Coppell Chronicle Vol. 6, No. 10
Coppell Unveils First All-Abilities Playground • Candidate Accuses CFBISD of Electioneering • New Fire Chief to Oversee New Fire Stations • Fellowship Church’s Expansion Plans Approved
One of my younger son’s teachers at Coppell High School recently told him that another teacher wanted a word with him. My son was confused, because he’d never spoken with this other teacher.
Here’s what that other teacher had to say: “Your dad reported that a sports card store is coming to the shopping center behind Andy’s Frozen Custard. You know anything else about that?”
I can assure you — just as my son assured the teacher — that although the members of my family often receive news BEFORE my subscribers do, they rarely if ever get MORE news than my subscribers do. If I obtain other details about Waxxed Sports Cards taking over the space formerly occupied by Deka Lash, those details will be included in a future edition of this newsletter.
The first article in this edition is by one of my son’s fellow members of the Class of 2027, Neev Chickermane, who is interning with the Chronicle this semester.
Coppell Unveils First All-Abilities Playground
A large group of friends of the Sheehan Family Playground’s namesakes gathered on Friday to witness the opening of the facility.
Former Mayor Candy Sheehan served various positions in Coppell before becoming the city’s top elected official from 1997 to 2003. She was introduced to politics while advocating for disabled individuals like her son, Zachary Sheehan.
The facility within MacArthur Park is the first all-abilities playground in Coppell. The equipment includes ramps for wheelchair mobility, an accessible glider for mobility devices, and swings with inclusive seats.
Sheehan said she was shocked last December when former Parks and Recreation Board member Maureen Corcoran informed her of the potential honor, which the City Council made official in February.
“I was like, ‘But I’m not dead yet!’” Sheehan said.
Sheehan emphasized the inclusivity of the park for the entire Coppell community along with four core beliefs: recognition, dignity, relief, and joy.
“An inclusive playground removes barriers that traditionally exclude kids with physical, sensory, or cognitive differences,” Sheehan said. “Families who may have felt isolated or limited where they could go now have a safe place to gather. The playground becomes more than a play space; it becomes a community hub.”
She also recognized the impacts of the community on her son’s experience growing up in the city. She specifically mentioned the Coppell Baseball Association and the Coppell Youth Soccer Association.
“He did not do the typical sports like everybody else, but they found a role for Zach to be included,” Sheehan said. “And that made a difference in our family ’cause we got to meet other players’ parents, and that became our community.”
Following Sheehan’s speech, Parks and Recreation Board Chair Mary Arnold shared a few remarks of her own.
“Over four years ago, when I first started serving on this board, my hope was to be part of a project like this — because I knew it was something that the city was missing,” Arnold said. “My daughter, Adaline, always had to seek inclusive play outside of our great city. I am so proud to stand here now in front of an all-abilities park in Coppell so every child can enjoy outdoor play.”
Once the ribbon was cut, children and families rushed in to inaugurate the playground.
“We have two small children, and we thought they were going to renovate, and we heard they had some more tactile things,” Coppell parent Cameron Cline said. “We could check it out as something we could come to. We don’t usually come to this area, but it was something that could draw us.”
According to Assistant Director of Community Experiences Adam Richter, the playground’s total cost was $700,000, courtesy of the Coppell Recreational Development Corporation, which is funded by sales taxes. He and Director of Community Experiences Jessica Carpenter said their department gathered residents’ input about a year ago to help plan what the playground would look and feel like. For example, Carpenter said it is fenced and has only one entrance and exit due to parents’ concerns of children escaping.
“We really relied on our community to tell us what they wanted to see here in the playground,” Richter said. “What you see here today is that.”
Candidate Accuses CFBISD of Electioneering
A candidate for the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees has filed complaints with two state agencies over allegations of electioneering.
Coppell resident Dave Jimenez is one of four candidates competing for two seats on the school board. Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD conducts its elections via a method known as cumulative voting. The number of seats on the ballot dictates how many votes each voter gets. This year, each voter gets two votes, and you can vote for the same candidate twice if you really want him or her to be one of the two winners.
The other candidates are incumbent Carolyn Benavides of Carrollton, Cinthya Noda of Farmers Branch, and Luis Palomo of Carrollton. Palomo was the impetus for Jimenez’s complaints. During this election, Palomo has appeared on CFBISD’s social media multiple times due to his attendance at district events. “Other candidates have not received comparable exposure on district platforms,” Jimenez wrote in his complaint to the Texas Attorney General’s office. (The other complaint was sent to the Texas Ethics Commission.)
Palomo is a member of the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Education Foundation’s Board of Directors. His wife, Daisy Palomo, is a member of the Carrollton City Council. What follows is my analysis of three Facebook posts cited in Jimenez’s complaint to the attorney general:
A video posted on March 27 documented a Lone Star Ribbon celebration at Rosemeade Elementary School in Carrollton. The video includes two photos featuring the Palomos. In one photo, they’re among a group of five people; in the other, at least 17 other people have joined them.
A group of photos posted on March 31 documented a groundbreaking ceremony for Carrollton Elementary School. One of the two dozen photos includes the Palomos in a shot with 15 other people.
A video also posted on March 31 documented a Community Ambassador session at the Nancy Watten Technology and Event Center in Irving. The Palomos appear on screen together for a second at most.
Neither Luis Palomo nor Daisy Palomo is named in any of these posts. You would have to be familiar with their faces to recognize them.
Somebody who did recognize the Palomos brought these posts to Jimenenez’s attention, he told me. Before complaining to state officials, Jimenez contacted Board of Trustees President Cassandra Hatfield and Superintendent Wendy Eldredge. In an April 3 email, he asked them to direct the CFBISD Communications Department to take the posts down and to refrain from featuring any non-incumbent candidates until after the election.
Jimenez told me he met with Eldredge on April 8, when she hand-delivered a letter from Mike Leasor, an attorney with Leasor Crass, a Mansfield law firm that specializes in representing public schools. Leasor’s two-page letter concludes with this: “In sum, the absence of any advocacy, combined with the lack of identification, emphasis, or distinguishing treatment of Mr. Palomo, makes it very unlikely that the posts could reasonably be construed as supporting or opposing a candidate in violation of Texas election laws.”
When contacted for comment, the CFBISD Communications Department supplied a statement that laid out many of the facts in this article but also said this: “The district will not and has not advocated, supported, or opposed any individuals in any past, present, or future campaigns.”1
In other election news …
• Early voting will continue from noon to 6 p.m. today, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on April 27, and from 7 to 7 on April 28. Election Day is May 2, when the polls will be open from 7 to 7.
• Sejal Patel, one of three candidates for the District 3 seat on the Irving City Council, responded to my questionnaire after last week’s edition was published. I have updated the corresponding PDF within that edition accordingly.
• The candidates in the May 2 elections owed the public another round of campaign finance reports by April 24, and the Coppell ISD candidates delivered. Kevin Chaka reported $4,760 worth of contributions. His most-generous donor was Frederick Ford, who gave $750, but eight others kicked in $400 apiece: Jeffrey Benavidez, Megan Blanton, Christopher Bryan, Dustin Degroff, Niko Leinonen, Dominic Nevarez, Bavithra Pari, and Lui Tai. Each of those eight individuals (or their spouses) had a $600 donation listed on Chaka’s previous report, which said Ford gave $250. I’m no mathematician, but I believe those nine households each contributed at least $1,000 to his campaign.
Chaka’s opponent, Khanh Windham, detailed $1,575 worth of contributions in her latest report. The largest donation was $250 from Dylana MacDonald, and journalistic ethics require me to disclose something: My wife’s stepsister is MacDonald’s daughter’s stepmother, which I guess makes me and MacDonald … neighbors? (I don’t believe the English language has a word to describe our distant relationship.) Windham also reported $200 apiece from Facebook wrangler Michelle LaFountain and Steven Sandlin.
• Coppell ISD voters who have not yet voted for either Chaka or Windham may want to watch the April 8 forum hosted by the district’s PTO presidents and the April 15 forum hosted by the Coppell Chamber of Commerce.
• During this election, a certain song has been on a loop in my brain. I’m not sure why.
New Fire Chief to Oversee New Fire Stations
Coppell named its new fire chief one week after naming a price for its next fire station.
On April 21, the city announced that Ryan Arthur will succeed Kevin Richardson, who retired in February after 20 years as chief and 33 years as a Coppell firefighter. Arthur has spent the past five years as the fire chief in Lake Worth, where he was hired in 2018 as division chief of fire operations. Prior to that, he was a firefighter in Southlake.
On April 14, the City Council approved a guaranteed maximum price of $7.3 million for the reconstruction of Fire Station 3, which is on Parkway Boulevard next to Town Center. A memo from Jamie Brierton, who oversees the city’s capital programs, said Fire Station 1 on Southwestern Boulevard and Fire Station 2 on MacArthur Boulevard are also due for extreme makeovers.