Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 17
Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 17
Bond Projects on Hold Until Closure Decision • Districts Struggle to Fund Pay Raises • Nasty Storms Lead to Ugly Behavior • Path Cleared for 30 Homes on Valley Ranch Lot
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there, especially the guy I took a picture of this morning as he sorted storm debris with a giant claw. (I just assumed he’s got kids; I didn’t want to interrupt his work to ask.)
Bond Projects on Hold Until Closure Decision
Renovations at three Coppell ISD elementary schools are on hold until the trustees decide whether to close any campuses.
During a budget workshop on Monday, the trustees were shown a list of projects in the second phase of the 2023 bond package:
Lakeside Elementary additions and renovations (June 2025-August 2026)
Pinkerton Elementary refresh and foundation repairs (June 2025-August 2025)
Town Center Elementary refresh (June 2025-August 2025)
Coppell Middle School North fine arts expansion and refresh (June 2025-August 2026)
Coppell High School renovation of former band/choir area (August 2025-May 2026)
The trustees were told that architects from Corgan are ready to design those projects; the dates in parentheses are when construction would happen. But Trustee Manish Sethi didn’t like the idea of starting work on the elementary projects if one or more of those schools’ days are numbered.
“I know it’s two different budgets, but still, money’s money,” Sethi said. “It doesn’t make too much sense to be spending all this time — all these resources, money, and human effort — on something which is completely uncertain.”
In case you’re new around here, Sethi’s mention of “two different budgets” was a reference to the district’s two tax rates:
Interest and sinking rate: This is also known as the debt service rate. In May of 2023, a majority of Coppell ISD voters endorsed borrowing $321.5 million to purchase new technology, acquire new vehicles, and renovate facilities across the district.
Maintenance and operations rate: This is how the district pays for daily expenses such as salaries, but this money is also subject to recapture under the Robin Hood system. So the district depends on funding from the Texas Legislature, which hasn’t increased the per-student allotment since 2019. That’s why Coppell ISD has been covering deficits by dipping into its fund balance.
Those financial woes, combined with declining enrollment, have led to discussions about closing one or more elementary schools. Those discussions aren’t unique to Coppell ISD; trustees in Plano ISD just decided to close four schools in 2025.
Sethi said he’d like to delay any work on Lakeside, Pinkerton, and Town Center until he and his peers make a closure decision. The other trustees who attended Monday’s workshop — Nichole Bentley, Anthony Hill, and Leigh Walker — agreed with him.
“It’s a very different world we are in right now than when all these plans were made,” Sethi said, and Superintendent Brad Hunt reiterated that point a few minutes later.
“When the Bond Steering Committee put all this together, and even when the community voted, it was a different situation than we’re in right now,” Hunt said. “So to temporarily, you know, tap the brakes, I don’t think is inappropriate.”
To be clear, the temporary delay requested by the trustees on Monday does not mean that Lakeside, Pinkerton, or Town Center are more likely to be closed than any other elementary school in Coppell.
“It’s so uncertain, it wouldn’t matter to me what three elementary names were on this slide right now,” Bentley said. “I would feel this way regardless of the names.”
Hunt said even if Lakeside, Pinkerton, and Town Center all remain open, one or more of them could absorb students from a closed campus. And Sethi pointed out that one of them might take on a special program offered by a shuttered school. Those factors could affect the timeline for renovations.
Speaking of timelines, the facilities evaluation tool that will be used to inform the trustees’ closure decision was approved during Monday’s workshop. The trustees are still scheduled to receive the data from that tool on Sept. 9 and make a decision on Sept. 30. Sethi repeated his displeasure with that timeline, which he said isn’t fair to the trustees or the community.
“This decision will change the history of [the] Coppell district for a very long time,” he said.
Districts Struggle to Fund Pay Raises
This article was revised after publication to correct a factual error. See the comments for more details.
Coppell ISD administrators are recommending 3 percent raises for teachers and staff, even though the latest draft of the 2024-2025 budget includes a $9.9 million deficit.