Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 41

Tots Get Lots of Drive Time in Safety Town • Sales Taxes Pay for Plenty of Parks Projects • Batch Plant Proposal Lacks Concrete End Date • Cypress Waters May Require New School

As you may have heard, the Coppell High School football team lost to North Crowley on Saturday in a regional semifinal. This was the second straight year that the Panthers beat the Cowboys in the third round of the playoffs. Saturday’s final score was 46-21.

Coppell resident Bob Sturm used to host a talk show called “BaD Radio.” For years, whenever a Dallas sports team’s playoff run ended with a loss, that show’s next episode would begin with Johnny Cash’s rendition of “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails. Playing that song was an attempt to help fans process their feelings of sadness. Let’s see if it still works.

As disappointing as Saturday’s loss was, Coppell football fans have reasons to be optimistic about next season and the one after that. This year’s varsity roster featured plenty of juniors and sophomores in key positions; those Cowboys will come back battle-tested and hungry for more. And the program’s top two freshman teams went undefeated in their 14 district games, with seven of those wins being shutouts. The future is bright.

Here’s hoping this week’s first article will lift everyone’s spirits.

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Tots Get Lots of Drive Time in Safety Town

This photo was taken shortly after the lead driver was admonished for rolling past a stop sign without slowing down. Oops.

A young driver recently had trouble executing a right turn in Coppell. Her vehicle hopped a curb, crossed a sidewalk, and came to rest on a lawn.

Luckily, a Coppell firefighter was on the scene to help get her back on the road. Much to the young lady’s chagrin, her mother was hovering nearby as well.

Nobody was endangered by this inexperienced driver because she was among the dozens of children taking part in the “Wheelie Cool Saturday” event at Life Safety Park on Nov. 22, when I wasn’t the only person who observed her mistake. A boy who was waiting for his turn behind the wheel asked his father, “What’s she doing?”

“She doesn’t know how to steer,” his dad explained. “That’s why she’s going up on the sidewalk, but that’s OK. That’s why they’re having the practice.”

This young driver got back on the road with help from a Coppell firefighter … and her mom.

Life Safety Park routinely hosts field trips that involve letting kids drive through Safety Town, the park’s miniature streetscape full of buildings, stop signs, and traffic signals. But Life Safety Park Coordinator Whitney Agee said the Nov. 22 event was the first that was open to the general public. Participation was limited to children between 40 and 50 inches tall. Agee said 63 drivers registered in advance, but walk-ins were accepted.

The park has a fleet of about 25 battery-powered Polaris RZR PRO Green Shadow vehicles manufactured by an Italian firm called Peg Perego. The specs say their top speed is 12 kilometers per hour, which is about 7.5 miles per hour. When one boy asked Life Safety Park Manager Bethany Everett how fast the vehicles can go, she replied, “Fast enough. Fast enough that Mom has to break a sweat to keep up with you.”

Pedestrian parents trailed their miniature motorists while taking pictures, recording videos, and offering occasional course corrections. When one girl finished her laps without a major incident, her dad placed his hand over his heart and breathed a deep sigh of relief. “I wasn’t even in the car,” he said.

This mom had to move a traffic cone that got in her son’s way.

According to the Peg Perego website, a Green Shadow weighs about 100 pounds. I was wondering about that stat after a mother lamented that her two sons sat down in vehicles headed in opposite directions; a pair of firefighters solved her problem by picking up one of the cars — with the boy still in it — and rotating it 180 degrees.

Later, when Everett stood in a vehicle’s path and told the driver to stop because his turn was over, he maintained his speed and veered to the left before hitting a curb. His mother rolled her eyes and said, “We’re not gonna be able to afford car insurance.”

I spent an hour monitoring all of this chaos, and I’ll say this for Coppell’s youngest drivers: Although their eyes often strayed from the pavement in front of them, I didn’t see a single one of them try to operate a vehicle while looking at a phone.

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Sales Taxes Pay for Plenty of Parks Projects

I owe Majid Husain a cup of coffee. If he hadn’t asked a good question during a recent meeting, I wouldn’t have had enough information to write this article.

Husain serves on the board of the Coppell Recreation Development Corporation (CRDC), a sales tax revenue fund approved by voters in 2007. For every dollar spent in Coppell, a half-cent is devoted to parks and recreation projects. Husain and his fellow board members authorize expenditures using those revenues.

During the board’s Nov. 17 meeting, they approved their annual report to the City Council, as required by the CRDC’s bylaws. That report lists 13 projects that were funded in fiscal 2025 (which ended on Sept. 30), and Husain wanted to know how many of them had been completed. Director of Community Experiences Jessica Carpenter said the following nine projects are finished:

• Andrew Brown Park East — New picnic tables and chairs

• Andrew Brown Park West — New basketball goals

• Coppell Arts Center — Renovations of the staff’s break room and the performers’ green room

• Coppell Middle School North — Replacement of the artificial turf¹

• Coppell Senior and Community Center — New cardio equipment and flooring

• The CORE — Replacement of the indoor pool’s play feature

• Parks system — Concrete and seam repairs on trails and sidewalks

• Wagon Wheel Park — New turf and nets on the batting cages

• Wagon Wheel Tennis & Pickleball Center — Resurfacing of the courts

Carpenter said two other projects are still in the design phase: Phase 1 of restoring the pond at Andrew Brown Park East as well as the replacement of a retaining wall at the Wagon Wheel Tennis & Pickleball Center.

Then there’s the new playground at MacArthur Park. In a July article called “Inclusive Playground’s Price Climbs,” I reported that construction was expected to begin in October, but it has not. Carpenter told the CRDC board that the ordered parts have not arrived; her team is hoping to receive them by year’s end so installation can begin no later than January.

The remaining project — renovations of MacArthur Park’s restrooms and concessions stand — will likely happen at the same time. Because the new playground will accommodate children of all abilities, Carpenter said, it’s important for the park’s restrooms to be fully compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The CRDC’s annual report also lists several projects the board is expected to fund in fiscal 2026:

• Andrew Brown Park Central — Remodeling of the restrooms

• Andrew Brown Park East — Phase 2 of the pond restoration

• Andrew Brown Park West — Spectator shades

• Coppell Arts Center — New furniture

• The CORE — Remodeling of the indoor locker rooms and their restrooms, and replacement of the outdoor pools’ plaster and play feature

• Parks system — A trails master plan

• Riverchase Park — A new playground

• Wagon Wheel Park — Remodeling of the baseball fields’ restrooms and concession stands, new pitching mounds, and added trail lighting

Mayor Wes Mays, who is a member of the CRDC board, asked whether it would be possible to go with a different color scheme in The CORE’s locker rooms, which are predominantly red and black.

“I guess it was done to support the high school, but it’s a little … it’s a little ‘in your face,’” he said.

Carpenter said she’s open to suggestions, as the color scheme has not yet been finalized. Knowing that she was talking to a proud Texas Aggie, she jokingly said maroon might be an option.

“Maroon is always appropriate,” the mayor said.

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A Brief Promotional Interruption

If this is the first edition of the Coppell Chronicle that you’ve received in November, then you missed coverage of the opening of Veterans Plaza, articles about the arrests of a former Coppell ISD administrator and a former student teacher, and my rant about online viewers not always being able to see how Coppell ISD trustees vote. Please consider upgrading your free subscription to a paid subscription for only $40 per year. That means you’ll get the Chronicle each Sunday instead of just once a month.

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Batch Plant Proposal Lacks Concrete End Date

Did you know there’s a concrete batch plant operating in Coppell? The city’s staff has a dim view of plans to open a second one on the same block.

The existing batch plant is on the north side of East Belt Line Road, wedged between Ruben’s All Auto Repair and The Sports Garden. Concrete has been produced on that property for decades.

Estrada Ready Mix Concrete wants to build a batch plant on the other side of the repair shop, but the company can’t do so without a special use permit. Estrada’s request for a permit was the subject of a Nov. 20 public hearing before the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission.

During the commissioners’ work session, Development Services Administrator Matt Steer recommended denial of the permit request. His primary reason was that the 2030 Coppell Comprehensive Master Plan designates the land in question as an “urban residential neighborhood.” Granting the permit would require the property to be reclassified as an “industrial special district.”

Another reason for the denial recommendation was the open-ended nature of the request. When Steer asked a consultant representing Estrada for a length of time associated with the permit, the answer was “however long they could get one approved.”

“If we’re ever to see this property redeveloped,” Steer told the commissioners, “approving a batch plant’s the last thing we want to do, because those don’t ever go away.”

During the public hearing, Phil Flink identified himself as executive vice president of the Estrada Companies, and he requested a continuance due to a misunderstanding about the comprehensive plan and the zoning. He also said his consultant didn’t properly answer Steer’s question about timing.

“‘As much time as you’ll give us’ is not the right response to that,” Flink said. “We feel that there is a shorter window, that has a clear and definite path, that doesn’t ultimately affect the city’s vision.”

The commissioners seemed willing to let Flink return in a few weeks with a refined proposal. “We don’t know what he’s going to come forward with exactly, so let him put his best foot forward,” Commissioner Sue Blankenship said, and Commissioner Kent Hafemann added this: “It’s hard to conceive of a residential area in this space, so I’d like to see what he has to say.”

However, before they could vote to continue the case at their next meeting, City Attorney Bob Hager pointed out a problem with the legal notice about the public hearing. Flink was advised to withdraw his request for an open-ended permit so he could submit a new request for a permit with a defined expiration date, and he followed that advice. His new request should be the subject of another hearing before the commission in early 2026.

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Cypress Waters May Require New School

Coppell ISD is one of many Dallas-area school districts that have closed or consolidated schools this year. But years from now, the district may be contractually obligated to open a new school.

During the Oct. 6 meeting of the Board of Trustees, Chief Operations Officer Sid Grant discussed a committee that will explore options for closed campuses. During that briefing, he also detailed the undeveloped land the district owns in Cypress Waters. Coppell ISD’s biggest unused parcel is the 40 acres directly north of Coppell Middle School West. The district also owns about 17 acres on the southeast corner of East Belt Line Road and Sanders Loop, but that property is bisected by DART’s elevated Silver Line tracks².

Trustee Anthony Hill asked Grant whether the legal agreement between the school district and the Billingsley Company, which developed Cypress Waters, includes any triggers that would require Coppell ISD to use that land. Grant said there is a covenant in the agreement that says once a certain number of residential units are constructed in Cypress Waters, then the district would have four years to build a new school. If not, Billingsley would have the option to buy the land back for the same price that Coppell ISD paid in 2008.

That was news to this reporter, so I arranged a phone call with Grant to get more details. He told me the triggering number is 6,500 residential units. When Cypress Waters has that many, Coppell ISD will be contractually bound to build “some type of educational facility,” he said. But Grant estimated that Billingsley won’t get there for another 15 years. He said they have 2,900 units completed or under construction, and they plan to average about 250 annually.

I asked whether Coppell ISD’s two schools in Cypress Waters — Coppell Middle School West and Richard J. Lee Elementary — were tied to similar covenants. Grant said no; those campuses were built to serve the growing population in the Irving and Dallas portions of the school district. (In case you’re not aware — and I often encounter people who aren’t — Cypress Waters is part of Dallas.)

Grant reminded me that the agreement between Coppell ISD and Billingsley dictates that 75 percent of the homes in Cypress Waters can have just one bedroom. Consequently, the district gets only 0.18 students per unit from Cypress Waters. For comparison’s sake, the Irving subdivisions at the intersection of Belt Line Road and State Highway 114 produce one student per home, Grant said.

Despite the formerly adversarial relationship between Coppell ISD and Billingsley, Grant had nothing but kind words for the company.

“If it hadn’t been for the Billingsleys, I don’t think we would have opened Richard J. Lee in time,” he said.

As you might imagine, the bureaucracy at Dallas’ City Hall is a bit more complex than what you’ll deal with at Coppell’s Town Center. Grant said Billingsley employees helped him navigate all that red tape during the construction of Lee Elementary.

“Working with the Billingsleys has been amazing,” he said. “They’ve been great partners for the school district.”

I’ll have to take his word for it. When I contacted Cypress Waters spokesperson Marci Parrish to ask whom I could talk to for Billingsley’s perspective on all this, she said I would hear from either Lucy Burns, who is a partner in her parents’ namesake firm, or Skip Simpson, the company’s vice president of asset management. But when I followed up via email a week later, she told me they both declined to comment.

In response, I told Parrish to picture me cupping my hands around my mouth and leaning back while yelling “LAME!” in their direction.

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Congratulations Are in Order

Photo courtesy of Adrienne Morton

• Congratulations to Town Center Elementary cafeteria manager Star Primera, who won the inaugural Coppell ISD Education Foundation Chili Cookoff on Nov. 16. I had the pleasure of helping emcee that event, along with Superintendent Leanne Shivers, Trustee Jobby Mathew, and every kid’s favorite substitute teacher, May Olson.

• Congratulations to the student journalists of KCBY, which won a Pacemaker award from the National Scholastic Press Association for the first time since 2018. KCBY was among six honorees nationwide this year, and it was the only winner from Texas. Coppell High School’s other student journalists at The Sidekick have more details.

• Congratulations to all Coppell residents who participated in National Night Out last month. The National Association of Town Watch honors cities for their participation, and Coppell was ranked No. 1 among Texas towns in our population category (again) and No. 2 nationally. The only city with a population between 15,000 and 50,000 that fared better was Munster, Ind.

• Congratulations to Coppell High School graduate Joseph John Mathew, who was selected as a finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship. Mathew is a senior at the University of Oklahoma, where he is studying music and medicine. (What a Renaissance man!) My rivals at the Coppell Gazette have more details.

• Congratulations to Coppell Mayor Wes Mays, who has been elected to serve as the Region 13 director on the Texas Municipal League’s Board of Directors. Region 13 includes 134 cities across nine counties: Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt, Kaufman, Rockwall, and Van Zandt.

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Chronicle Crumbs

• During the most recent Coppell ISD Board of Trustees meeting, Trustee Leigh Walker relayed a question that people have asked her: Does the school district accept donated funds? Chief Financial Officer Diana Sircar said yes, but it may be wiser to give money to the Coppell ISD Education Foundation, which is trying to build an endowment to benefit the district. By the way, Dec. 5 is the deadline to donate to the foundation’s Give for Grants campaign.

• I’m sorry to relay a piece of news that’s been widely reported by other local media outlets: FedEx plans to close a logistics facility on Sandy Lake Road in Coppell and lay off more than 850 employees.

• Do you have any use for a bunch of FOSS science kits? Rene Bates Auctioneers is selling five pallets’ worth of them on behalf of Coppell ISD. The auction closes on Dec. 8. Last I checked, there was a single bid of just $50.

• Worried about your teen? The Assistance League of Coppell offers free drug and alcohol testing kits to parents. Just call or text 972-977-3105, or send an email to alcoppelldtk@gmail.com.

• There are temporary signs on the north end of Denton Tap Road that say “TX 121” will be closed on Dec. 4. I assume that’s a reference to Business 121, but I couldn’t find any relevant information on the City of Lewisville’s website.

• Attention, bargain hunters: The Ace Hardware on Main Street in Lewisville is having a going-out-of-business sale. You may want to scoot up there to scoop up some discounted Christmas gifts. (“Look, Mommy! Santa brought me spray paint!”)

• As a tenderhearted youth growing up in East Dallas, I spent many nights at the White Rock Skate Center, trying to find the courage to ask a girl to hold hands during a “couples only” song. Those core memories are why I’m so pleased to report that Galaxy Skate is now open in Grapevine, in the building formerly known as Skate Town. (Memo to any boys who may patronize the revitalized rink: Just ask her, dude.)

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Community Calendar

BEC Buddies — Oobleck: Children ages 3 and older are invited to the Biodiversity Education Center at 10 a.m. on Dec. 3, when they can meet Oobleck, “a mischievous mixture that’s part liquid, part solid, and all-out surprising!”

How to Make Chai: Adults are invited to learn how to make authentic Indian chai from scratch at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 4 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.

Give for Grants: Dec. 5 is the donation deadline for the Coppell ISD Education Foundation’s annual campaign to fund special requests from teachers. None of the money will be diverted to the state’s “Robin Hood” recapture program.

Fruitcakes: Theatre Coppell will stage nine performances of the story of a troubled youth who ends up in a small town and encounters characters who teach him the value of family and friends. The first show is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Dec. 5 at the Coppell Arts Center.

Vintage Christmas: Businesses in Coppell’s Old Town will offer festive activities and special discounts between 9 a.m. and noon on Dec. 6.

Caregiving Heroes: The support group for people who are assisting loved ones with aging or other concerns will meet at 10 a.m. on Dec. 6 at First United Methodist Church of Coppell.

DFW Wildlife Conservation Showcase: Experts from the Perot Museum, the Trinity River Audubon Center, the Dallas Zoo, the Fort Worth Zoo, the Texas Conservation Alliance, and the Friends of Coppell Nature Park will be at the Biodiversity Education Center between 10 a.m. and noon on Dec. 6.

Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting: The City of Coppell’s annual Christmas event is scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 6. Today is the deadline to register for the parade as a participant.

Holiday Concert with HarpEssence: Harpists will perform a free show at 2 p.m. on Dec. 7 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.

Christmas in Killarney: Through singing and dancing, this trip to the Emerald Isle will show what it means to celebrate Christmas the Irish way. Two shows are scheduled for 2 and 6 p.m. on Dec. 7 at the Coppell Arts Center.

Holiday Gift Wrapping: In exchange for a donation to help cover their supplies, the Knit Wits will wrap gifts between 1 and 3 p.m. on Dec. 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, and 18 at the Coppell Senior and Community Center.

Jingle Jog: Young Life is sponsoring a 5K and a fun run that will begin at 8 a.m. on Dec. 13 at Andrew Brown Park East.

Wreaths Across America: Rolling Oaks Memorial Center is among more than 4,100 cemeteries across the country that will honor veterans with wreath-laying ceremonies. The Coppell ceremony is set for 11 a.m. on Dec. 13.

Jane Austen Tea Party: Adults are invited to celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday at 2 p.m. on Dec. 13 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons. Regency costumes are encouraged but not required.

Merry and Bright: The Coppell Community Chorale and the Coppell Children’s Chorus will perform festive favorites at 5 p.m. on Dec. 13 at the Coppell Arts Center.

Cowboy Santa Playdate: Coppell ISD invites families with children ages 2 to 5 to visit with Santa Claus in the Pinkerton cafeteria between 9 and 10 a.m. on Dec. 15.

1. The city and Coppell ISD split these costs because youth sports associations affiliated with the city use the stadium at Coppell Middle School North.

2. Additionally, Coppell ISD has 10 undeveloped acres next to Canyon Ranch Elementary, but that’s in Irving, not Cypress Waters.