Coppell Chronicle Vol. 4, No. 46
Who’s Ready for Another Election Season? • School Districts Craft Legislative Priorities • Cities Also Have Their Eyes on Austin • Coppell Leaders Keep Discussing Old Town
Who’s Ready for Another Election Season?
If you want to run for public office in the May 3 election, then get your paperwork together. The filing period opens on Jan. 15 and runs through Feb. 14.
Here’s a look at which seats will be up for grabs in all of the municipalities that overlap with Coppell and Coppell ISD.
Coppell ISD Board of Trustees
All trustees are elected at-large. Three of the seven seats will be on the ballot:
Leigh Walker was elected to the Place 1 seat in 2016. She was unopposed in her 2019 and 2022 campaigns.
Manish Sethi was elected to the Place 2 seat in 2018. He was unopposed in his 2019 and 2022 campaigns.
Anthony Hill was elected to the Place 3 seat in 2007. He was reelected in … [deep breath] … 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2022. Hill was unopposed in 2013 and 2019.
Coppell City Council
Coppell’s council terms are scheduled so that the city sits out every third year, and this is one of those years. In 2026, the at-large seats held by Don Carroll, Mark Hill, Ramesh Premkumar, and Jim Walker will be on the ballot.
Irving City Council
A big chunk of Coppell ISD is in Irving. Its City Council features a mix of geographic and at-large seats, and the at-large seat held by Brad LaMorgese since 2022 will be on the ballot. From 2012 to 2018, LaMorgese occupied the District 6 seat representing most of the Coppell ISD portion of Irving.
Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees
Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, which includes portions of Coppell and Irving, uses a system called cumulative voting. Rather than running for a specific seat, all candidates compete against each other in a game of musical chairs. If there are three seats on the ballot — as there are this year — then each voter gets three votes. You can vote for the same candidate three times or spread your three votes among multiple candidates.
The seats occupied by Kim Brady, Ileana Garza-Rojas, and Tara Hrbacek will be on the ballot. Hrbacek has been on the board since 2017, while Brady and Garza-Rojas were elected in 2022.
Lewisville City Council
A portion of Coppell ISD is within Lewisville’s city limits. City Council members represent geographic districts, but the entire city gets to vote on each race. Three seats will be on the ballot:
Brandon Jones was elected to the District 4 seat in 2016. District 4 includes the Coppell ISD portion of Lewisville.
Kristin Green was elected to the District 5 seat in 2019.
Patrick Kelly was elected to the District 6 seat in 2022.
Lewisville ISD Board of Trustees
Lewisville ISD, which includes a portion of Coppell, is transitioning from a purely at-large system to one that features five geographic seats and two at-large seats. Three seats will be on the ballot — the ones representing Districts 2 and 3, plus one of the at-large seats.
Jenny Proznik, Katherine Sells, and Sheila Taylor are the trustees whose terms are expiring. Proznik lives in District 3, and Sells resides in District 2, which includes the Coppell portion of Lewisville ISD. Taylor’s home is in District 1, but she’s eligible to seek the at-large seat.
Dallas City Council
Cypress Waters is in Dallas’ District 6, which Omar Narvaez has represented since 2017, but he cannot run again due to term limits. This presents an opportunity for someone from Cypress Waters to confuse the heck out of everybody in Dallas by filing candidacy paperwork. Who wants to throw their hat in the ring?
School Districts Craft Legislative Priorities
The results of our most recent election will start to be realized on Jan. 14, when the Texas Legislature convenes its biennial session. (Pro tip: “Biennial” means every two years, while “biannual” means twice a year.)
In advance of that session, the trustees of Coppell’s three school districts have been fine-tuning their legislative priorities. Coppell ISD’s trustees discussed this list during a June workshop: