Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 14

Who Gets to Decide New Tech High’s Fate? • Trustees Recall Promise of 3-Year Reprieve • Board Takes Steps to Replace Superintendent • CISD’s Election is Over, But Others Continue

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No lies detected.

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Who Gets to Decide New Tech High’s Fate?

A constitutional crisis is brewing in Coppell ISD. Can two high schools be consolidated without approval from the district’s trustees? At least two of those elected officials say no.

During Monday’s Board of Trustees meeting, Chief Communications Officer Angela Brown and Assistant Superintendent Angie Brooks described a plan to move New Tech High from its own campus to Coppell High as “a school within a school.” They proposed rebranding New Tech as the Coppell High School Leadership Academy by the fall of 2026. When Board President David Caviness asked how this would be physically manifested, Brooks said there might be opportunities for the Leadership Academy to have its own entrance and/or a separate cafeteria.

Later in the meeting, the board considered a School Consolidation and Boundary Realignment Timeline, which was previewed in last week’s edition. It calls for an Aug. 25 recommendation regarding which elementary schools to close, followed by a Sept. 29 vote on that recommendation. When newly sworn-in Trustee Jonathan Powers asked whether the Sept. 29 vote would also involve New Tech, Brown said the board would consider only elementaries that night. Powers pointed out that leaves open the question of when the trustees would decide New Tech’s fate. This was Brown’s word-for-word response:

“While it is a school within a school, it is a program. Um, and so, the thought would be that, um, it would be an administrative decision, and that’s what we’ve shared, and not, um, a board decision.

“And to be honest with you, as we are in a superintendent transition, and with the school board, you can give us different direction. That was the original thought when we developed this, so we are open to your feedback.”

After some questions from Trustee Nichole Bentley, Trustee Leigh Walker had some feedback. She said what the administration is proposing amounts to the closure of a campus, which is the board’s purview. “There’s a pretty big logical distinction between it being a program and a campus,” Walker said.

Brown pushed back: “The campus is not closing. The campus will remain a PEIMS code. There will be a principal. The principal — there will be a staff. Um, this will truly be a school within a school. It is a relocation of a campus — of a school.”

PEIMS is an abbreviation for the Public Education Information Management System, which is a Texas Education Agency method of collecting data about schools. It was mentioned earlier in the meeting, when Bentley asked this question:

“Are we now philosophically considering New Tech a program instead of a campus? To me, that naturally leads to some decisions needing to be made or not needing to be made, depending on what we philosophically believe about New Tech, the curriculum, the culture, the things that are happening in that building.”

After that statement, Brooks cut in to say the “school within a school” version of New Tech would still have its own PEIMS code, as well as its own valedictorian and salutatorian.

Whether it’s a program or a campus, the idea of New Tech’s location being out of their hands was clearly a foreign concept to the trustees. After saying that she was trying to process it, Bentley brought up two controversial decisions the board made last year. They voted 4-3 to close Pinkerton Elementary, and then they took a separate 5-2 vote about moving Pinkerton’s International Baccalaureate program to Wilson Elementary and consolidating Wilson’s Dual Language Immersion program with its counterpart at Denton Creek Elementary.

“If we’re deciding New Tech is a program, and we’re moving it to another building and closing its campus, to me that seems very similar,” Bentley said. For clarity’s sake, Walker asked Bentley whether that should be a board decision. “If we’re gonna be consistent in how we approach things, yes,” Bentley said.

This was Trustee Anthony Hill’s take on the situation: “This is one of those things we need to step back on, not trying to make a decision tonight, but we need to weigh in as we go through the process.” However, Hill also said the question of who makes the call needs to be figured out “in the short timeframe.”

Board President David Caviness said he, like Bentley, was trying to process what Brown said. He agreed with Hill that the trustees would need to “figure out what this is” over the coming weeks.

The board has a budget workshop scheduled for June 9. Their next monthly meeting is set for June 23.

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Trustees Recall Promise of 3-Year Reprieve

New Tech was presented as a candidate for closure last September, but the trustees gave it a three-year reprieve to increase its enrollment. Yet here we are, discussing the possibility of moving New Tech out of its building on Samuel Boulevard one year from now.

During Monday’s meeting, Trustees Nichole Bentley, Anthony Hill, Ranna Raval, and Leigh Walker said they understood the three-year reprieve would involve New Tech remaining in its own facility. Newly elected Trustee Jonathan Powers didn’t weigh in, and Jobby Mathew was absent on Monday.

“What we have heard from our community is that it’s the board waffling or not necessarily committing that is causing some of these enrollment issues,” Walker said. “Are we gonna build trust as a board when we say we’re gonna do something and do it, or are we not?”

The outlier was Board President David Caviness, who said he associated the three-year period with the administration’s reimagining of New Tech more than he did with its building. “Knowing a plan would come back, we would have to give it those three to four years,” he said. Walker pushed back on Caviness’ take: “When we were talking about taking New Tech off the table, it was in the context of school closures.”

Despite administrators’ reluctance to label their plans for New Tech as a closure, Walker kept calling it that. “We have two high schools in Coppell, and we are closing one,” she said. “We have a large high school, and we have a small high school, and we are now closing the small high school.”

Walker is the only trustee with a child enrolled at New Tech, but Bentley and Hill are the parents of New Tech graduates. Although she assured everyone that she doesn’t make decisions as a trustee with her own children in mind, Walker echoed the sentiments expressed by many of the New Tech students and parents in the audience: What makes New Tech special is its smaller campus separate from Coppell High School.

That said, the administration has documented how often New Tech students are at Coppell High to take classes or participate in extracurricular activities not offered at their school. Last fall, Assistant Superintendent Kristen Eichel said there wasn’t a single class period in which all of New Tech’s students were there at the same time. Although New Tech has a capacity of 500 students, it’s been more than 10 years since its enrollment surpassed 400. All that adds up to a highly inefficient campus in a district trying to reduce its budget deficits.

Bentley pointed out that the district’s demographic projections became more dire during last year’s closure discussions. And when the trustees took New Tech off the table, they also had slim hopes that the Texas Legislature would increase funding for public schools.

“At a bare minimum, we have to have this conversation to be fiscally responsible as trustees,” Bentley said.

Caviness mentioned that a majority of Coppell ISD voters rejected a tax measure last November that would have provided the district with $2.4 million. That’s slightly more than the figure the administration says would be saved if New Tech was consolidated within Coppell High.

“If we’re gonna say ‘no,’ then we’re gonna have to come up with ways to find those savings,” Caviness said, “because the idea of just waiting on something else to come along is no longer an option.”

Caviness asked the administration to bring alternative cost-cutting measures to the board’s June 9 workshop.

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Board Takes Steps to Replace Superintendent

More than six weeks after Coppell ISD Superintendent Brad Hunt announced his retirement, the Board of Trustees made it official near the end of Monday’s marathon meeting. They voted to accept his letter of resignation, with the understanding that he will formally give up the job at the end of May but will stay on as “superintendent emeritus” through August.

A few minutes later, the trustees voted to hire Doug Williams as the district’s interim superintendent. He was the superintendent of Sunnyvale ISD for 16 years. He’s also a former president of the Texas Association of School Administrators, where he continues to serve as executive superintendent.

“I know that y’all are gonna find just the right person that’s gonna be wonderful at leading this district,” Hunt told the trustees before those votes, “someone who I know is gonna be smarter than me — there’s no question about that — but you’ll never find anybody that loves this district more than me, and I thank you for this opportunity.”

(Hunt made a similar statement in a well-executed KCBY story, which features a plethora of vintage yearbook photos of him.)

After adjourning Monday’s meeting past midnight, the trustees got together twice on Tuesday and again on Thursday. These special meetings were about finding a firm to help with the search for the district’s next leader after Williams. That gig went to JG Consulting, which is based in Georgetown.

Coppell ISD will host a reception in Hunt’s honor between 3 and 5 p.m. on Wednesday in the Coppell High School library. This is a come-and-go event, but I’m told you may want to be there at 4:30 for a special presentation.

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CISD’s Election is Over, But Others Continue

More than 60 people spoke during the “Open Forum” portion of Monday’s meeting, and only one of them didn’t mention New Tech. Bedecked in a black cowboy hat, Shouvik Bhattacharyya stepped up to the mic to call for a rerun of this year’s election.

“If the CISD board president, Mr. Caviness, bought ads for one of the candidates and used his CISD Facebook page, then it’s a violation of board operating procedure,” Bhattacharyya said.

David Caviness endorsed Jonathan Powers on Facebook, and Caviness paid Meta to promote that post. But there is no such thing as “his CISD Facebook page.” The endorsement was made on a Facebook account that Caviness maintains as a public figure; he and the other trustees do not have accounts affiliated with Coppell ISD. There are board policies that prohibit electioneering with public funds, but Caviness used his personal funds.

Nonetheless, Bhattacharyya called for the resignation of any trustee who has been involved in election interference or a violation of board procedures. He said the election should be rerun, and the costs should be borne by trustees who violated policies. He also requested an investigation.

“I am happy to provide that investigation service pro bono,” Bhattacharyya said.

I don’t know what kind of credentials Bhattacharyya would bring to such an investigation. The only biographical details he provided during his brief speech are that he is a longtime Coppell resident who used to be the president of the Coppell High School tennis boosters. Bhattacharyya did not mention that he is married to Neena Biswas, who was a Coppell ISD trustee from 2020 to 2023. Her single term was quite tumultuous; for example, Biswas once accused Manish Sethi of violating the board’s procedures, and she theorized that Jobby Mathew was ineligible for service as a trustee.

(See “CISD Trustees Aren’t All on Same Page” in Vol. 2, No. 14, and “Trustee Brands Herself a Team of One” in Vol. 2, No. 41.)

I highly doubt Caviness or any other trustees will resign, and I firmly believe Coppell ISD’s election is over and done with. However, a couple of other elections that could be influenced by Coppell ISD voters are continuing:

Irving City Council

A big chunk of Coppell ISD is in Irving, where David Pfaff (PfaffForIrving.org) and Sergio Porres (SergioForIrving.com) have advanced to a runoff to determine who will win the at-large seat that Brad LaMorgese is giving up. This race has brought in large amounts of money. Check out Pfaff’s and Porres’ totals compared to this year’s other council candidates.

Porres raised more cash from contributors ($67,661 versus Pfaff’s $29,632), but Pfaff loaned his own campaign another $38,029. Pfaff also reported more than $24,250 worth of in-kind contributions from the Irving Fire Fighters Political Action Committee in the form of “mail, signs, ads, data, cards, art.”

I punched all of the data from their campaign finance reports into an Excel spreadsheet. If you’re an Irving voter who would like a copy, just let me know by replying to this edition.

(This was how my wife/editor reacted to the previous sentence: “Oh, yeah, let me know how many people ask for that.” I detected a skosh of sarcasm.)

Lewisville City Council

A much smaller portion of Coppell ISD is in Lewisville, where the dollar amounts are also much smaller in the runoff between Joshua Chanin (JoshuaChanin.com) and Lonnie E. Tipton (Facebook), who are vying to succeed Brandon Jones.

Chanin, who is a teacher at Coppell High School, reported zero contributions, but he did say he’s spent $4,959 worth of personal funds on his campaign.

Tipton reported spending $3,916 worth of his personal funds, in addition to the $3,550 he put on a credit card. He raised $2,050 worth of cash from five contributors, only one of whom resides in Lewisville. Tipton also reported an in-kind contribution of $250 worth of graphic design from Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Ronni Cade.

Early voting in the runoffs begins Tuesday. The votes will be tallied on June 7.

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Are You Ready to Upgrade?

This is one of the periodic free editions I send to everybody on my mailing list, as opposed to just my paid subscribers. For just $40 per year, you could join the ranks of our community’s most-informed residents. That annual fee will get you a piping-hot edition of this newsletter every Sunday.

Because I’m already asking for money, why not also tout the Coppell Chronicle merchandise sold with help from my partners at Tee Public? They’re having a Memorial Day sale, and Father’s Day is just three weeks away.

The sale includes tees, hoodies, and caps.

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Chronicle Crumbs

• Former Irving Mayor Joe Putnam was laid to rest last week; he died on May 8 at the age of 84. According to his obituary, Putnam was mayor from 1999 to 2005, and he also served three stints on the Irving City Council (1973-1983, 1996-1998, and 2012-2015). I worked at the now-defunct Irving News during his mayoral term, and I found him to be a throwback to another era even then. That view was reaffirmed not long after I began writing this newsletter; Putnam was the attorney for an Irving flood control district, and I called him to ask whether he could provide a map of its boundaries. He answered in the affirmative and then said this: “Do you have a fax? I don’t do email.” That was his absolutely serious response in the year 2021. Rest in peace, sir!

• JC’s Burger Bar needed a variance to Coppell’s rules regarding the sale of alcohol for on-premises consumption, because the restaurant was within 300 feet of Coppell Montessori Academy. Tuesday’s City Council meeting will include a public hearing on granting the same 20-foot variance to The Silk Road, a restaurant and bar taking over the JC’s space.

• The Coppell Arts Center has announced the lineup for its 2025-2026 season, and one show in particular caught my eye. Hollywood icon Kevin Bacon and his brother, Michael Bacon, perform a mix of folk, rock, soul, and country music as The Bacon Brothers. They will be in Coppell on Oct. 24. If that show doesn’t include a cover of Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose,” what are we even doing here?

• Trash will be collected in Coppell and Lewisville on Monday, despite it being Memorial Day, but no such luck in Irving.

• A few years ago, Texas Tech University began recognizing a select group of graduating seniors as the Tech 10. They are chosen based on their commitment to four cornerstone principles of Red Raider spirit: academic excellence, campus leadership, service, and striving for honor. This year’s Tech 10 includes two Coppell High School graduates: Ghufran Murtuza and Chelsea Romas.

• When the registration deadline passed for Coppell’s adult co-ed kickball league, only two teams had registered: my ragtag bunch (the 75019ers) and the defending champs (the Kickaholics). We’re going to get really tired of playing each other if no one else signs up. If you and some friends or neighbors want to join in on this Friday-night fun, reach out to Recreation Coordinator Trevor Brown via trevor.brown@coppelltx.gov.

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Community Calendar

Coppell Elite Football Skills Camp: It may be too late to register your kid for this week’s session of the camp run by the Coppell High School football program, but there’s another session scheduled for June 23-26.

Luis Coronel: According to Wikipedia, Coronel is “an American singer of regional Mexican music.” His “Eterno Enamorado” tour will bring him to the Coppell Arts Center at 8 p.m. on Tuesday.

Coppell Drumline: Drummers from the Coppell High School band will showcase their skills at 6 p.m. on Saturday in the school’s parking lot. Baked goods, bottled water, and drumline merchandise will be available for sale.

The Hit Men of Country: Musicians who have toured or recorded with some of country’s biggest superstars will play the hits at 8 p.m. on Saturday at the Coppell Arts Center.

Interactive Institute The Coppell ISD Education Foundation’s weeklong STEAM camp for kids who will be in fifth through ninth grades this fall is scheduled for June 2-6 at Richard J. Lee Elementary School.

Summer Chamber Series: The Coppell Community Orchestra’s two-day fundraising event at the Coppell Arts Center starts at 7 p.m. on June 6, when a variety of ensembles will perform hand-picked pieces. At the end of the night, patrons will vote for their favorites. At 7 p.m. on June 7, the winning ensemble’s encore performance will be followed by a program from a group of professional musicians.

Coppell 5K: Get You in Shape’s annual race benefiting Coppell Special Olympics is scheduled for 8 a.m. on June 7 at Andrew Brown Park East.

Hit Like a Girl: The Coppell Police Department will offer a self-defense class for recent high school graduates from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on June 7 and 14. Participants must attend both sessions.

Predicting the Future of Universal Education Savings Accounts: A nonpartisan nonprofit called Grandparents for Public Schools will present more information about education savings accounts, aka vouchers, at 6 p.m. on June 10 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.

Annie: Theatre Coppell will stage nine performances of the musical about the little orphan featured in every form of media from comic strips to movies. The first show is scheduled for 8 p.m. on June 13 at the Coppell Arts Center.