Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 37
Town Center Spared by Majority of Trustees • Ex-Administrator Arrested on Theft Charge • Parks Board Set to Revise Priorities • Online Viewers Left Wondering About Votes
Someone recently suggested to me, with a straight face and apparent sincerity, that I could use ChatGPT to create this newsletter. I suppose it’s true that I, a professional writer who enjoys the writing process and takes pride in what I’ve written, could willingly turn my job over to ChatGPT or some other form of AI. But it’s also true that I could use a rusty spoon to scoop out one of my eyeballs, and I’m not gonna do that either. Those robots can have my keyboard when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Town Center Spared by Majority of Trustees
As soon as the recommendation to close Town Center Elementary was revealed, it sounded odd to many people, especially those who live near the school. In the end, it also sounded odd to a majority of Coppell ISD trustees.
More than four hours into the trustees’ Oct. 27 meeting, Jobby Mathew made a motion to accept the administration’s recommendation, and David Caviness seconded it. They were the only two trustees who supported that motion.
Although Mathew categorized closing a school as an “incredibly hard decision,” he also said the Town Center recommendation “makes reasonable sense.” And Caviness said he trusted Coppell ISD’s administrators to put forth a recommendation that puts the district on the best path forward.
“We have to be willing to live with the consequences if we’re not gonna take some of these recommendations,” Caviness said.
Trustee Nichole Bentley said closing a school on the north end of the district “totally sits right with me,” and she later added that she’s “feeling the absolute urgency of closing an elementary.” But she was not convinced that Town Center was the right choice.
Even Trustee Leigh Walker — who pointed out that “a year and two months ago, I was pushing back on closing anything” — said she thinks the board is aligned on the idea that an elementary school needs to be closed. Yet Walker also voted against the recommendation. “There’s enough questions and variables around the table that we need to be really sure about that,” she said.
During the board’s previous meeting on Oct. 6, Trustee Jonathan Powers said he’s positive that Coppell ISD needs to close an elementary campus at the end of this school year. But last Monday, Powers said he would be willing to delay a closure decision by a year to ensure that it’s the right decision, even though Mathew and Caviness both said they believe Coppell ISD is out of time. Trustee Anthony Hill said he’d like to see what kind of revenue the district can generate via Cowboys United, but Mathew said he doubts the nascent marketing campaign will spark the enrollment Coppell ISD needs to address its budget deficit in a timely manner.
So, where does the closure discussion go from here? Time will tell. The only trustee who named another option during Monday’s debate was Caviness, when he said this: “In a governance role, if we wanna say, ‘Just go close Austin Elementary,’ then go do it, but that’s not good governance. We have to rely on the expertise of our superintendent and our staff.”
Near the end of a long evening, Caviness also expressed this frustration: “This is the second year in a row that we’re talking about this, and we’re having the same discussion over and over again. I’m not sure that some of us could ever get there, no matter what school is picked.”
On that note: In the past 13 months, the trustees have taken five divided votes on closing schools and/or moving programs to different campuses. As you can see below, Caviness was the only trustee who voted for all of those motions, Hill was the only trustee who voted against all of them, and Walker supported only one of them.
Sept. 30, 2024: Two trustees — Caviness and Manish Sethi — supported a motion to close Pinkerton Elementary, move its International Baccalaureate program to Wilson Elementary, consolidate Wilson’s Dual Language Immersion program with its counterpart at Denton Creek Elementary, and level pre-K enrollment districtwide.
(Just in case it’s not obvious, the “for” voters are outlined in green, and the “against” voters are outlined in red. Within each subset, the trustees are pictured in their surnames’ alphabetical order.)
Minutes after the previous vote: Four trustees — Bentley, Caviness, Mathew, and Ranna Raval — supported a motion to close Pinkerton but give the administration time to explore other options for the IB and DLI programs.
Oct. 23, 2024: Five trustees supported a motion to move IB to Wilson, consolidate DLI at Denton Creek, and level pre-K programs across the district.
Aug. 11, 2025: Five trustees supported a motion to relocate a reimagined New Tech High onto the Coppell High School campus. (By this time, Powers had replaced Sethi.)
Oct. 27, 2025: Two trustees supported a motion to close Town Center Elementary.
One more thing: During these debates, Hill has made multiple references to when the board voted to close the original Richard J. Lee Elementary in 2007, shortly after he began the first of his seven terms as a trustee. That decision was unanimous.
Ex-Administrator Arrested on Theft Charge
A former assistant superintendent of Coppell ISD was arrested last month and charged with theft.
I noted in last week’s edition that Kristen Eichel had resigned from her role as Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services for unknown reasons. I didn’t hear a rumor about her arrest until after that edition was published.