Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 3
Coppell ISD Incentivizes Good Attendance • Senior Village Initiative Finally Introduced • Council Takes First Step to Redo Chambers • Outdoor Showroom Approved on Close Vote
Winner winner, chicken dinner: One week ago today, I won the “Email Newsletters” category in the inaugural Texas Creator Awards. I was not able to make it to Waco for the ceremony, but a friend who did attend sent me this picture.
Everyone who voted has my gratitude, as does everyone who subscribes to either this newsletter or my other one, the Grapevine Gazette.
Coppell ISD Incentivizes Good Attendance
In an effort to boost attendance, Coppell ISD administrators are writing checks to campuses that are able to get students to class.
During a Feb. 24 update on the district’s “Attendance Matters” campaign, Chief Communications Officer Angela Brown said teachers and assistant principals have reached out to families to find out why their children have been absent. “That really is about building meaningful relationships and is at the core of who we are in Coppell ISD,” she said.
Brown also told the trustees that campuses can earn incentives if certain metrics are met. The district’s cumulative attendance must increase by 0.25 percent, and a particular campus must increase its attendance by 0.5 percent relative to the same six-week period a year earlier.
“These incentives drive healthy competition and celebrate collective success,” Brown said.
The state’s funding of public schools is tied to average daily attendance. Brown said the Attendance Matters campaign, which has other elements besides the incentives, is on track to generate an additional $500,000 for the district. Less than 8 percent of that amount ($36,000 to be exact) has been allocated to campuses in two batches of checks.
The amounts range from $1,000 to $7,500, depending on the size of the campus. Principals have spent the money on staff apparel, catered lunches, and paying for substitutes so teachers can participate in team planning time.
The Attendance Matters campaign’s goal is a cumulative attendance rate of 97 percent. In the 2023-2024 school year, the rate was 95.85 percent. That meant more than 550 students were absent on an average day, which led to a daily loss of nearly $24,000. Brown called out one particular day – April 8, 2024 – when attendance dipped to 88 percent, leading to a loss of $54,000. That was the day of the total eclipse.
“That was really tough, because we had planned so many fun things for the kids – I mean, amazing things,” said Superintendent Brad Hunt, who lamented that “some outside groups” with “the best intentions” scheduled their own eclipse events. “They didn’t really realize that, ‘Oh. Us inviting people to do these events is pulling them from school and affecting their attendance.’ And so that was a real eye-opener to us.”
(Hunt politely didn’t name these “outside groups,” but I distinctly remember the City of Coppell and the City of Irving hosting eclipse parties in parks that day.)
The trustees were all encouraged by the Attendance Matters efforts and progress.
“This is an excellent example of having agency and ownership over something we can control,” Trustee Leigh Walker said, and Trustee Nichole Bentley was even more excited: “I wish I could do a herkie and, like, say ‘Yay!’”
The Feb. 24 presentation was a mid-year update; the trustees will get more data after the semester ends.
“We will continue to work on this,” Brown said, “because it affects learning, it affects the culture of our school district, but it also affects our funding.”
Senior Village Initiative Finally Introduced
I’ve been writing about the idea of a senior village in Coppell for a few years. Last week, our city government published a statement about it.