Whenever people ask me whether I work at the Coppell Chronicle, this is my response: “I am the Coppell Chronicle.”
Whenever I ask my teenage son a question about his school (or any other aspect of our community), this is his response: “You tell me. You’re the Coppell Chronicle.”
The CORE’s Sunshine Room Won’t Go Dark
Coppell’s recreation center will offer childcare for at least one more year, because the City Council restored funding for the Sunshine Room.
The main attraction on the council’s Sept. 8 agenda was a public hearing on the budget for the fiscal year that begins in October. As proposed, that budget called for shuttering the Sunshine Room, closing The CORE two hours earlier on weeknights, and eliminating the city’s recreational athletics leagues for adults.
Cynthia Linder was one of the two residents who spoke during the public hearing. She has seven children, ages 4 to 14, and she’s used the Sunshine Room since she became a mom.
“There’s been more than one occasion where I have thanked the people that work in the Sunshine Room with tears in my eyes, because I tell them, ‘You have no idea how much this is doing for me,’” Linder said as she tapped her temples. “And I’m not pointing to my abs; I’m pointing to my brain, because it is so essential.”
Four other people advocated for saving the Sunshine Room during the “Citizens’ Appearance” portion of the meeting. They included Allison Matalone, who has three sons between the ages of 8 and 2.
“The majority of stay-at-home parents do not need a formal preschool or daycare setting. They need an hour or two of ‘me time.’ Sometimes, it’s as little as once a week. Sometimes, when I’m very lucky, it’s three times a week,” Matalone told the council, before adding this: “The Sunshine Room has helped me and my well-being and made me a better mom.”
These mothers got their wish after a series of votes and speeches. The first comments came from Deputy City Manager Kent Collins, who had informed the council of the proposed cuts during a July budget workshop.
(See “Cuts Proposed to The CORE’s Hours” in Vol. 6, No. 25.)
Because he was filling in for City Manager Mike Land on Tuesday, Collins got to deliver the good news: The city’s staff had figured out how to undo the cuts without affecting the tax rate.
“Public input and feedback is critical to the budget process, and we know that some of the proposed service changes for fiscal year ’27 are not popular with some users,” Collins said. “We know that every service we provide is important to the users of that service.”
Collins also promised that any reductions proposed for fiscal 2028 will be introduced much earlier in the next budget process.
“We believed that we had been preparing the City Council and community for service changes for the past several years, but we recognize that we need to do more,” he said.
The first vote was on a motion by Kevin Nevels to revise the budget by increasing funding for The CORE by $24,000 so the facility can stay open until 10 p.m. on weeknights. After 15 minutes’ worth of speeches — during which several council members warned of “tough decisions” in the years ahead — that motion passed on a 5-2 vote, with Don Carroll and Jim Walker dissenting.
Brianna Hinojosa-Smith then made a motion to revise the budget by adding $35,760 to keep the Sunshine Room operational, adding $34,625 to maintain adult rec leagues, and adding $74,211 for a recreation coordinator position, which adds up to $144,596. Her motion also passed 5-2, with Carroll and Walker dissenting again.
Carroll made the final motion to revise the budget. He proposed adding $51,000 to a grant to the Coppell ISD Education Foundation and $2,000 to a grant to Love Thy Neighbor. The council fielded grant requests from 15 service organizations this summer, and these two groups were the only ones that didn’t get all the funds they asked for.
(See “Council Revisits Education Foundation Funding” in Vol. 6, No. 27.)
Carroll said he views these grant requests as binary, one-time decisions that are considered on a year-to-year basis, as opposed to decisions regarding city staffing and infrastructure. His motion was approved on a 5-1 vote, with Biju Mathew dissenting and Nevels recusing himself because his wife serves on the Coppell ISD Education Foundation’s board. Before that vote, Mathew read a prepared statement that ended with this: “We should carefully consider the impact on our overall budget and ensure that we are balancing these requests with other priorities and services for our residents.”
When explaining why Nevels had recused himself, City Attorney Bob Hager said Nevels would be able to vote on the entire budget, because the size of the Coppell ISD Education Foundation’s grant is de minimis and would not create a conflict of interest. In case you’re not familiar with “de minimis,” here’s the Merriam-Webster definition: “lacking significance or importance; so minor as to merit disregard.”
The revised budget was approved unanimously, but then the council had to take two more votes. Before the vote on the tax rate, Walker delivered a six-minute speech in which he appeared to get choked up. His remarks included this: “The biggest critique I’ve ever had of government, on the financial side, is kicking the can down the road. And I don’t want to get to the point where we go from having a small cut here and a little bit larger cut the next year — as part of a strategic five-year plan — to where we have some kind of fiscal apocalypse, and we’re looking at a 10-percent cut across the board.”
That vote on the tax rate was unanimous, as was an extra vote on the budget, which was required by state law because the new budget will raise more revenue from property taxes than the previous budget. This gave Mathew an opportunity to read another statement that ended with this: “We need to be prudent and conservative today, so we can maintain a balanced and sustainable budget in the future. Good financial stewardship means making responsible financial decisions now, rather than being forced into difficult choices later.”
Coppell Reclaims Semifinalist Bragging Rights
Coppell High School has reclaimed the title of brainiest campus in Texas.
When the National Merit Scholarship Corporation released its annual list of semifinalists last week, the document featured the names of 47 Coppell High students, more than any other school in the state. A couple of days later, the list was amended to add a 48th name from Coppell High.
Coppell had the most National Merit semifinalists in the state three years ago, but the Texas title has been held for the past two years by Westwood High, a Round Rock ISD campus located in Austin. The other perennial contenders are Austin ISD’s Liberal Arts and Science Academy and Katy ISD’s Seven Lakes High School.