Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 31
Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 31
Pinkerton Becomes Lone Closure Candidate • Which Schools Would Host Special Programs? • New Tech Gets Chance to Reinvent Itself • Trustees Say They Can’t Kick Can Any More
This is the second consecutive edition in which all four headlines are about Coppell ISD. But that’s OK, because my family didn’t move to Coppell for the parks, the library, or the rec center. We didn’t move here for the cops, the firefighters, or the lifeguards. And we certainly didn’t move here for the city’s grocery stores, its donut shops, or its absolute plethora of nail salons.
We moved here for the schools.
Pinkerton Becomes Lone Closure Candidate
Pinkerton Elementary is the only remaining option in Coppell ISD’s discussion of closing campuses. That development surprised many people, including some of the district’s trustees.
Because more than 80 people signed up to speak at the beginning of the Board of Trustees’ workshop last Monday, presentations didn’t give way to deliberations until 9:30 p.m. At that time, Board President David Caviness asked the trustees to think about three things:
What other information did they need to make a decision?
Were they still comfortable with the Sept. 30 deadline for a decision?
Could they narrow their focus by eliminating any of the presented options?
Nobody answered the third question, so Caviness made it plain at exactly 10 o’clock: “I’m asking if you guys had any interest in eliminating the Austin choice,” he said.
Trustee Manish Sethi said yes, because Austin Elementary is in the heart of a neighborhood, and the price points for its surrounding homes could draw new families to the district. By contrast, Pinkerton faces a strip of newly built warehouses, and DART’s Silver Line tracks are being laid nearby.
Trustee Jobby Mathew said he would also be fine with taking Austin off the list of closure options. Everybody talks about expanding Pinkerton’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program, he said, but you can’t do so at the district’s oldest elementary school given the building’s physical limitations.
By 10:04, Trustee Anthony Hill ramped things up by saying he would remove both Austin and New Tech High from the list of options. Sethi and Mathew quickly agreed with him.
“Wow, y’all, stuff is going down,” Trustee Leigh Walker said. “I had folded up my stuff and gotten my glasses, and we’re making some pretty — I mean, wow, this took a turn.”
After echoing the points about neighborhood schools and the potential growth of the IB program, Trustee Nichole Bentley said she was fine with removing Austin and New Tech. Trustee Ranna Raval agreed. That put all eyes on Walker, the only Pinkerton Cowpoke among the trustees; she met her husband on the school’s playground as a third-grader, and they moved back to Coppell so their three kids could go to Pinkerton too.
“I actually will be very vulnerable with you,” Walker said through tears. “Because I have thought to myself, ‘Why am I on the board right now, if I’m gonna have to vote to close something I love so much?’ And that’s when I think, ‘God puts you where you’re supposed to be.’ And if I can look at this decision as someone who knows incredibly what this means to our community, and what it means to so many families, and I can say, ‘I think this is the right decision,’ then it’s probably time.”
To be clear, the trustees have not officially voted to close Pinkerton. If they do so, that should happen on Sept. 30.
“Just ’cause we’re taking things off the table tonight,” Caviness said Monday, “doesn’t mean we’re going forward with what’s left on the table.”
Pinkerton parents and students will have another opportunity to influence the trustees during a workshop set for 5 p.m. tomorrow, just as dozens of them tried to do during a town hall meeting last Wednesday. One of the parents who spoke that night was Sierra Ford, and from her perspective, Pinkerton is a neighborhood school. Ford said she was speaking on behalf of her fellow Howell Drive residents.
“If you had wanted to expand this [IB] program, why haven’t you brought it to another school, enjoying stable enrollment at one and creating an enrollment attractor at another?” Ford asked. That question sparked a round of applause.
Which Schools Would Host Special Programs?
If the trustees opt to close Pinkerton Elementary, there would be domino effects.
The administration has recommended moving Pinkerton’s International Baccalaureate (IB) program to Wilson Elementary, which would necessitate consolidating Wilson’s Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program with its counterpart at Denton Creek Elementary. That would lead to most — if not all — of Denton Creek’s monolingual students being dispersed to other campuses.
These plans do not sit well with many Wilson and Denton Creek parents. Dozens of them showed up at Wednesday’s town hall meeting to speak their piece, including several who spoke in Spanish.