Coppell Chronicle Vol. 3, No. 23
Coppell ISD Installing Cameras on Each Bus • Nobody Loves Hearing More Airplanes • One PAC’s Funding Remains Mysterious • Church Clears Hurdle for Developing Land
Coppell ISD Installing Cameras on Each Bus
Each Coppell ISD bus is about to be outfitted with three cameras capable of recording audio and video, and that footage will be archived for at least 30 days.
On Monday, the Board of Trustees approved spending up to $200,000 on the surveillance system. Those funds will come from the remaining proceeds of the district’s 2016 bond package.
In a memo to the board, newly hired Chief Operations Officer Chris Trotter wrote that the system will allow the footage to be wirelessly downloaded to a server at the Coppell ISD Service Center as the buses return there each day. He added this during his presentation to the board:
“Our bus drivers will be able to download from their buses,” Trotter said, “and/or if we have a situation where we need to go pull the hard drive, we can download it [and] put it back in the bus within minutes.”
Hold up. Wait a second. The idea of drivers downloading the footage from their buses made my spider-sense tingle, considering a Coppell ISD bus driver was recently arrested and charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child. Although nobody mentioned that incident during Monday’s meeting, I’d bet it was on Board President David Caviness’ mind when he asked this clarifying question:
“Just to make sure I understood what you were saying, the drivers themselves won’t have the ability to manipulate what the video is or anything like that?”
Trotter replied, “No, sir. All they can do is push the data up. That’s it.”
Trustee Jobby Mathew had a follow-up question: “So the bus driver cannot access where the hard drive is?” Trotter said no more than three people will have that ability.
Trustee Anthony Hill wanted to know where the footage would be saved and for how long. Trotter said the district’s in-house servers already have enough digital capacity to store about a semester’s worth of footage. Administrators are discussing what it would take to store it for a year or longer, if they decide that’s necessary.
Trotter’s memo said the new system should be fully functional within the first few weeks of the fall semester. Coppell ISD’s first day of school is Aug. 15.
The vote on the cameras was one of several 5-0 votes the trustees took on Monday, when Manish Sethi and Leigh Walker were absent. They also approved:
Hiring Frisco-based Core Construction as the “construction manager at risk” for projects related to the $321.5 million bond package that voters approved in May. Core Construction has built schools for Frisco ISD, Lewisville ISD, and McKinney ISD.
The Student Code of Conduct for the 2023-2024 school year.
The District Improvement Plan for the 2023-2024 school year.
An amendment to Coppell ISD’s Local Innovation Plan. A new state law mandates placement in a disciplinary alternative education program if a student uses, possesses, sells, or delivers marijuana or vape pens on or within 300 feet of a campus. Under the approved amendment, Coppell ISD will allow a first-time offender to serve an in-school suspension.
I’ll have more details on that last item in next week’s edition, which will be available to paid subscribers only. If you’re not a paid subscriber …
Nobody Loves Hearing More Airplanes
As someone who lives on the west side of Coppell, directly below a DFW International Airport flight path, I’m used to hearing planes buzz my house. But people who reside on the east side of town? Not so much.
A couple of subscribers who live over there said they’ve seen and heard more planes bound for Love Field lately. They asked your correspondent to investigate, and who am I to decline a request from paying customers?
I began my research by contacting the City of Dallas Department of Aviation, which oversees Love Field. “The summer season does produce a spike in travel,” spokesperson Hilda Lopez said via email, “which may be the reason you are receiving this feedback.” The thing is, I received these inquiries back in the spring; like a lot of commercial flights, this article’s been delayed.
It then occurred to me that I have experts right here in Coppell among my subscribers. For example, Captain Alex Schroeder is an American Airlines pilot whose wife works for Southwest Airlines. He was delighted to provide an aviation explanation.
“Landing an airliner is a game of inertia,” he said via email. “You can either be high or fast, but not both. So to hustle into an airport (keep your speed up), you have to come in low. The lower the noisier, the faster the noisier. Most pilots try to stay high to use gravity instead of dinosaur juice to push the airplane along.”
How great is “dinosaur juice” as a euphemism for jet fuel?
Schroeder explained that storms or cloudy conditions can cause air traffic controllers to direct pilots to fly lower as they approach Love. If they go below the clouds, they can use visual rules (relying on their eyes) instead of instrument rules (relying on their equipment). Because DFW has more than four times as much traffic as Love, “this means bringing them in lower to keep them out of the way of big brother.”
Quality journalists always find a second source, so I turned to another subscriber who flies for American Airlines, Captain Bradley White. He said wind patterns can affect whether planes approach from the north or the south, but he agreed that stormy weather has been the primary factor.
“All traffic (departures and arrivals) must be moved (vectored) around the bad weather areas ... and still stay apart from other airplanes,” White wrote. “All local storm activity produces changes in Metroplex flight-traffic patterns affecting ALL local airports.”
White said arrivals and departures are crafted to minimize noise complaints, and he pointed out that the modern aircraft manufactured by Boeing and Airbus are the quietest planes ever built. While that may be true, we all know these planes still aren’t exactly quiet. Schroeder recommended downloading an app such as Flight Aware that you can use to track planes’ speeds and altitudes as you listen to which ones are noisier. He’s used such apps to gauge some “really sporty” Southwest flights over his house in the Bird Streets.
“The 10:35 p.m. arrival from Denver,” he said, “that must be the last leg of a long four-day trip, and those guys are in a hurry to be home.”
Have We Got a Deal for You!
Before we get to the rest of this week’s news, let’s pause for a brief commercial break.
My son Gabriel Koller is indirectly responsible for the Coppell Chronicle. As I’ve written before, my wife and I moved our family here so he could enroll in Coppell ISD. If it weren’t for him and his special needs, we wouldn’t be living in Coppell, so I never would have launched this newsletter.
Gabe recently graduated from Coppell High, and we’re working on getting him a job. However, due to his mental disabilities, his chances for financial independence are slim to none. So the Chronicle — which I research and write in my spare time — is how I plan to fund Gabe’s adult life. My wife and I will continue to live off the salary from my day job, but the money I receive from my paid subscribers will go to him. In a way, the Chronicle will be indirectly responsible for Gabe.
If your heartstrings aren’t tugged enough to upgrade to a paid subscription, consider this offer: If you click here, you can order a shirt just like the ones Gabe and I are wearing in that photo. And if you send me proof of your willingness to promote this newsletter on your chest, I will comp you a year’s subscription.
An annual subscription costs just $30, but my partners at Tee Public are having a sale this weekend. T-shirts are priced as low as $16. If you have no use for sleeves, you can get a Coppell Chronicle tank top for $13. What a steal!
This offer is also good for readers who are already paid subscribers. I’ll simply extend your subscription for 12 months if you forward me a copy of the receipt for your shirt. You can reach me at bydankoller@gmail.com or coppellchronicle@substack.com.
One PAC’s Funding Remains Mysterious
Two political action committees, or PACs, were formed in connection with Coppell ISD’s most recent bond election. It appears that only one of them has followed up with the proper paperwork.
According to the Texas Ethics Commission, July 17 was the deadline for candidates, office holders, and PACs to file their semi-annual campaign finance reports. The pro-bond PAC called Yes! Committed to Our Schools beat that deadline by more than a month, as it filed a dissolution report on June 12.
That report shows the PAC took in a $3,000 contribution on May 5 (the day before Election Day) from Corgan, the Dallas architecture firm that will design the facilities funded by the $321.5 million bond package. I’m sure Corgan will end up invoicing the school district for far more than $3,000, so that money was well spent.
After paying off the bills of co-chairs Gaby Anene and Trudy Baade — who used their credits cards to pay for yard signs and flyers — the PAC donated its remaining $987 to the Coppell ISD Education Foundation to help pay for teachers’ classroom grants.
The anti-bond group, ABC PAC, did not file its formation paperwork until the day before Election Day. That document says campaign treasurer Dinesh Tiwari was appointed by Ron Hansen, a three-time candidate for the Board of Trustees. The PAC’s campaign activities included mass text messages that didn’t begin until two thirds of the election’s participants had already cast their ballots during early voting. The ABC PAC did not file a semi-annual report with either Coppell ISD or the Texas Ethics Commission.
Board of Trustees President David Caviness and challenger Julie Waters filed their semi-annual reports on May 16 and June 14, respectively. There’s nothing really notable in either document other than their existence. By contrast, newly elected Trustee Ranna Raval and her two competitors, Samit Patel and Jonathan Powers, did not file any such reports. However, Carol Snowden — who wrangles these documents in her capacity as Superintendent Brad Hunt’s executive assistant — told me only the candidates and office holders with more than $1,010 worth of contributions or expenditures to report are required to file.
Over at Coppell Town Center, newly elected City Council Member Jim Walker filed a report full of zeroes. His opponent, Ramesh Premkumar, filed one that says he spent $1,300 at Peacock Indian Cuisine for a results-watching event on Election Day. He also reported spending $508 at What The Biryani and $262 at Swadeshi Plaza to feed his campaign workers.
Church Clears Hurdle for Developing Land
After months of postponements and revisions, the Irving City Council is set to finally consider a proposal to develop a vacant lot in Valley Ranch.
The property on Mustang Drive is next to MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church, which owns the land. Irving resident Sateesh Allada wants to buy the land and build more than 40 homes there — if the council approves a zoning change.
Last March, the Irving Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-3 to recommend approval of Allada’s original plan to construct 77 townhomes on the lot. But Allada and the church asked the City Council to postpone a hearing on the proposal before withdrawing it altogether.
This month, the commission considered a revised plan to build 43 zero-lot-line houses on the property. Here are a couple of images to help you get oriented:
During their latest hearing, the developer and the church were aided by consultant Sharon Barbosa-Crain, a former Irving City Council member.
“What you have in front of you today is the ability to take this piece of property and put it to a good use, a functional use, a practical use, and an attractive use that fits within the neighborhood, is compatible with the neighborhood, and will be an asset to the general area and the City of Irving as a whole,” she told the commissioners on July 10.
Mario Barnes, who lives in the neighborhood due north of the vacant lot, begged to differ. He and his neighbors were opposed to the original plan, and they are opposed to the revised plan. Barnes said he grew up in the Northeast, where seeing structures right on top of one another is the norm.
“The beauty of Irving, the Valley Ranch area — and Texas as a whole — is the spaciousness, the greenery, the landscaping,” he told the commissioners. “We’re losing that in Irving, because it’s just building homes on top of homes on top of homes.”
Barnes got a little choked up as he praised senior planner Gina Constanza-Grant and senior administrative assistant April Aguayo for walking him through City Hall’s processes so he could better advocate on behalf of his neighbors. He apologized for displaying his emotions, which he said were out of character.
“My wife probably loves seeing me sensitive like this,” Barnes said, “but it’s where we live.”
Speaking of where he lives, Commissioner Terry Prichard asked Planning Director Jocelyn Murphy whether the homes in Barnes’ neighborhood are considered zero-lot-line properties. She said they are. Additionally, the documents prepared by Murphy’s staff note that the variances Allada is seeking regarding minimum lot depths and minimum rear-yard setbacks are less than the variances granted to the developer who built Barnes’ neighborhood in the late ’90s.
Barnes and other nearby residents told the commission they are worried about parked cars blocking traffic on Mustang Drive, but Barbosa-Crain said Irving’s Transportation Department and Fire Department had no such concerns. And pastor Bob Bolander said the only time parishioners have parked on Mustang was when a construction project made a portion of the church’s parking lot unavailable.
“I’m there at the church every day,” said Bolander, who resides in Flower Mound. “I’m probably in the area more than the residents. It’s not a busy area at all.”
Commission Chair Mike Joy said he appreciated the developer adjusting his plans, and Commissioner Debbi Haacke echoed those sentiments before making the motion to approve. The proposal passed by a vote of 6-2, with Bruce Burns and April Myrick in the minority.
The Irving City Council will have the final say on Thursday.
Chronicle Crumbs
• During the Coppell City Council’s final budget workshop on Thursday, Director of Strategic Financial Engagement Kim Tiehen proposed a tax rate of 49.3496 cents per $100 of valuation, which City Manager Mike Land said would be Coppell’s lowest since 1984. However, due to rising property values, the average homeowner with a homestead exemption would see an annual increase of $76 in the city portion of their tax bill. The council will vote on the proposed budget and tax rate during their Aug. 22 meeting.
• On Tuesday, the Coppell City Council was briefed on the plans for a warehouse that would be built on Vista Ridge Mall Drive. Because the property straddles the city limits of Coppell and Lewisville, the council will have to approve an interlocal agreement with their counterparts to the north, much like the agreement approved in 2019 regarding a nearby badminton facility called Feather Smash. Coincidentally, the owners of that facility have finally scheduled a soft opening for Aug. 25 under a new name: Vistara Sports. That website says badminton and pickleball enthusiasts will be able to access the building around the clock, except for the hours between 11 p.m. on Sundays and 6 a.m. on Mondays.
• Near the end of Tuesday’s meeting, City Council Member Mark Hill reported that Lewisville ISD — which includes the Coppell Greens neighborhood plus some homes in Coppell’s East Lake and Westhaven subdivisions — is likely to put a bond package on the ballot in November.
• Woven Health Clinic is providing free health care to Coppell residents ages 18 to 64 via a series of pop-up events at Life Safety Park. Channel 11 aired a story on Wednesday about the first such event. More are scheduled for Aug. 9, 16, 23, and 30.
• Hulen Scott, who was the mayor of Coppell from 1971 to 1977, died last Sunday at the age of 90. Services happened Thursday in Montague County, where he’d lived since 1997, according to his obituary.
• The building on Denton Tap Road that housed Kountry Donuts before it housed Kess Kravings Patisserie & Café before it briefly housed Fellowship Coffee and Tea earlier this year already has a new occupant: Gas Coffee.
• The multi-tenant building at the northern end of Denton Tap Road in Lewisville — the one anchored by the Silver Star Event Center — will soon feature a restaurant called 1738 Lounge, according to a form filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Community Calendar
Young Frankenstein: Theatre Coppell will stage one more performance of the musical based on Mel Brooks’ classic comedy. It’s scheduled for 2:30 p.m. today in the Wheelice Wilson Jr. Theatre at the Coppell Arts Center.
Singing 101: The Coppell Community Chorale will offer a series of lessons on Monday and Aug. 7 at the Coppell Arts Center. Participants can take two classes on each of those dates, at a cost of $35 per day.
Play ball! Tuesday is the registration deadline for the Coppell Baseball Association’s fall leagues, but Coppell Girls Softball Association players have until Friday to sign up. Meanwhile, the Coppell FC semi-pro soccer team will host open tryouts at 6 p.m. on Saturday and Aug. 6 at Lesley Field.
Geocache Treasure Hunt: The Biodiversity Education Center will host this event for children ages 7 to 17 between 10 a.m. and noon on Tuesday. Children must be supervised by an adult caregiver, and there is a $10 fee per person.
Author Q&A with Anita Kharbanda: The author of Lioness of Punjab will be at the Cozby Library and Community Commons at 4 p.m. on Tuesday to answer questions from middle school and high school students.
Coppell Women’s Club: The club invites members and guests to their Welcome Back Coffee at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday at 322 S. MacArthur Boulevard. The club’s Special Interest Groups (SIGs) will be set up to greet returning members and sign up newbies. SIGs include Travel, Hiking, Brunch, Book Clubs, and many more.
Drive-In at DART: The City of Carrollton and DART will host an outdoor screening of The Super Mario Bros. Movie at sundown on Friday at North Carrollton/Frankford Station. The parking lot will open at 7 p.m., and the expected vendors include Auntie Anne’s, HTeaO, and Dat’s a N’ice Italian Ice.
Guided Hike: The Friends of Coppell Nature Park will host a free guided hike focused on nature photography at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Participants should wear protective clothing and bring a bottle of water. Children must be supervised by an adult caregiver. A similar event is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Aug. 23.
End of Summer Reading Celebration: Readers who have spent the summer with their noses in books are invited to celebrate their efforts at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Cozby Library and Community Commons, where there will be games, face painting, and free burgers.
Troop 842 50th Anniversary Celebration: Past and present Scouts and troop leaders are invited to mark 50 years of Troop 824 with speeches, skits, and games between 2 and 4 p.m. on Aug. 6 at First United Methodist Church.
North Texas Job Fair: Need a job? Coppell’s Wes Mays and Irving’s Rick Stopfer are among more than a dozen mayors who will co-host a job fair with U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 7 at the Irving Convention Center.
Feed the Pollinators: A Guide to Establishing a Monarch Waystation: Be at the Valley Ranch Library at 6 p.m. on Aug. 9 to learn what resources are necessary for monarch butterflies to sustain their migration.
Four Day Weekend: The acclaimed improv comedy troupe will return to the Coppell Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 10.
Yoga in Nature: Advanced yoga therapist Latha Shanmugan will lead a class at 9 a.m. on Aug. 12 at the Biodiversity Education Center in Coppell Nature Park.
Locally Sourced: The Coppell Creatives are soliciting submissions for an exhibit devoted to art created by people who live or work in Coppell. The entry deadline is Aug. 18.
Thank you for keeping us informed. I’m sure the bus cameras also protect a bus driver. It may also prevent bullying on the bus
"... like a lot of commercial flights, this article's been delayed." 🤣 🤣. I'm excited to wear my Coppell Chronicle shirt I purchased around town to spread the word about the digital newspaper that I value so much!