Site

In February, the City of Coppell is going to launch a new portal for residents and business owners who pay their utility bills online. Before they can use the new portal, these customers will first have to visit the site and register. On Tuesday, Chief Communications Strategist Hannah Cook briefed the City Council on how her team will get the word out about that important detail. The plan includes several facets:

• Postcards to all households and businesses

• Multiple mentions inside each mailed utility bill

• Promotions on the city’s website, the city’s social media, and the city’s “E-News” email newsletter

• Separate emails to customers who have previously paid online

• About $13,000 worth of paid advertising

(Those ads will appear in Coppell ISD’s “Informed” email newsletter, as well as the print and digital editions of my competitors, the Irving Rambler and Coppell Gazette.)

I was surprised to learn from Cook’s presentation that only 8,000 of the city’s 13,500 utility customers are registered to use eSuite, the platform that’s being phased out. I was even more surprised to learn that only 3,500 customers actually use eSuite in an average month. Maybe that’s because the city offers several other options for paying utility bills, including:

• In-person payments inside Town Center

• In-person payments at a kiosk in the Town Center parking lot

• Automatic bank drafts

• Mailed payments

• Payments via phone

Personally, I opt for the kiosk over eSuite to avoid the credit card processing fee. If you primarily use the kiosk or any of the other methods on that list, then you do not need to take any action. Just keep doing what you’re doing.

But in an attempt to lure you to the new portal, the city will offer incentives. If you register to use the new portal, you will get a $5 discount on your next bill. If you also sign up for automatic bank drafts, they’ll knock another $5 off that next bill. Like all sweet deals, these incentives will be available for a limited time only.

By the way, the new portal is called Citizen Self Service. Cook’s memo to the council says it is “more sophisticated and configurable, reliable and automated” than eSuite “and will streamline some aspects of the payment process.” For example, if you want to update your contact information or change how and when your bills are delivered, eSuite can’t help you. You have to call someone at Town Center or go there in person. Once Citizen Self Service is up and running, you’ll be able to make those changes online.

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Sleepy Corner Will Get Makeover

Remember when I told you in last week’s Chronicle about the plans to build four new hotels in Coppell? The City Council approved those proposals on Tuesday, after they authorized a makeover of the Maple Mart service station.

That Chevron station is on the southeast corner of Belt Line Road and MacArthur Boulevard. The owners, who acquired the property in April, plan to tear down their drive-thru carwash and replace it with a 4,500-square-foot building that will include an expanded Maple Mart convenience store plus a restaurant. They told the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission that they’re hoping to work out a franchise agreement with Chipotle, but Subway is their backup plan. (Do they know there’s a Subway directly across MacArthur?) They also will add four new gas pumps to the 12 that are already there.

The property will certainly be prettier once the work is done — well, as pretty as a gas station can be. The approved plans call for the removal of three trees from the site, but 24 new trees will be planted: 17 pond cypresses plus seven cedar elms.

Maple Mart and the shuttered Boston Market next door have separate ownership from the rest of that corner, which is branded Valley Ranch Centre (yes, spelled the British way). When this proposal came up during the Planning and Zoning Commission’s Oct. 21 work session, Chair Edmund Haas cracked up his fellow commissioners with this question: “Can a condition of the approval be that they fully lease the whole center?”

Once the laughter died down, Commissioner Sue Blankenship said, “If you build it, they will come.” Commissioner Glenn Portman replied, “That center is the perfect example of why that’s not true.”

Sure enough, more than half of the spaces in Valley Ranch Centre (18 of 32) are vacant. I know this because I performed my own space-by-space inventory on Saturday. This July 2021 leasing brochure from Centcom Realty Corporation says one of the 18 vacant spaces will soon be occupied by a nail salon. (If you’re checking my math against that brochure, I count the H&R Block space as vacant because there’s a sign on the door that says, “This office is closed,” and instructs would-be clients to visit the H&R Block location near J. Macklin’s Grill.)

While conducting my inventory, I noticed a building permit on the door of the former Boston Market space. The permit, which was posted last Tuesday, says nothing about the future tenant, but it does feature the name and phone number of the general contractor, so I called him and asked who he’s working for. He informed me that Coppell will soon be home to the second location of Ecclesia Bakery & Café, a Carrollton eatery that prides itself on its use of levain, a leavening agent that makes Ecclesia’s products “more nutritious and easily digested than white bread and … less likely to cause spikes in blood sugar levels.”

So we’re about to get a new pastries spot that will be catty-corner from where Kasa Kolache just went belly up last month? Maybe that’s why I can’t get “Circle of Life” out of my head.

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Chronicle Crumbs

• Congratulations to the Coppell High School Band, which finished fifth in the UIL Class 6A State Marching Band Championships on Monday. This accolade came on the heels of the band finishing in eighth place at the Bands of America Super Regional.

• Coppell ISD residents who are at least 60 years old are eligible to receive a VIP Gold Card, which grants the holder free access to some CISD fine arts events and all home athletics events.

• The Republican National Committee is opening community centers around the nation, and I learned via this Dallas Morning News article that one of the few in Texas is right here in Coppell. The article doesn’t give an address for the center, so I contacted the reporter, Gromer Jeffers, who told me it’s at 580 South Denton Tap Road, which is the two-story office building between GracePoint Church and RE/MAX.

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Community Calendar

Coppell Holiday Home Tour: This Assistance League of Coppell fundraiser is scheduled for Dec. 3 and 4. Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 if you procrastinate. Kiddin’ Around Playcare is offering discounted childcare during the tour so you don’t have to drag your children through strangers’ houses.

It’s a Wonderful Life: Theatre Coppell will perform a stage adaptation of the classic Christmas film on three consecutive weekends starting Dec. 3. Friday and Saturday shows start at 8 p.m.; Sunday matinees start at 2:30 p.m.

Holiday Hustle 5K and Fun Run: The Coppell Cheer Association will host this event on Dec. 11 at Andrew Brown Park East.

Self-Defense Class for High School Girls: The Coppell Police Department will offer this class exclusively to female seniors at Coppell High School or New Tech High. It will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on six consecutive Wednesdays starting Jan. 12. Contact your School Resource Officer to enroll.