Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 6
Fed-up Parents Advocate for School Funds • New Ordinance Regulates Donation Bins • Developer Resubmits Rejected Condo Plans • We’re Officially Coppell’s Top Media Outlet
Fed-up Parents Advocate for School Funds
Another front has opened in the ongoing war between Coppell and Austin.
Last week’s edition included articles about Attorney General Ken Paxton suing Coppell ISD over Critical Race Theory and City of Coppell leaders testifying against a bill that would reduce the city’s revenues by millions. This week, I want to tell you about a group of Coppell ISD parents who are advocating for increased school funding.
On Thursday evening, a group called Communities United for Public Education hosted an event called “Funding the Future: The State of Public Education Financing in Coppell ISD.” The facts and figures disseminated that night would probably be familiar to anybody who reads this newsletter faithfully, so they were certainly familiar to the guy who writes it. But there was one aspect of Thursday’s event, which drew more than 75 people to Coppell’s First United Methodist Church, that surprised me.
I assumed that Communities United for Public Education was a statewide organization, a la Raise Your Hand Texas. I learned on Thursday that Communities United for Public Education is entirely composed of Coppell ISD residents. They didn’t put “Coppell” or “Coppell ISD” in their name because they hope to expand to other school districts.
The main speakers on Thursday were Jill Hill and Nichole Bentley, who filled in for David Caviness because he had a last-second conflict. Hill is a Pinkerton Elementary School mom who co-chaired a political action committee called “Yes! Committed to Our Schools” that urged voters to support the tax measure on last November’s ballot. (That measure was rejected by 54 percent of voters.) Like Caviness, Bentley just happens to be a Coppell ISD trustee, but she stressed that she was participating on Thursday as a private citizen. Bentley also pointed out that all of the data in their presentation, which you can download below, came from public sources.
Among those facts and figures:
Coppell ISD had a budget deficit of $7 million in the 2023-2024 school year, when it had to send $22 million to the state through recapture, aka Robin Hood.
The state’s basic allotment to public school districts has been $6,160 per student since 2019. Thanks to inflation, Coppell ISD would need an additional $1,340 per kid to have the same spending power it did five years ago.
A bill filed in the Texas House would increase the basic allotment by just $220 per student. “To say that is inadequate is a grand understatement,” Hill said.
A “school choice” bill filed in the Texas Senate would provide vouchers of at least $10,000 per student that parents could use toward tuition at private schools. That’s 62 percent greater than the basic allotment.
Communities United for Public Education organized a group of about a dozen Coppell ISD residents who traveled to Austin on March 12 to lobby legislators. They plan to do the same with a slightly larger group this Wednesday.
If you can’t make it to Austin in person, you can try to lobby remotely. Communities United for Public Education’s Facebook page has multiple posts that include phone numbers for every member of the House Committee on Public Education.
In other political news …
• Two seats on the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees will be decided in the May 3 election. Jonathan Powers and Julie Waters are competing for the seat that Manish Sethi is vacating, and Sheri Hill has challenged Leigh Walker, who is seeking a fourth term. The Coppell ISD PTO presidents will host a candidates forum at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday in the Coppell High School lecture hall. The Coppell Chamber of Commerce will host a similar event at 6 p.m. on April 10 at the Aloft hotel on Northpoint Drive.
• Ryan Sanders, a Coppell ISD parent who happens to be the commentary editor at The Dallas Morning News, published a column in last Thursday’s paper called “Here’s why journalists don’t use hidden cameras.” It was inspired by the surreptitiously recorded footage that led to Paxton’s lawsuit.
• Coppell resident Kate Rumsey, an Air Force reservist who ran for the Texas House last year, has a column called “Air Force JAG: The Houthi chat breach is a big deal” in today’s edition of the Morning News.
New Ordinance Regulates Donation Bins
As of this morning, there were 10 receptables for donated clothing in front of Sprouts, eight such bins behind Hat Creek Burger Co., and six more in MacArthur Park.
Pretty soon, all of those numbers will be reduced to one or zero.
On Tuesday, the Coppell City Council unanimously approved adding a new “Donation Receptacles” section to the Code of Ordinances. This is a key provision of that section:
“No more than one (1) donation receptacle may be permitted for placement on any one lot. In the case of a commercial or industrial development that consists of multiple platted lots, the Administrator shall treat the commercial or industrial development as if it is only one contiguous lot.”
Violating that provision, or any other provision of the new ordinance, will be a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500 per day. Here are a few other provisions:
Anyone who wants to place a bin on a parking lot must first secure a permit and decal from the city.
The person applying for the permit and decal must show written authorization from the property owner.
Each bin must be screened on three sides with materials that match the lot’s main building.
Each bin must be emptied on a weekly basis.
This new ordinance was on the council’s consent agenda on Tuesday, which means they approved it without debate. But they discussed the proliferation of these receptacles last summer, as documented in an article called “City Plans to Start Regulating Donation Bins.” During their July 9 work session, the council asked City Attorney Bob Hager to craft an ordinance that would rein in the bins. Jim Walker was the council member with the most enthusiasm for the topic.
“I want to ban it,” Walker said. “And if I can’t do that, I want to effectively ban it.”
The preamble to the newly approved ordinance says “the inability of landowners to accurately identify the owners of said donation receptacles has resulted in decreased accountability” and “the failure to properly empty and clean donation receptacles has resulted in an unsightly and littered appearance.”
Developer Resubmits Rejected Condo Plans
There’s an adage about attorneys that is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” Perhaps that saying should also apply to hearings before city officials.
Coppell resident Vijay Borra owns an L-shaped lot along South Belt Line Road that is both south and east of Armando’s Tacos and Bimmer Motor Specialists. He has been trying to develop it for years.
In late 2023, when Borra was represented by zoning consultant Maxwell Fischer, a majority of the Coppell City Council rejected his plans to build a four-story complex that would have featured 120 apartments leased exclusively to people ages 55 or older.
In late 2024, when Borra was represented by architect Greg Frnka, a majority of the council rejected his plans to build a four-story complex there featuring 71 condominiums with no age restrictions.
Against the advice of city staff, Borra has resubmitted his plans for a 71-unit complex without changing anything about them. Those plans were the subject of a hearing before the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission on March 20, when Borra represented himself.
During a rambling and repetitive presentation that lasted nearly 20 minutes, Borra said he was willing to change things to get the project approved, even though he hadn’t changed anything. He also said he didn’t understand why the staff was recommending denial this time when they recommended approval last time, but I feel like Senior Planner Mary Paron-Boswell explained that clearly: If nothing about the proposal had changed, and nothing about the council had changed, then what’s the point?
Four commissioners endorsed Borra’s proposal last year, but only two of them endorsed it this month. If he chooses to appeal to the City Council, then that hearing will happen on April 8.
We’re Officially Coppell’s Top Media Outlet
Last fall, nearly 1,700 Coppell residents participated in a city survey about communication. One question was of particular interest to your correspondent. Respondents were asked how they find out about city events and initiatives if they don’t hear about them directly from the city. Check out these results:
The only person who should be more pleased by those results than me is Michelle LaFountain, who runs the “Coppell, Texas” group on Facebook. And I would argue that she and I can take partial credit for those “Word of mouth” responses at the top of the chart. Most Coppell residents who pass along locally relevant information to their friends and neighbors probably use her Facebook group and this newsletter as their primary sources.
That graphic was included in a presentation that Hannah Cook, the city’s Chief Communications Strategist, showed to the City Council on Tuesday. Here are a few other key takeaways from Cook’s report on the survey.
• More than 90 percent of respondents said they would like to be informed of emergency preparedness and public safety issues, but only 10 percent said they were aware of NotifyCoppell, the city’s mass notification system.
“We are working on a strategy to improve our emergency alert system, rebrand it, and increase the level of awareness and use in the community,” Cook told the council.
• Only 4 percent of respondents said they wanted to hear about city news and services via WhatsApp, but 15 percent of respondents of Asian or South Asian descent expressed a preference for that specific app.
“We are actively exploring WhatsApp and other ways to update our strategy to better communicate with all of our residents, and better reach communities that we have not typically engaged with,” Cook said.
• The printed “Coppell News” that arrives in the mail with your utilities bill remains one of the most popular methods of communication, doing better than the city’s website or any of its social media.
“I find it interesting that, of all of the techniques that we’re using, the water bill insert still continues to be one of the most effective,” Mayor Wes Mays said.
“It just won’t go away,” said Cook, who told the council that a refresh of that newsletter is in the works.
• The emailed “Coppell E-News” newsletter has 7,574 subscribers, and it boasts an open rate of 49.8 percent. Cook’s research showed that Coppell exceeds the benchmark for governmental email newsletters, which is 40.56 percent. The benchmark open rate across all industries is just 35.63 percent.
For comparison’s sake, the Coppell Chronicle has 3,105 subscribers, 1,247 of whom pay to receive the newsletter every Sunday. Substack says the editions outside the paywall, like this one, had an open rate of 74.13 percent over the past six months. But the ones that were sent to only paid subscribers in the same time span had an open rate of 86.02 percent. Not too shabby!
Sports Flash!
• Coppell High School’s varsity soccer teams have each won three postseason matches, which means they both will be vying for regional championships on Tuesday. The Cowboys will face Plano West at Children’s Health Stadium in Prosper at about 8 p.m.; that game will follow a tilt between Southlake Carroll and Jesuit on the same field. The Cowgirls will take on Flower Mound at 7 p.m. at Max Goldsmith Stadium in Lewisville.
• The Coppell High School girls track team set two new school records during a meet in Flower Mound last week. Sophia Williams ran the 100-meter dash in 11.89 seconds, and the 4x100 relay team of Ella Corry, Janiah Merrit, Lauren Sanchez, and Hannah Polito finished their race in 47.38 seconds.
• The Coppell Chronicle is a proud sponsor of the Coppell Baseball Association, which kicked off its spring recreational season on Saturday morning with a parade of teams. This is one of my favorite Coppell traditions, and a parade hadn’t happened since 2019.
Chronicle Crumbs
• It is my sad duty to report that JC’s Burger Bar will be closing its doors permanently on Monday. For the past six years, JC’s has put on spirit nights for just about any school or sports team that asked, while also hosting weekly networking lunches for the Coppell Chamber of Commerce. If a place can go under after doing all that, then you know the restaurant business is tough.
• TRAFFIC ALERT, PART 1: The traffic lights at the intersection of Denton Tap and Sandy Lake roads will blink red between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. tomorrow while city workers replace the cabinets. Similar work is scheduled for Thursday at Denton Tap and Bethel School roads, April 7 at Denton Tap and Bethel roads, and April 10 at South Belt Line Road and Saintsbury Street.
• TRAFFIC ALERT, PART 2: The Belt Line Road bridge over Interstate 635 will be fully closed between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. for at least one night this week. Signs along Belt Line say this will happen on Monday night, but an article in the Coppell E-News said it will happen all week.
• Ellie Braxton, who has served as the President and CEO of the Coppell Chamber of Commerce since June of 2018, is about to retire. During Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Mayor Wes Mays read a proclamation that designates tomorrow as “Ellie Braxton Day.” Earlier on Tuesday, the chamber announced Braxton’s successor: Robyn Mims-Aguinaga, who has been the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce for five years.
• The Cozby Library and Community Commons will be closed on Wednesday for staff development.
• Library Giving Day has been a thing since 2019, and libraries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are participating for the first time this spring with assistance from the Communities Foundation of Texas. If you wish to donate to the Friends of the Coppell Public Library, Tuesday is your deadline.
• Yesterday was the last Saturday for a while without a Coppell Farmers Market session. Vendors will be in Old Town on a weekly basis through the Saturday before Thanksgiving.
• Coppell already has chapters of the Lions Club and the Rotary Club, and efforts are underway to establish a Kiwanis International presence here. Anyone who’s interested in becoming a member should be at San Daniele Italian Eatery at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
• May 1 is the deadline for new customers to sign up for the Rotary Club of Coppell’s Flag Lease Program. If you pay $75, volunteers will place a U.S. flag in front of your home for Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Veterans Day.
• If you own a U.S. flag that is no longer in good shape, consider placing it in the drop box behind Church of the Apostles. The Scouts in Troop 840 will ensure that your flag is retired properly. The existence of this box was news to my wife/editor/muse, and she said I should ensure you’re aware of it too.
Community Calendar
Coppell Women’s Club: Dallas Morning News columnist Dave Lieber will discuss his new book, Dandy Don Meredith: The First Dallas Cowboy, at the meeting scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday at Church of the Apostles.
Almost, Maine: Theatre Coppell will stage six more performances of the play about a place that’s not quite a town, because its residents never got around to getting organized. (Bobbi Ritcheske tells me this her directorial debut, after several decades of acting.) The next show is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday at the Coppell Arts Center.
Youth Pop-Up Market: The Jacaranda Gift Shop in Old Town is inviting young artists, artisans, bakers, and entrepreneurs to showcase their talents between 9 a.m. and noon on Saturday.
Volunteer Fair: Local organizations that are looking for teen and adult volunteers will be at the Cozby Library and Community Commons between 1 and 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Kaleidoscope: Coppell’s festival of color, culture, and music will happen from 3 to 7 p.m. on Saturday in Old Town.
Party at the Parks: Coppell High School’s varsity baseball and softball teams have games scheduled for 7 p.m. on April 8 at the complex behind CHS9. Youth players wearing jerseys will be admitted for free that night. Otherwise, tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for children.
Budget Town Hall Meeting: Coppell residents can share their thoughts and learn more about how the city’s funding decisions are made during a meeting set for 6 p.m. on April 10 at the Cozby Library and Community Commons.
Community Blood Donation Drive: Shreenathdham Haveli, the Hindu temple on Sandy Lake Road, will host a blood drive between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on April 12.
Kindred Writing Collective: A group of authors from Coppell will sign copies of their second anthology, The Hands We Choose to Hold, between 2 and 4 p.m. on April 19 at Talking Animals Books in Grapevine.
Hi Dan, Any plans for a side-by-side comparison of the candidates for Coppell ISD Board of Trustees?
Thanks for the shoutout, Dan!
Sincerely, Kindred Writing Collective