Coppell Chronicle Vol. 2, No. 43
Old Church Remains Standing for Now • Bonuses Approved for Coppell ISD Staff • District Asks Everyone to Remain Calm • We’re Trading Sushi for Tacos
Christmas is a week away, and Hanukkah begins at sundown tonight. If there’s someone on your list who would enjoy the gift of information, I have an idea:
Old Church Remains Standing for Now
The City Council has rejected a zoning change proposed for the site of a former church in Old Town Coppell, but Tuesday’s final 4-3 vote is not the end of the story. Developer Chris Collins plans to go back to the drawing board and try again.
Collins has a contract to buy the property on the southwest corner of Main Street and Bethel Road, but the sale is contingent upon a zoning change. That contract has been extended through April, because Collins thinks he’ll be able to win over a fourth council member by then.
“I’m confident enough that I’ll go drop more money and more time into it,” he said Friday.
Tuesday’s public hearing on Collins’ proposal was the most contentious such hearing since I launched this newsletter. Twenty people signed up to speak, and they were evenly divided. Steven Chadick, who owns the property in question, was one of the 10 who supported the zoning change. Six of the 10 in opposition own four nearby businesses: Cottage Salon, Bethel Road Barber Shop, Jacaranda Gift Shop, and Tattered Style. (Their concerns were detailed last month in “Old Town Business Owners Oppose Proposal.”)
Collins wants to replace a long-dormant church and its annex with six two-story buildings. Under the proposal rejected by the City Council, the building on the corner would have been zoned for retail, two others would have been zoned for residential above retail, and the remaining three would have been zoned for residential above offices.
After all of the speeches, Mayor Pro Tem Biju Mathew made a motion to continue the public hearing until January, so Collins and the nearby business owners could work out a compromise. Not only is there a recent precedent for that idea, that recent precedent involves Collins. (See “It Turns Out We Can Live-Work in Harmony” from October 2021.) But Mathew’s motion failed because only he and John Jun voted for it. Here’s the first in a series of visual aids:
“We were elected to make decisions,” Council Member Kevin Nevels said before that 5-2 vote. “Let’s do what we can tonight, and then we can move forward from there.”
Nevels, who said “Old Town needs a jolt,” and Cliff Long were Collins’ most vocal supporters on the council.
“We talk incessantly about the fact that we need restaurants down there,” Long said. “By voting for what Mr. Collins wants to do, at least we have that possibility to get the restaurants.”
Council Members Mark Hill and Brianna Hinojosa-Smith said they could not support Collins’ proposal.
“I understand we want to get some vibrance down there, but office space is not the way to do it,” Hill said. “We’ve already got too much office space.”
Mayor Wes Mays pointed out that the council members have the power to alter proposals before them. City Attorney Bob Hager immediately offered a caveat regarding that power.
“You need to ask the applicant if he’s acceptable to any of those alternatives while he’s here,” Hager said. “If we’re going to do this planning on the fly, at least we ought to hear from the applicant on that issue.”
Nonetheless, Hill made a motion to approve the proposal as presented, even though he intended to vote against it. He just wanted to get down to brass tacks and end the debate.
Nevels then made a motion to amend Hill’s motion, so that the vote would be on a modified proposal. Under Nevels’ amendment, only the two buildings fronting Bethel would be zoned for offices — an arrangement that Collins had said he could make work. But only Don Carroll and Long voted with Nevels for his amendment, so it failed, 4-3.
We then got to the point at which everyone learned the importance of clearly speaking into a microphone during a public meeting. Hill made a motion to amend the proposal so that office zoning would be prohibited in all six buildings. Collins had said earlier that an office-free development wouldn’t be economically viable, so Hinojosa-Smith asked him, “Are you OK with that?” Collins said yes from his seat in the audience, but apparently not loud enough for Carroll to hear him. Before the vote on Hill’s no-offices amendment, Carroll said, “I just want to remind everybody we were informed that was not a viable use.” Nevels then pointed at Collins and said, “He did say yes,” but Nevels did not turn on his microphone. Moments later, Carroll was one of the four votes against Hill’s amendment, which was supported by Jun and Nevels.
That brought the council back to Hill’s original motion to approve the proposal as presented. With midnight approaching, Carroll, Long, and Nevels voted for it, but Hill, Hinojosa-Smith, Jun, and Mathew voted against it.
With all of the motions to amend and points of clarification, Tuesday’s hearing was as entertaining as it was confusing. I look forward to Collins’ next appearance in the council’s chambers.
Bonuses Approved for Coppell ISD Staff
The Coppell ISD Board of Trustees has approved another round of retention and incentive bonuses for the school district’s employees.
Under a resolution unanimously approved by the trustees on Monday, full-time employees who work for the district before the start of next semester’s final grading period and remain employed through the end of that semester will get a $500 bonus added to their June paychecks. Part-time employees will get a prorated amount.
Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services Kristen Eichel said the district’s employees are still working hard to offset the learning loss caused by the pandemic while also covering for each other as teachers and students miss classes due to COVID-19, the flu, and other illnesses. She framed these $500 bonuses “as a ‘thank you’ for what they’re doing, as a way to say, ‘We value the hard work,’ and a way to say, ‘We see you. We want you to stay here in Coppell.’”
Like the $500 bonuses that CISD employees received last June and the $1,000 bonuses they received a year ago, this latest round of bonuses will be covered by federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds. Eichel said the newly approved bonuses will cost approximately $700,000, representing about a third of CISD’s remaining ESSER funds. The rest of the money must be spent by Sept. 30, 2024.
“They go above and beyond every day,” Trustee Leigh Walker said of CISD’s employees. “We see that in every school and every building. I know we say this every time: It’s never enough, but it’s at least one way of saying, ‘We see you. We thank you. And we know this has been hard.’”
District Asks Everyone to Remain Calm
“Calmness is contagious,” Coppell ISD Trustee Leigh Walker said during Monday’s school board meeting, and that turned out to be a theme of the school district’s communications last week.
Walker said that as she complimented Cindy Powell, the consultant guiding the work of the district’s Bond Steering Committee, for Powell’s “just the facts” delivery. That committee is a group of about 60 volunteers who have been crafting recommendations regarding a potential bond election in May.
“Some of the expectations that have been put on them have been outside of their scope,” Superintendent Brad Hunt said during Monday’s meeting. “As you all know, they don’t have the authority to close a school or change a program. They can make recommendations, but that would just be it.”
When Hunt said the committee doesn’t have the authority to close a school, a committee member who was in the audience applauded. Multiple members of the committee told me they have been inundated with emails from Pinkerton Elementary parents, imploring them not to shutter that campus.
The committee was initially presented with four options for balancing elementary enrollment, modernizing elementary campuses, and providing age-appropriate facilities for prekindergarten students. Only one only of those options, Option 2A, calls for modernizing nine elementary campuses; the other options omit one unnamed school.
Because their children attend the district’s oldest and smallest elementary, Pinkerton parents assume their campus is on the chopping block. Powell said 90 percent of the 250 people who attended a Community Dialogue session in November said they were affiliated with Pinkerton. That school also had an outsized participation rate in an associated survey.
Julie Waters, the leader of the Pinkerton Parent Coalition, spoke during the “Open Forum” portion of Monday’s board meeting, and she didn’t mince words: “If Option 2A is not in the bond, we will vote against it, and we will mobilize the community of Coppell to also vote down this bond.”
Waters also pointed out that three of the seven trustees’ seats will be on the ballot in May. “Pinkerton parents will remember which of the board members voted for or against — or even abstained — in closing a school,” she said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Coppell ISD parents were sent a video message featuring Hunt and Board of Trustees President David Caviness, who told viewers, “Please do not be alarmed by misinformation and rumors circulating in the community that are designed to create division and disrupt the bond planning process.”
In the video, Hunt reiterated the role of the Bond Steering Committee: “This is an advisory group serving to make a recommendation to our board. They play a key role in representing a cross section of our community, but they do not have the authority to make final decisions.”
At 3:30 on Thursday morning, Waters emailed that video to members of the media and called it an attempt to “squash freedom of speech.” She asked reporters to attend the Bond Steering Committee’s final meeting on Thursday, even though it was not open to the public. Given that I had promised my wife that I’d stay home with our kids that evening so she could go to dinner with friends, I declined Waters’ request. A choice between upsetting Waters and upsetting my wife is no choice at all.
Coppell ISD parents received another special update from the district on Friday afternoon that said the committee’s recommendations will be presented to the board on Jan. 23. The trustees will discuss those recommendations twice in February before making a decision on a bond election. As documented in this edition’s first article, elected officials are always free to disregard recommendations.
But let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that the trustees do decide to close a school. I’m certain that every affected student would have the opportunity to transfer to another Coppell ISD school where they would still receive a fine education.
Due to various circumstances — including new jobs for my dad, my parents’ divorce, and even a school closing — I attended five elementaries in four districts. Yet here I am, living my best life as a happy, well-adjusted adult with a roof over my head, money in the bank, and a family who loves me.
Your children are more resilient than you think.
We’re Trading Sushi for Tacos
We have enough food news this week to merit a Restaurant Roundup:
• Taqueria La Ventana has operated a pop-up shop on Twisted Root’s patio in Old Town for the past two Saturdays. During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mark Hill said the taqueria will be taking over the former Quincy’s Chicken Shack space on a permanent basis. The gentleman who handed me two tacos yesterday — uno bistec y uno pollo — said the same thing.
• On Thursday evening, the developers of the Victory Shops at Coppell were back in front of the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission to explain some changes to a proposal approved by the City Council in September. (See “Developer Has Big Plans on Belt Line.”) When asked which restaurants will be included in the development, Bobby Mendoza of Victory Real Estate Group mentioned Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop, Dillas, and Piada Italian Street Food by name. He also said his firm is talking to the operators of a “fast-casual Italian/pizza concept” and “a sit-down breakfast restaurant.”
• I’m sorry to report that Zena Sushi will close for good one week from today. Yes, they will be open on Christmas, but then their 10-year run in the Market at Town Centre (sic) will be over.
Congratulations are in Order
• Congratulations to the Coppell Police Department and all of the neighborhood groups that hosted National Night Out events on Oct. 4. The National Association of Town Watch said Coppell had the highest participation rate among Texas cities with populations between 15,000 and 50,000. We also ranked fourth nationally in that category.
• Congratulations to the aspiring journalists of Coppell Student Media. The students behind KCBY-TV and The Sidekick recently received numerous national honors from the National Scholastic Press Association.
• Congratulations to Valley Ranch Elementary fifth-grader Ira Killi, whose artwork (below) is featured on Coppell ISD’s holiday greeting card. This is the third year in a row that the honor went to a Valley Ranch Elementary student.
Chronicle Crumbs
• The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced on Monday that about 1,000 trout were added to Moore Road Park’s west pond and another 750 trout were added to Andrew Brown Park East’s west pond.
• When the City of Coppell posted a note on Facebook about its Finance Department changing its name to the Strategic Financial Engagement Department, a commenter replied with “Woke,” which further muddied my understanding of that word’s meaning.
• I’m obviously biased, but this was the best part of Tuesday’s Coppell City Council meeting.
Community Calendar
Santa on Havencrest: Santa Claus will greet visitors at 603 Havencrest Lane every evening between 6:30 and 8:30 through Friday.
Christmas Trains: After you see Santa on Havencrest, swing by 737 Cardinal Lane, where the Christmas trains will be on display through Jan. 6.
Knit Wits gift wrapping: In exchange for a small donation, the Coppell Senior and Community Center’s group of knitting/crocheting/sewing enthusiasts will wrap your gifts between 1 and 3 p.m. on Tuesday or between 1 and 4 p.m. on Thursday.
Wild By Nature — Winter Birds: Families are invited to swoop into the Biodiversity Education Center at 1 p.m. on Wednesday to learn how birds survive during winter. Participants will be able to make a bird feeder to take home.
Interactive Screening of Elf: The classic comedy starring Will Ferrell will be screened at 2 p.m. on Wednesday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.
Noon Year’s Eve: If you can’t stay up until midnight on Dec. 31, stop by the Cozby Library and Community Commons that morning. There will be a dance party culminating with a countdown to 12 p.m.
Dan, Excellent use of graphics and pictures of our City Council to more effectively communicate their voting and positioning across the Old Town Zoning discussion in today's edition. Thank you for "going the extra mile" here to inform our citizens with balanced -- and visual -- reporting. Your reporting clearly deserves more subscribers to the Coppell Chronicle. I will continue to recommend the Chronicle to others. I encourage other subscribers here to also promote the Chronicle to others. -- Jack Carpenter
Yes, all CISD schools are good but in recent years Pinkerton has shined. It has become a big drawing card. My neighborhood The Springs is full of young families with kids who chose due to the school. Hence, our property values are some of the highest in Coppell.