Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 34
Trustees Delay Decision on Town Center • Oncor Can Build Tower Near South Haven • Expansion Envisioned for Pickleball Center • Dogfight Leads to Multiple Lawsuits
Fellow journalist Simon Owens recently interviewed me for his “The Business of Content” podcast, and I mentioned two of the Chronicle’s most loyal subscribers by name during our 38-minute conversation. Are you part of that dynamic duo? There’s only one way to find out. Give the episode a listen the next time you’re doing dishes or folding laundry. (Foreshadowing!)
Trustees Delay Decision on Town Center
The Coppell ISD Board of Trustees met for more than four hours last Monday night. This article is about that meeting’s first 60 seconds and its final 23 minutes.
The trustees were expected to make decisions on the administration’s recommendation to close Town Center Elementary School and the associated changes to attendance zones. But Board President David Caviness began the meeting by announcing that those votes would be delayed until Oct. 27 at the earliest, because multiple trustees said they needed more time and more information.
After nearly an hour of comments from the public, the administration began rehashing the budget problems that led to the Town Center recommendation. The trustees were subsequently shown a potential realignment of elementary attendance zones that was different from the one presented during their Sept. 22 meeting.
The trustees were also shown two new options for realigning the attendance zones for middle schools.
At 9:22 p.m., Caviness asked his fellow trustees what other information they needed to make a decision. The first response came from the board’s newest member, Jonathan Powers, who said he’s positive that Coppell ISD needs to close an elementary campus at the end of this school year, but he’s not ready to say it should be Town Center.
“The question to me is, how do we get to the best of a bad set of options?” Powers said. “And I’m not sold yet that this is the best of a bad set of options.”
Earlier in the meeting, Trustee Leigh Walker brought up how the board was presented multiple options during last year’s consolidation discussions, and each one came with a list of pros and cons. Powers said seeing such lists comparing Town Center to the other candidates for closure (Austin, Cottonwood Creek, Lakeside, and Mockingbird) would be helpful, and Walker said Powers’ comments about “a bad set of options” resonated.
“I feel like sometimes, when we’re up here, we’re trying to choose the best-looking horse in the glue factory,” Walker said.
Walker also said she can’t think of another district with a school like Town Center, which has a library, a police station, and City Hall as neighbors. She said that unique location should be a factor in the board’s decision, but Walker said other schools have their own characteristics that could be weighed in a visual comparison of multiple options.
“What are we actually comparing against, to be able to choose,” she said.
Caviness countered that the board requested a recommendation and got one, as opposed to the “menu” of options presented last year:
Close Austin Elementary
Close Pinkerton Elementary
Close both Austin and Pinkerton
Move New Tech High onto the Coppell High School campus.
“That wasn’t great,” Trustee Nichole Bentley said of the multiple options, and Caviness agreed with her.
Just before the meeting wrapped up, Trustee Jobby Mathew requested a report on the financial consequences if the board votes to not close a school. But earlier, before Caviness asked his peers what they needed to know, Walker said she’d like to see a heat map of Coppell ISD’s student population.
I can’t tell you with certainty how many times Walker has asked for this heat map over the past few years, but I’m confident that this was at least her fourth such request — maybe the fifth. Will she finally get her wish during the administration’s presentation on Oct. 27? Time will tell.
Oncor Can Build Tower Near South Haven
Despite opposition from dozens of Coppell ISD residents, all but one member of the Dallas City Council approved Oncor’s plans to build a communications tower on the edge of Cypress Waters.
The tower will be built near South Haven, a subdivision of 200 homes that is technically within Irving but is disconnected from the rest of that city. To get in and out of their neighborhood, South Haven’s residents must use roads in Coppell and Dallas.