The suspension of the Citizens’ Advocate as a print publication in 2020 was one of the reasons I launched this newsletter in 2021. I wanted to fill the void created by that newspaper’s demise.

Many editions of the Citizens’ Advocate have been scanned and uploaded to The Portal to Texas History, a resource maintained by the University of North Texas. The Coppell Historical Society is bringing Ana Krahmer, the director of the portal’s digital newspaper unit, to the Cozby Library and Community Commons on Sept. 17 to discuss her work.

To drum up interest in this event, the Coppell Historical Society is sponsoring an essay contest. The winner will get $200, and the runner-up will receive $100. You can get more details on the society’s website.

Council Approves ‘Shops at Sandy Lake’ Plans

A developer has a clear path to building a shopping center on Sandy Lake Road, despite opposition from nearby homeowners.

On Aug. 25, the Coppell City Council unanimously approved detailed plans for what will be known as The Shops at Sandy Lake. This commercial center will occupy a vacant 2-acre parcel that abuts the Arbor Manors subdivision.

Last April, a firm called Rose City Partners failed to win support from a majority of the council for its initial proposal. During last week’s public hearing, Senior Planner Mary Paron-Boswell detailed a number of compromises that Rose City made before submitting a revised proposal:

• The shopping center will not include restaurants; the tenants will be limited to retail stores and medical offices.

• The shopping center’s main entrance will be further from Arbor Manors Drive than previously indicated.

• The building will be 30 feet from the south property line instead of the normal 20 feet.

• There will be 30 feet of landscape buffer along that property line instead of the required 10 feet.

“The developer has shown more flexibility about trying to find accommodations than any other developer in my five years on City Council,” Kevin Nevels told the homeowners.

Despite those accommodations, Arbor Manors residents were organized in their opposition to the latest proposal. Approval of the plans required a supermajority of the council (as opposed to a simple majority), because at least 20 percent of the homeowners within 200 feet of the vacant lot signed a petition. They also hired a civil engineer to design alternative site plans for a property they do not own. That’s the equivalent of hiring an interior designer to come up with alternative layouts for your neighbor’s living room.

(See “Council Rejects ‘Shops at Sandy Lake’ Plans” in Vol. 6, No. 11, and “Neighbors Oppose Sandy Lake Development” in Vol. 6, No. 23.)

During the Aug. 25 public hearing, seven residents tag-teamed an extensive slide presentation that detailed their issues and requests. Many of their concerns were about traffic on Sandy Lake and in their neighborhood, but City Attorney Bob Hager said those concerns were beside the point.

“I’m not saying that traffic’s not an issue at this intersection,” Hager told the council. “I’m just saying it’s not relevant to making a decision about where the building’s gonna go, how high it is, what the landscaping is, what the point of ingress and egress are. Those are the issues that are before you — not necessarily traffic.”

To be clear, this vacant lot was zoned for commercial uses before any of the homes in Arbor Manors were constructed. And Hager said the latest proposal does not include any uses that weren’t listed in the original planned development that was approved in 2007; therefore, no traffic analysis was required.

Many of the City Council members expressed empathy for the homeowners before their unanimous vote. Here’s a sampling of their comments:

• Ramesh Premkumar: “I hear you — I understand your concern — but we are tied to following the law.”

• Brianna Hinojosa-Smith: “Please know that your comments are heard, and we understand the concerns. … We also have to be mindful of what is in front of us and what we can and can’t do from the standpoint of allowing the land use to move forward.”

• Jim Walker: “Y’all are a perfect example of what we hope to have in every neighborhood with respect to the support you’ve provided each other.”

Walker and Mark Hill both referenced meetings they had with the homeowners outside of the council’s chambers. Meanwhile, Hill, Nevels, and Premkumar all said they’d be in favor of considering a new set of traffic signals to make life easier for Arbor Manors residents. But neither traffic nor signals were on last week’s agenda.

“I hope you understand the balance that we’re trying to strike with the rights of you yourself as property owners and the rights of the land owner and developer as well,” Nevels said.

Details Provided on Botched Pickleball Courts

Like you, I don’t read every email that lands in my inbox, and neither does Coppell City Council Member Mark Hill. And for that, I am thankful.

During the council’s Aug. 25 work session, Hill had questions about a pickleball contract on their agenda. Many questions about that item were answered in an email the council received from Joe Weber, who manages the Wagon Wheel Tennis & Pickleball Center. So City Manager Mike Land asked Weber to read that email out loud, which is why this article exists.

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Contractor Identified for Pickleball Courts’ Redo

A pickleball project that went sour is a step closer to being fixed.

One of the items on the agenda for this week’s Coppell City Council meeting is a $94,000 contract with EliteTrax Surfaces to repair, resurface, and renovate eight courts at the Wagon Wheel Tennis & Pickleball Center. Assuming the council approves the contract, Trophy Club-based EliteTrax will be cleaning up a mess blamed on another company.

In November of 2024, the City Council approved a $56,784 contract with Sports King of Texas — a firm with a Coppell post office box as its mailing address — to transform two tennis courts into eight pickleball courts. Shortly thereafter, those courts experienced “major cracking and delamination,” Wagon Wheel Tennis & Pickleball Center manager Joe Weber wrote in a memo to the council.

Director of Community Experiences Jessica Carpenter has said her staff is working with the city attorney to get a refund from Sports King of Texas. During a July hearing before the board of the Coppell Recreation Development Corporation, pickleball enthusiast Stephen Harris said the contractor must be held responsible.

“If this was a private citizen, and this happened in their backyard, the private citizen would hold the contractor responsible every single time,” Harris said during the hearing. “And the private citizen would win every single time.”

(See “Pickleball Players Voice Their Concerns” in Vol. 6, No. 23.)

An email I sent to the address on the Sports King of Texas website has not been answered. The only other bid for the resurfacing job in 2024 was from Grapevine’s 365 Custom Courts, which wanted a lot more money than Sports King: $115,036.

In his recent memo to the council, Weber said EliteTrax was one of three vendors to submit proposals for the redo. He did not name the other two companies or detail their bid amounts.

“Following a thorough evaluation, EliteTrax Sports Surfaces was selected based on their proven track record, outstanding professional references, and demonstrated commitment to quality,” Weber wrote. “Their history of consistent execution, attention to detail, and reliable performance on similar projects gives staff high confidence in their ability to deliver exceptional results safely, on time, and within budget.”

Coincidentally, this month’s meeting of the Coppell Parks and Recreation Board included Weber’s annual report to that panel. During that meeting, he said the city’s pickleball courts average 540 reservations per year, and his facility’s open-play sessions attract about 8,000 pickleball players annually.

Weber also told the Parks and Recreation Board that there may be issues with the foundation beneath the courts.

“There’s some things that we’ll have to see, damage wise, with the foundation. Once they scrape everything away, we’ll be able to see where the foundation is at, as a whole,” Weber said during the Aug. 3 meeting. “We’re hoping that it’s in a good enough shape where it can be repaired and ready for play. If it’s something bigger, that’ll be a bridge that we’ll cross at that time.”

The only person who signed up to speak during the “Citizens’ Appearance” portion of that Parks and Recreation Board meeting was Barb Schmidt, who said the city’s pickleball players are excited to see the courts fixed. She also gave a shoutout to Weber and his team.

“They have worked really hard to make the facility for pickleball very, very robust,” she said.

Schmidt left that meeting as soon as she finished speaking, because she was on her way to play pickleball, of course.

Council Revisits Education Foundation Funding

Good news for the volunteers at the Coppell ISD Education Foundation: A majority of the Coppell City Council is willing to give you all of the dollars you asked for.

Each summer, the council considers funding requests from service organizations and arts organizations. Four weeks ago, I published an article that said every organization would be granted the amount it requested, except for two: The Coppell ISD Education Foundation would get $10,000 as opposed to $61,000, and Love Thy Neighbor would receive $3,000 instead of $5,000.

(See “Council Debates Groups’ Funding Requests” in Vol. 6, No. 23.)

The $53,000 shaved from the budget represented less than 9 percent of the combined ask from 15 service organizations: $601,775.

During an Aug. 4 budget workshop, Council Member Don Carroll proposed restoring the $53,000 because he said that relatively small amount would not move the needle in terms of the tax rate.

“There is a true benefit to the community,” Carroll said, “and it doesn’t change our math on this budget really at all.”

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City Keeps Covering School Officers’ Salaries

The City of Coppell will continue to fully fund the police officers stationed at Coppell ISD campuses within the city.

In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring an armed security officer at every public school. That law provided school districts with only $15,000 per campus — plus $10 per student — to cover that mandate.

During a June 9 meeting of the Coppell Crime Control and Prevention District’s Board of Directors — a body whose roster mirrors that of the Coppell City Council — Kevin Nevels relayed a question one of his constituents asked him: How much does a school resource officer cost? Budget Manager Jessica Almendarez said each officer’s salary and benefits add up to about $125,000.

Nevels subsequently made a motion to approve the Crime Control and Prevention District’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, with one amendment: subtracting a $794,550 reimbursement from Coppell ISD. (His motion was approved 6-0, with Biju Mathew being absent.) This action continues a tradition of the city lending a hand to the school district that began shortly after the law was passed.

(See “City to Cover School Officers’ Salaries” in Vol. 4, No. 22.)

The Crime Control and Prevention District is one of the city’s special revenue funds, and its budget was the subject of a second public hearing during the City Council’s Aug. 11 meeting. During that hearing, Director of Strategic Financial Engagement Kim Tiehen said nearly a third of the fund’s expenditures — or about $2.3 million — will go toward the salaries and benefits for 13 school resource officers, one supervising sergeant, and one administrative compliance officer.

The only person who signed up to speak during the Aug. 11 hearing was Randy Fite, Coppell ISD’s Chief Operations Officer, who expressed gratitude on behalf of the school district.

“In these challenging economic times, and as districts like Coppell ISD are facing unfunded mandates, the city’s financial commitment to providing school resource officers to ensure the safety and security of our students, staff, and families is something we do not take lightly,” Fite said. “The City of Coppell and Coppell ISD continue to foster a strong and collaborative relationship as we work together to serve these great citizens of our community. While funding the SROs out of the city’s budget is certainly a significant commitment, the city has continued to prioritize the safety of our students and families. That commitment means a great deal to us, and for that we are extremely grateful.”

Tiehen said 96 percent of the Crime Control and Prevention District’s revenues will come from sales taxes. (The remainder will be interest income.) Mayor Pro Tem Jim Walker pointed out that, as of a couple of years ago, at least 60 percent of Coppell’s sales taxes were paid by residents of other cities. Mayor Wes Mays said they’d have to confirm that statistic, but the last version he saw was 66 percent. Walker’s response: “I like that number too.”

In prior school years, the four Coppell ISD campuses in Cypress Waters and Irving have been protected by Dallas County sheriff’s deputies and security officers from D&L Entertainment Services, but the “Safety and Security” page on the school district’s website leads me to believe that each campus now has its own school resource deputy. I’ve never understood — or asked, frankly — why Irving police officers aren’t assigned to the two Coppell ISD campuses in Valley Ranch. On July 30, the Irving City Council approved agreements regarding school resource officers at Irving ISD campuses as well as Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD campuses within Irving. Those agreements call for the two school districts to cover 65 percent of the officers’ salaries and benefits.

With students returning to school last week, here are a few more education-related items of note:

• Coppell Middle School North teacher Duane Masengill told me last weekend that items were stolen from a locked cabinet in his classroom, and he suspects someone participating in campus renovations over the summer may be the culprit. Before I could ask many questions (including “Are you telling me this on the record?”), Masengill’s wife posted this theory in the “Coppell, Texas” group on Facebook. I have filed an open records request for any police reports filed this month by employees at North, Coppell High School, or the Coppell High School Ninth Grade Campus, all of which were renovated this summer. Core Construction, which oversaw all three projects, did not respond to a request for comment, but Coppell ISD spokesperson Amanda Simpson told me this via email: “Coppell ISD is aware of missing personal items belonging to CMS North educators in connection with the construction project this summer. With teachers receiving access to their classrooms last Thursday, we are at the start of this process and are working with the affected educators, as well as the contractors and authorities, to address the issue.”

• Last week, the Texas Education Agency released its annual accountability ratings for schools and districts. Coppell ISD got an A overall, as did each of its campuses with the exception of three; Austin Elementary, Cottonwood Creek Elementary, and Denton Creek Elementary each got a B. Coppell ISD downplayed the accountability ratings in a post headlined “Measuring What Matters,” while Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD trumpeted its second consecutive B rating. (The one CFBISD campus within Coppell, Riverchase Elementary, got a high C rating of 79.) The other school district whose boundaries overlap with the City of Coppell’s, Lewisville ISD, also got a B; I didn’t see any related announcements or articles on that district’s website.

• There are two charter schools within Coppell’s city limits. Universal Academy got an A from the TEA, while Coppell Classical Academy got a C. Manara Academy, a charter school located in the Irving portion of Coppell ISD, got a B. You can look up the rating for any school or district here.

• When I covered the Coppell ISD board’s June 8 workshop, I made a joke about Trustee Jonathan Powers sitting on the low-tech/no-tech side of the room as far as microphones were concerned. After watching a recording of the board’s Aug. 10 workshop, I can confirm that Powers’ seat still occupies an auditory black hole.

Belt Line Building Marketed as Data Center

I pay more attention than the average suburban doofus to “for sale” and “for lease” signs in front of commercial properties. I can’t recall seeing another one in Coppell — or anywhere else, for that matter — marketed like this:

With people protesting data centers nationwide, touting a property as the future site of one seems like a bold strategy. That’s why — upon spotting that sign last week in front of the building at 1177 S. Belt Line Road — I pulled over, snapped a picture, and posted it on my Instagram account.

Before long, my post was on the radar of Julie Waters, a two-time candidate for the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees who has been crisscrossing the state to campaign against data centers. Her resulting Facebook post got far more engagement than what I put on Instagram.

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Owner Closes Coppell’s Only Golf Course

Coppell’s only golf course abruptly shut down last week, and its relatively new owner is blaming city officials.

The entrance to the parking lot of Riverchase Golf Club is blocked by a pair of handwritten signs, one of which says this: “Due to complicated requests in regard to replacing the water pump permit, since May 5th the city of Coppell has stopped our water. The business is facing financial loss and consequently, we are forced to shut down our business. Please do not enter.”

Dallas Central Appraisal District records indicate that the golf course changed hands in August of 2025. That aligns with an article published last September, when I reported that the new owner was Yuki Sasada, who owns at least one other course in suburban Seattle.

(See “Coppell’s Only Golf Course Has Been Sold” in Vol. 5, No. 29.)

City spokesperson Ginene Delcioppo said the city is waiting on Sasada to do two things, and one of them is comically simple (my words, not hers). Like any new owner of an existing business, Sasada has to obtain a certificate of occupancy from the city. The only obstacle to him getting the certificate is paying the associated fee. City records indicate that the fee is $75.

The complicated task is obtaining a commercial alteration permit for replacing the golf course’s pump house. City records indicate an application for that permit was filed on May 4 — one day before the date on the handwritten sign. Delcioppo said that permit also pertains to the course’s irrigation system and associated waterline connections.

In an email to members of the Riverchase Homeowners Association, Sasada said city officials had no idea that the club’s irrigation system was connected to the municipal water supply.

“We found a city municipal water line connected to the old water pump managed by the previous owner,” Sasada wrote in an email forwarded by multiple recipients. “City was unaware of this municipal water line. We knew there was city water line was attached to old waterline when we took over but we never heard or dreamed of city not knowing about it.”

Delcioppo said it’s true that city officials were unaware of this connection, and they want Sasada to confirm whether or not similar connections exist.

“Because the City received conflicting information about whether that irrigation system remained connected to the municipal water supply, staff requested documentation from a professional engineer confirming the system’s configuration and that appropriate safeguards are in place,” Delcioppo said via email. “That documentation must demonstrate either that the irrigation system is fully separated from the municipal supply or that the appropriate backflow prevention assembly is installed, registered, and properly tested. Because an unauthorized connection was previously identified on this property, the City must verify that no others exist. That responsibility and cost belong to the property owner, not City taxpayers. Conditions inherited from a previous owner remain the current owner’s responsibility and are part of the due diligence process when purchasing property.”

Delcioppo said the city did not shut off the golf course’s water supply. “However, the pump permit cannot be issued until the required documentation is provided,” she said. “Without an approved and operational pump, the course may be unable to irrigate normally.”

(I will post Delcioppo’s full statement in the comments under this edition.)

City Council Member Kevin Nevels expressed support for city staff when trying to explain the situation in the comments under a post in the “Coppell, Texas” group on Facebook. “The city is waiting for the owner to finish what he needs to do,” he said. Council Member Mark Hill complimented Nevels for his comments and seconded his sentiments.

“I do not consider pulling a proper permit and ensuring the health and safety of our drinking water a complicated request,” Nevels wrote. “It’s the duty of the city to have the health and safety of its citizens at the forefront of our actions. I want to thank our city staff for constantly looking out for the wellbeing of the citizens of Coppell.”

I’d like to know where Sasada sees things going from here, but he declined my request for an interview.

The person who posted about this situation on Facebook, prompting comments from Nevels and Hill, wondered where Coppell High School’s golf teams will practice if Riverchase remains closed. A source who attended a golf parents meeting on Saturday disclosed that the coaches said they’ll just have to make other arrangements.

“The kids didn’t like the course,” this source told me, “but it was super convenient.”

Flock Cameras Have Been Here for Years

Although some people may have not noticed the Flock cameras around Coppell until recently, city officials say the technology has been in place since 2021.

Cameras belonging to Flock Security have inspired a lot of headlines lately. Last month, The Dallas Morning News reported on a surge in vandalized cameras in Big D, and KERA covered an effort by Carrollton residents to get the technology out of their city. The Morning News subsequently published a story about the bipartisan opposition to such surveillance.

This article exists because of a July 8 post in the “Coppell, Texas” group on Facebook. Sederick Fuller pointed out a Flock camera attached to a pole supporting a traffic signal on the corner of East Belt Line Road and South Belt Line Road. He asked whether I had insights on the devices and whether they were the subject of any public discussions.

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Coppell ISD students are going to pay a bit more for meals this school year.

During their July 27 meeting, the district’s trustees were told breakfast prices are increasing by 50 cents, and lunch prices are going up by 25 cents.

“As fuel prices continue to be high, we know that will drive meal prices as well,” Chief Financial Officer Amber Lasseigne told the trustees.

Trustee Leigh Walker asked when the prices previously were increased, and Lasseigne said that happened last summer. That was news to this reporter, but when I informed the hungry hungry hippo who lives in my house and attends Coppell High School that the price of his lunch was going up, this was his reaction: “What? Again?”

By digging through old issues of the district’s Informed newsletter, I found a blurb from July of 2025 that said meal prices were raised last summer for the first time in three years. Here’s a look at the prices before and since that announcement.

Lasseigne said Coppell ISD wasn’t able to raise meal prices for three years because it had an excess of fund balance, and increasing cafeteria fees is not allowed when a district is in that situation. Director of Child Nutrition Eric Lozano added this during last week’s meeting: “We did take a bigger chunk last year, and this year we are going up by just a small amount, to get us even with what’s happened over the previous six years in total.”

Walker asked whether parents should expect price increases on an annual basis. Lozano said the nutrition budget will be assessed annually, but he foresees price increases every other year or every third year.

Trustee Jonathan Powers wanted to know how Coppell ISD’s prices compare to those in neighboring districts. Lozano said Carrollton-Farmer Branch ISD, which includes portions of Coppell and Valley Ranch, charges $3.75 for lunch at all grade levels, but about 50 percent of that district’s population qualifies for free or reduced meals. In Coppell ISD, that statistic is only 10 percent.

Lozano also said Coppell ISD’s prices are akin to those charged by nearby districts with similar demographics, such as Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, Lovejoy ISD in Collin County, and Southlake’s Carroll ISD. Those districts have some of the most expensive lunches in North Texas, as shown on this slide.

Coppell ISD students will return to classrooms and cafeterias on Aug. 12. The other school districts serving portions of Coppell — Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD and Lewisville ISD — will begin their semesters on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, respectively.

Universal Academy will welcome students back to its Coppell campus on Aug. 10, and the city’s other charter school, Coppell Classical Academy, will do the same on Aug. 12.

A Brief Promotional Interruption

Free subscribers to the Coppell Chronicle may not be aware that each edition includes a section called the Chronicle Crumbs. These are brief items of interest that should be noted for the record but maybe aren’t worthy of an entire article. Today’s edition of the Chronicle Crumbs could be the crumbiest one yet, and it begins with a preview of an article I plan to publish in next week’s edition. (What a tease!)

Crews Racing to Finish New Tech Wing

Crews are working around the clock to ensure that renovations throughout Coppell ISD are completed before classes resume.

“This is exactly what I’ve experienced pretty much every summer on renovation work,” Chief Operations Officer Randy Fite told the Board of Trustees last week. “It always comes down to the very end.”

Fite said workers have been at Coppell High School “basically 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” The renovations there include new spaces for career and technical education, as well as the creation of a wing to accommodate New Tech High @ Coppell, which is moving from its campus on Samuel Boulevard. Fite’s presentation included pictures of the exterior and interior entrances to the New Tech wing.

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As I have written before, my long-term plan is for the revenues generated by this newsletter to fund his adult life. So on that note …

Neighbors Oppose Sandy Lake Development

The latest proposal for a vacant lot along one of Coppell’s busiest streets does not include restaurants, but nearby residents still can’t stomach the concept.

A firm called Rose City Partners has updated its plans for a development branded as The Shops at Sandy Lake. In April, the City Council rejected a proposal that called for restaurants, retail stores, and medical offices on the empty parcel across Sandy Lake Road from Sprouts. This month, the Coppell Planning and Zoning Commission considered a revised set of plans that positions the commercial building further from the homes in the Arbor Manors subdivision and eliminates the possibility of restaurants.

(See “Plans Get Finetuned for Shops at Sandy Lake” in Vol. 6, No. 5, and “Council Rejects ‘Shops at Sandy Lake’ Plans” in Vol. 6, No. 11.)

Despite those changes, Arbor Manors homeowners still lined up during the commission’s July 16 public hearing to voice their opposition. The bulk of their complaints concerned the traffic on Sandy Lake that they said makes exiting their neighborhood difficult.

“Having a big, 14,000-square-foot commercial development is only going to make matters worse,” Debasish Mukherjee said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of businesses there are — you’re gonna have some increase in traffic.”

Tyler Alley, a managing principal with Rose City Partners, told the commissioners that his firm was willing to contribute $100,000 to the construction of a traffic signal at the intersection of Sandy Lake Road and Arbor Manors Drive. But Cole Baker, a civil engineer employed by the city, said a traffic study indicated that a signal was not warranted there. Baker said the study, which was conducted by a consultant, said the same thing about Arbor Manors’ other access point at the intersection of Denton Tap Road and Braewood Drive.

Monica Panda finds those conclusions hard to believe. She lives on Arbor Manors Drive, and she said it can take at least 10 minutes to make a right turn out of her neighborhood during rush hour.

“I’m really flabbergasted with the findings of the study,” Panda said. “I feel like we have not done our due diligence.”

Panda told the commissioners that she and her neighbors want more details about the study, and I’m right there with them. I requested a copy of the study last week, and city spokesperson Ginene Delcioppo told me on July 24 that it was not yet finalized.

Anjali Kulkarni, whose home backs up to the vacant lot, questioned why the Shops at Sandy Lake proposal was placed on the commission’s agenda before the traffic study was completed.

“We pay higher taxes to be in the Coppell school district,” Kulkarni told the commissioners. “What’s the point if we don’t feel safe enough for our kids to walk to Coppell High School?”

As they did in March, the commissioners recommended approval of the latest proposal by a vote of 6-0, with Samit Patel being absent. Multiple commissioners praised Alley for modifying the plans to address some of the neighbors’ concerns, and others pointed out that the property has been zoned for commercial uses for years.

“Stopping the development and having nothing be developed here really isn’t an option,” Commissioner Ed Maurer said, “unless, you know, the city’s gonna buy the property.”

The City Council’s April vote was a 3-3 tie; Don Carroll, Brianna Hinojosa-Smith, and Kevin Nevels supported the previous version of the proposal, while Mark Hill, Biju Mathew, and Ramesh Premkumar opposed it, and Jim Walker was absent. Mayor Wes Mays could not break the tie, because he is an Arbor Manors resident and therefore had to recuse himself from the hearing.

During the commissioners’ July 16 work session, Maurer asked about the basis for the three council members’ opposition. When answering that question, City Attorney Bob Hager said this: “A lot of the council’s concerns have been addressed. Now, I don’t know what they’ll do.”

Neither do I. But we should find out on Aug. 11, which is when the council is scheduled to consider this case.

Pickleball Players Voice Their Concerns

When the Coppell Recreation Development Corporation board got together last week, about three dozen spectators filled the room. That’s about three dozen more than the typical attendance for such meetings.

“We will show up any time there is pickleball on an agenda,” former Mayor Candy Sheehan said. “You can count on us.”

The Coppell Recreation Development Corporation, also known as the CRDC, is a sales tax revenue fund that pays for projects in parks and other recreation facilities in the city. It’s governed by a board that is separate from the Coppell Parks and Recreation Board.

One of the first items on the agenda for the July 20 meeting was a public hearing regarding the addition of a court resurfacing project at the Wagon Wheel Tennis and Pickleball Center to the CRDC’s 2025-2026 work program. Some courts that were resurfaced about a year and a half ago have been deemed unplayable due to shoddy craftsmanship.

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I want this Substack publication to be even more successful by the time the cat writers convene that conference, so if you’re a free subscriber, meow would be a great time to upgrade to a paid subscription.

Tesla Robotaxis Hub Coming to North Irving

Thousands of autonomous cars will flow to and from a property in the Irving portion of Coppell ISD.

On July 16, the Irving City Council approved a zoning change that will allow Tesla to build a hub for its robotaxis at 4203 W. Royal Lane, which is just south of Interstate 635, between Freeport Parkway and Belt Line Road. The vote was 8-0, with Council Member Adam Muller being absent.

This case was on a council agenda in May, but the decision was postponed at the request of Irving’s fire and police chiefs, who wanted more time to learn about how they would deal with autonomous vehicles.

“Thank you all for putting your confidence and faith in your chiefs and making sure that we’re ready and prepared,” Fire Chief Victor Conley told the council last week. “I appreciate that very much.”

(See “Tesla Robotaxis Hub Proposed in North Irving” in Vol. 6, No. 12.)

Tesla facilitated three days of training last week for Irving’s firefighters, who invited their peers from Coppell, Grapevine, Grand Prairie, and DFW Airport to participate. Assistant Fire Chief Hilton Barlow, who oversees training in Irving, told the City Council he couldn’t think of another company that’s been as welcoming and prepared as Tesla.

“They are totally ‘first responder friendly’ and want to put first responders and city safety at the forefront of their autonomous vehicles,” Barlow said.

Michael Hioe, an architecture and design manager for Tesla, told the council in May that the Irving hub could accommodate 1,000 vehicles initially, but that could eventually ramp up to between 4,000 and 5,000. However, Hioe said last week that Tesla already has six similar facilities across the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“We don’t intend to kind of flood just this subject site with a ton of cars,” Hioe said. “We intend to utilize our existing network so it doesn’t congest just this subject site too much.”

In addition to training Irving’s firefighters, Tesla also provided at least two of the city’s elected officials with firsthand exposure to its technology. Mayor Al Zapanta said he and City Council Member Luis Canosa took a ride in a robotaxi, which was a new experience for the mayor.

“It’s really something to watch and see how that technology is actually working,” Zapanta said.

Fahad Ahmed — who recently succeeded Zapanta as north Irving’s representative on the City Council — let everyone know that he’s a Tesla customer. He owns a Model Y, and here’s why I didn’t say he drives his Model Y: “I touch my steering wheel about 3 percent of the time; I have a 97 percent rating of FSD,” said Ahmed, who used Tesla’s abbreviation for “full self-driving.”

Despite his admiration for Tesla’s products, Ahmed brought up incidents when autonomous vehicles hindered first responders’ activities, and he had questions about how the cars would be remotely controlled. Ahmed received assurances from Christine Garcia, a field safety engineer for Tesla who previously worked as a police officer and firefighter.

“The last thing we want to have happen is that we block an ambulance at an active shooter,” Garcia said. “That is something that crosses my mind all of the time that one of our competitors did.”

Garcia was referencing an Austin incident that happened last March, when a Waymo vehicle prevented an ambulance from reaching the scene of a shooting. Similarly, a Waymo vehicle blocked the path of a Dallas County constable in May as he tried to respond to a deadly explosion in Oak Cliff. Garcia said Waymo outsources its remote support to another country, whereas Tesla’s remote support staff are in Texas.

Regardless of whether self-driving cars are operated by Waymo or Tesla or any other company, Conley assured the City Council that no autonomous vehicle will prevent his firefighters from doing their job.

“I will not hesitate to tell my people to push those cars out of the way and get on in there,” the fire chief said. “The biggest vehicle on the road is gonna win, and we’re gonna get in there and help our people when they need us.”

McDonald’s Celebrates Reopening With Gifts

When the newly built McDonald’s on Denton Tap Road opened its doors before dawn on July 15, at least three dozen people were waiting outside. The ones who got there earliest were rewarded for their dedication.

Cliff Johnson — the Coppell High School graduate who owns and operates that McDonald’s along with his sister, Jessica Johnson — showed up shortly before 5 a.m. to pass out gift cards. Some customers received Visa cards that can be used anywhere; others were handed “Arch Cards” that are good only at McDonald’s.

Alex Bunt and Layton McCown, a pair of CHS graduates who are enrolled at the University of Arkansas, were among the first people through the door. Bunt planned to order a McGriddle with sausage, egg, and cheese, while McCown had his heart set on hotcakes. A few minutes later, Bunt showed me his receipt that included the phrase “Order 01.”

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The recent articles were sparked by a form filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation this month. It says Naterra’s $34 million project near the intersection of Interstate 635 and Point West Boulevard should commence in October, with a targeted completion date of Dec. 1, 2027.

Personal anecdote 2 of 2: Because my wife/editor/muse loves to play the Spelling Bee game associated with my New York Times subscription, I play a similar game called Blossom on the Merriam-Webster website. One of last week’s editions of Blossom featured the letters E, L, N, R, S, T, and W, and I laughed out loud when the game revealed a word that I’d failed to form using all seven of them — newsletter.

Pilot Paired with Father on First Flight

A pilot’s first flight for an airline typically happens under the watchful eye of an experienced captain. In Hanna Einemo’s case, that captain was someone who’s been keeping an eye on her since she was born.

After three months as a trainee, the Coppell High School graduate began working as a Southwest Airlines pilot last month. The captain on her first official flight was her father, Svein Einemo.

Airline pilots’ schedules are created on a monthly basis. Once Southwest published its June slate, Svein found the phone number for the captain assigned to Hanna’s initial post-training flight and sent him a text, asking if they could trade trips.

“He had no problems with that,” Svein said with a laugh.

To make the pairing even sweeter, that flight from Dallas to New Orleans was scheduled for June 21 — aka Father’s Day.

“It really worked out,” Svein said. “It was pure luck.”

The Einemos were featured on Southwest’s social media last week. A post on the airline’s Instagram account features a video of Captain Einemo explaining to passengers why that flight was so special for his family. (His wife, Kellie Einemo, and Hanna’s siblings were seated in the cabin.)

Thanks to Kellie, Svein and Hanna are also in the July 20 issue of People; she met an employee of the magazine on a recent cruise, when the Father’s Day pairing had already been arranged. The Einemos are featured in the edition with a cover story about the wedding of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, in case you want to grab a copy at the supermarket.

Inspired by her father — who has been a Southwest pilot for nearly 27 years — Hanna began flying small Cessna planes at age 15. When she was 19, she became a pilot for JSX, a charter carrier with a fleet of 30-seat jets manufactured by Embraer and ATR. Southwest hired her to fly Boeing 737s last March, when she was only 23.

Every airline pilot is assigned to a base in a particular city, meaning all of their trips begin and end there. Hanna was briefly based in Dallas at the conclusion of her Southwest training, but she was assigned to Orlando for July. Next month, she’ll be based in Chicago.

Federal law says airline pilots can’t fly after turning 65, and Svein will reach that milestone birthday in September of 2028. That gives Hanna a little more than two years to build up enough seniority to earn a transfer to Dallas, where her dad is based. Svein was at her side as her career took off, and she intends to be there when his career concludes.

“That’s always been the dream — to be on my dad’s retirement flight,” she said.

Irving Proposes Short-Term Rental Permits

Anybody who wants to operate a short-term rental in Irving may soon need to seek permission from the City Council.

Under a set of proposed amendments to Irving’s Unified Development Code, offering a single-family home as a short-term rental would require a conditional use permit. Applying for such a permit would trigger public hearings before the Planning and Zoning Commission and the City Council, and neighboring homeowners would be notified of those hearings and given a chance to speak.

If these amendments are adopted, Irving would be following in Coppell’s footsteps. The Coppell City Council put similar rules on the books in 2022.

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Skilled tradespeople are in demand from coast to coast, and a school right outside Coppell’s city limits is putting more of them into the workforce.

ForgeNow was founded in 2020; the school’s name is a reference to its founders’ belief that “anyone, at any point in life, can forge a new path forward with the right guidance and opportunity.” Last year, the school moved from Dallas to a former call center near the north end of Denton Tap Road in Lewisville.

The school offers six-week boot camps that train students in one of four fields: electrical wiring, facilities maintenance, HVAC maintenance, and plumbing. Nick Waterman, ForgeNow’s business development manager, said students refine their resumes in the second week, so those documents can start being distributed in the third week.

“Our goal is to have as many students as possible walk across the graduation stage with a job offer in hand,” Waterman said.

Waterman said ForgeNow has placed graduates with more than 250 employers in 39 states so far. A wall near the school’s lobby is decorated with dozens of baseball caps bearing those companies’ logos plus a map pinpointing their locations.

“No matter where you want to go, we’re gonna help you find a job in that market,” ForgeNow co-founder Marvin Key said.

Ali Degraffenreed is the director of training and workforce development at Red’s Electric, a firm headquartered in Whitesboro, Texas, that has hired more than a dozen ForgeNow graduates. She said an onboarding specialist recently asked her what to prioritize: a recommendation from a current employee or a certificate from ForgeNow.

“My answer was immediate: ForgeNow,” she said.

Because ForgeNow expects its students to show up at 7 a.m. every day in the school’s uniform, Degraffenreed said the experience is like a six-week jobsite. Students who miss more than 10 percent of their classes can’t finish the program, and that’s an aspect Degraffenreed appreciates.

“That’s a vetting process that I now don’t have to deal with on my jobsite,” Degraffenreed said.

The cost of ForgeNow’s program is $12,000, and that fee helps cover several benefits. The aforementioned uniforms are supplied to each student, as are catered hot lunches on a daily basis. Each student is also given a set of Milwaukee tools tailored to their chosen field that they get to keep after graduation. Additionally, lodging scholarships are available, because many students are veterans with no ties to the Dallas area.

The flags of the six branches of the U.S. military are displayed in the ForgeNow lobby; the school is affiliated with the Department of War’s SkillBridge program, and students with GI Bill benefits can use them to pay their tuition. Coppell resident Mark Smits joined ForgeNow’s advisory board after meeting co-founder Rob Holmes via the Military Order of the World Wars.

Smits is not the only way ForgeNow is making inroads in Coppell. The school has joined the Coppell Chamber of Commerce, and its employees have begun a dialogue with Coppell High School’s counselors. An overwhelming majority of CHS graduates enroll at four-year colleges and universities, but ForgeNow could be an attractive alternative for students not interested in that path.

The demand for ForgeNow’s training is expected to keep growing. For example, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that employment of electricians will increase by 9 percent between 2024 and 2034, “much faster than the average for all occupations.” About 81,000 openings for electricians are projected each year, on average, over that decade.

“To facilitate the type of growth that they want to see, the graduating high school student is key,” Smits said.

A Brief Promotional Interruption

I’m hoping this newsletter gained new subscribers via the print editions that were distributed during the Parade Down Parkway and the Party in the Park on Saturday. The following businesses and organizations made those print editions possible. They’re all owned or led by Coppell residents, and those folks have my gratitude.

• Beat the Heat Windows

• The Caitlin Rogers Project

• Coppell Baseball Association

• Get You in Shape

• Jacaranda Gift Shop

• The Pool Store

• Profit Ready Books

• Runyon Coffee Roasting Company

• Stonewell Bookkeeping Group

• Yellowstone Dreamin’ Retreat

I also want to shout out Karthika Dayanand, the Coppell High School senior who designed the print edition, and Adrian Holguin, who supplied the photos for the cover story about the Plunger Boy tradition at CHS.

If you’re new here, you may be wondering who I am and why I launched the Chronicle in 2021. Luckily, I have a short video to explain all that. Just a few weeks ago, I returned to Allegheny College in Pennsylvania for my 30-year reunion, which coincided with a celebration of the 150th anniversary of The Campus, the student newspaper that launched my career. I was among six alumni who spoke about how our Campus experiences influenced our adult lives. My speech was called “Journalism as a Terminal Diagnosis.”

Regarding my status as a “minor celebrity,” as mentioned in the video: When I showed up to report on the event detailed in the next article, one of the women waiting in line said, “Oh my gosh, the Coppell Chronicle is here.”

Families Queue in Advance of Squishy Drop

One thing I love about being a journalist is the periodic opportunities to learn new things. For example, until last Thursday, I’d never heard of NeeDoh, the latest obsession for young families nationwide.

NeeDoh is a brand of squishy toys that are akin to stress balls. The promotional copy on its parent company’s website describes the “groovy glob” as being “all about stretching, smushing, squeezing, and soothing your way to the best mellow and chill.”

That phrasing is ironic, considering the unchill behavior that NeeDoh products have inspired in consumers. The brand got on my radar courtesy of Chronicle subscriber Tracey Dillard, who was among dozens of people lined up outside the Jabo’s Ace Hardware in Coppell on Thursday morning, waiting for the doors to open at 8 so they could get their hands on new squishies.

The first two adults in line told me they got there at 6 o’clock; they were friends who’d driven from Decatur and Prosper after seeing a teaser on Jabo’s social media accounts. The first Coppell residents in line were Courtney Shaver and her daughter Caroline, 13, who arrived at 6:50.

“Parents have these ‘never say never’ moments,” Shaver said. “I always said, ‘I’ll never wake up at 6:30 a.m. to get a squishy for my kid,’ but look at me.”

Shortly before 8, Jabo’s general manager Doug Finley came outside to make an announcement: That day’s drop included NeeDoh squishies shaped like jellyfish and cats, and each customer would be allowed to buy only one. But squishies shaped like dumplings, which are manufactured by other companies, were also available, and each customer could buy two of those.

Finley told me the squishy craze has been raging for months. He said new releases are coordinated at all five Jabo’s locations. Finley had seen at least 20 people lined up outside his employer’s Keller store by 6 o’clock that morning.

Jenny Guo, an assistant professor of marketing at Binghamton University in New York, told NBC News that the frenzy for these toys was the result of a perfect storm.

“People kept posting videos of them online, demand built slowly, and then scarcity kicked in,” Guo said. “Once things got hard to find, everyone wanted them. That’s a pattern we see again and again in consumer behavior.”

This pattern should sound familiar to people old enough to remember the mania surrounding Beanie Babies in the ’90s and Cabbage Patch Kids in the ’80s. And both of those crazes happened before the Internet was widely available. Speaking of the Internet, when I visited the website for Schylling, the manufacturer of NeeDoh toys, I was greeted by this pop-up message: “Thanks for your patience. Demand for NeeDoh and our other products is exceptionally high right now, so we’re taking a short pause on new orders.”

Shaver and her daughter walked out of Ace Hardware on Thursday morning with a pair of jellyfish, which they said was the more-coveted variety. A few minutes later, Coppell resident Jill Hill exited the store with son Alex, 10, and daughter Norah, 8. They each had a cat and a dumpling. When I asked if they’d missed out on the jellyfish, Hill told me to not worry.

“We already have those,” she said. “We’re the connoisseurs who got those early in the game.”

Hill said she enjoys bonding with her kids over a screen-free activity that’s relatively cheap. Jabo’s sold the jellyfish squishies for $8.99 apiece, and the cat squishies went for $7.99; each of those prices are just a bit higher than what’s listed on the NeeDoh website. By contrast, Hill said a hobby store in Lewisville recently asked for $25 per squishy, which she said angered members of the NeeDoh hunting community.

“I’m sad for myself that I know all this,” Hill said with a laugh.

Council Refines Rules for Naming Facilities

If you aspire to have your name slapped on a City of Coppell facility and you haven’t been a resident for at least a decade, don’t get your hopes up until you’ve lived here a few more years.

The City Council is close to approving policies regarding the naming of non-park facilities. During their June 9 work session, the council members spent several minutes debating a draft policy presented by Deputy City Manager Traci Leach. The council asked for changes in three categories: eligibility, funding, and exclusivity.

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Coppell ISD Approves Raises for Teachers

Coppell ISD trustees approved a compensation plan that includes one of the area’s highest starting salaries plus raises for all employees.

The compensation plan was approved last week, which was pretty late in the game compared to other school districts. During their June 22 meeting, the Coppell ISD trustees were shown how the recommended starting salary of $65,000 compares to the starting salaries approved by their peers in a dozen other districts.

The compensation plan also calls for each Coppell ISD employee to get a raise based on 2 percent of the midpoint for his or her salary grade. That will add $2.2 million to the district’s budget.

The slides displayed during the June 22 meeting didn’t show how those 2 percent raises compared to other districts, but that’s what you have me for. Here’s how each of the neighboring districts described the raises approved by their trustees:

• Lewisville ISD — 3 percent of midpoint for “all staff that are not included in the Teacher Retention Allotment.”

• Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD — 2 percent of midpoint for “classroom teachers, librarians, counselors, nurses, paraprofessionals and auxiliary staff”; 1 percent of midpoint for “non-teaching TRS [Teacher Retirement System of Texas] eligible positions.”

• Grapevine-Colleyville ISD — 2 percent of midpoint for “employees in the clerical pay plan, paraprofessionals on the instructional support pay plan, and auxiliary pay plan”; 1 percent of midpoint for “teachers and employees on the professional non-teaching and technology plan.”

When Trustee Leigh Walker asked why raises are based on the midpoints of salary grades, Chief Financial Officer Amber Lasseigne said the Texas Association of School Boards recommends that method. Lasseigne — whose resume includes stints in Allen ISD, Fort Worth ISD, and Lewisville ISD — also said that’s been the practice in every district for which she’s worked.

“If you’re at the minimum, your raise is a little bit more than 2 percent. If you’re higher than the midpoint, your raise is a little bit less than 2 percent,” Lasseigne said. “So it makes it equitable across the system.”

Several trustees thanked the administration for their work on the compensation plan, including Jobby Mathew, who said it aligns with “great teaching” being one of the district’s core values.

“I really commend you guys for kind of living that — on the work that you’ve done here to attract great teaching and retain them here, so thank you very much,” Mathew said.

After the trustees’ unanimous vote, Superintendent Leanne Shivers returned the gratitude with gusto.

“This is huge! This is exciting!” Shiver exclaimed. “And there aren’t a lot of things that we get to do that are really exciting, but you just made a huge difference. That vote has a huge impact on our teachers, on every one of our employees, on our kids. It’s exactly what we put the time in for, so thank you.”

Lewisville Adopts Data Center Regulations

There are two data centers in Lewisville, and they happen to be not far from Coppell’s city limits. If anyone wants to open a third, they’ll need to seek the City Council’s permission.

On June 15, the council unanimously approved an ordinance that adds “Data Center” to the city’s list of zoning districts and also requires a special use permit to open such a facility. Under Lewisville’s previous policy, a developer could have converted any warehouse into a data center without the council’s buy-in.

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I don’t have any information to add to those reports, but the circumstances of Thursday’s incident reminded me of “Firefighters Specialize in Technical Rescues,” an article about Coppell’s bravest that was published in 2024.

Today’s Chronicle happens to include an article about foundation work at another apartment complex. That’s purely a coincidence.

Eager Shoppers Camped Outside New H-E-B

Dallas County’s first H-E-B grocery store welcomed its first shoppers at 6 a.m. on June 17. Some of them showed up more than 48 hours earlier.

Andrea Nida of Dallas arrived at the store within the Irving portion of Coppell ISD at about 10 p.m. on June 14, and Amber Flores of Farmer Branch wasn’t far behind her. They both thought the first customer in line might be rewarded for perseverance, but they weren’t sure.

“It’s really more about the excitement,” Nida told me a few hours before sunset on June 16, when she and Flores had been camped out for nearly two days. “We just love it.”

However, a few H-E-B employees weren’t loving the idea of three nights’ worth of camping outside their front doors. They asked Nida and Flores to stay away until the morning of June 15. Nida followed their instructions and drove home, but Flores opted to sleep in the parking lot of the Home Depot next door. That’s how she, husband Eddie Flores, and their three daughters ended up at the front of the line, with Nida in second place.

Amber was able to stay in line with support from Eddie, whom she jokingly called “our supplier.” Those supplies included a cooler, lawn chairs, and umbrellas. She was accompanied in shifts by daughters Emilie, 11; Randie, 7; and Zarie, 6. Amber said the extreme demonstration of devotion to H-E-B was Emilie’s idea.

“We don’t really know what we’ll win,” Amber told me on June 16. “It’s more about having the experience with her.”

The financial reward for their endurance was a gift basket valued at $500, H-E-B spokesperson Mabrie Jackson said. The Floreses, Nida, and nearly 200 people behind them also received $25 gift cards. And just about everybody who was in line when the doors finally opened got a baseball cap bearing the H-E-B logo and “Irving” in upside-down capital letters. But Emilie was the only customer I spotted wearing an H-E-B nametag.

“They treated her like royalty every day,” Amber said.

Initial customers weren’t the only recipients of gifts from H-E-B. In 2024, when Al Zapanta — then a City Council member, now Irving’s mayor — dared to discuss the store before its existence was officially announced, former Coppell ISD Superintendent Brad Hunt said he was excited because H-E-B is “a huge supporter of public education. I mean, they are putting their money where their mouth is in so many ways.”

(See “Irving Councilman Spills the H-E-Beans” in Vol. 4, No. 5.)

Hunt’s words were prescient. On June 16, the Coppell ISD Education Foundation was one of four local nonprofits that received checks for $10,000 from H-E-B. The others went to Canine Companions, the Irving Family Advocacy Center, and Level Pathways.

The predawn atmosphere outside the store on June 17 was like a party, with a DJ spinning jams by Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars, and Justin Timberlake. When the doors opened at 6 o’clock, the soundtrack was “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang.

Everybody waiting in line made it inside the store by 6:18, and I spotted Nida exiting with a full basket at 6:20. She estimated she spent $100, not counting the goody bag of snacks given to each initial customer.

The first shopper I saw leave the store was a gentleman who walked out with one of those goody bags at 6:08. I wasn’t able to get his name, as he seemed to be in quite a hurry to escape the hullabaloo. When I asked if he bought anything, he said he couldn’t pass up a buy-one-get-one deal on gummy worms.

A Brief Promotional Interruption

There was at least one other Coppell resident besides your correspondent hanging out at the H-E-B on the morning it opened. True to his Citizens on Patrol duties supporting the Coppell Police Department, Dave Schauf kept a watchful eye on the proceedings, making sure nobody got out of line — literally or figuratively. Thanks entirely to him, I own one of the caps that H-E-B gave to the store’s earliest customers.

The thing is, I’m not much of a hat guy, mainly because my shiny dome is a key aspect of my personal branding. So I’m going to deliver that cap to the next person who purchases a paid subscription, which costs $5 per month or $40 per year.

There is so much information behind today’s paywall that a new subscriber will get their money’s worth through this edition alone, he typed without a hint of humility.

Pageant Contestant Promotes Safe Driving

Sunya Ajani will never forget the date of Aug. 23, 2022. Exactly one week after getting her driver’s license, she caused an accident that totaled two vehicles.

As a Coppell High School junior, Ajani was hurrying to get to color guard practice on time. She admits that she was driving fast and aggressively. “I’m not one to sugarcoat it,” she said during a phone interview last week. While turning left from Denton Tap Road to Parkway Boulevard, she hit another vehicle. Although neither she nor the other driver were physically injured, the collision had a profound mental impact on Ajani.

“It changed my life dramatically and led me to lead and educate others about the impacts of distracted driving — aggressive driving — and promote safe driving,” she said during the June 9 meeting of the Coppell City Council.

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(See “City Will Issue (and Require) Trash Carts” in Vol. 6, No. 4.)

If you want to see the two sizes in person before making a decision, stop by the Town Center Annex at 265 Parkway Boulevard between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on June 17. That’s when Coppell’s Village Collective will host an event to help residents decide.

Coppell ISD Trustees Debate Screen Time

Coppell ISD administrators want to limit students’ use of technology, but the proposed limits aren’t limiting enough for some of the district’s trustees.

A Technology Committee composed of CISD employees, parents, and trustees met six times during the 2025-2026 school year, and they came up with these recommended limits on screen time:

• Pre-K: 30 minutes per day

• Kindergarten and first grade: 30-35 minutes per day

• Second and third grades: 45-60 minutes per day

• Fourth and fifth grades: 60-75 minutes per day

• Middle school: 25-30 minutes per 50-minute class period

• High school: 45-50 minutes per 90-minute class period

These recommendations were presented during the school board’s June 8 workshop. I believe Trustee Jonathan Powers brought up the idea of establishing a low-tech/no-tech elementary campus during that workshop, but I can’t be certain, because Powers was definitely sitting on the low-tech/no-tech side of the room as far as microphones were concerned.

“If something’s good for one campus, if it’s beneficial for one group of students, then it’s going to be beneficial for all of our students,” Superintendent Leanne Shivers said in response to Powers. “This truly is a lower-tech option for every single one of our students.”

Trustee Leigh Walker said the recommended limits would be a great level set for the district. During her 2025 reelection campaign, Walker talked to voters who said they called various CISD schools to ask about technology guidelines and got various responses.

“I love that there’s a centralized, consistent messaging,” Walker said. “I think that’s huge.”

However, Walker said she didn’t want to abandon the concept of a low-tech/no-tech elementary school, because that’s another topic that voters brought up.

“We have to be receptive to where we are right now and what parents may want,” Walker said. “So I do not want that to be taken off the table, truly, because I feel like it could just be another choice in our array of choices.”

Kevin Chaka, who was elected to the Board of Trustees last month, said voters also told him they wanted an option for younger kids that involved pencils and paper in lieu of styluses and tablets. These parents want their kids to hand over their assignments to a teacher rather than turn them in via Schoology.

“It’s like what Coppell looked like when I was here in the ’90s, right?” Chaka said. “That’s what they’re kind of seeking.”

Shivers said the draft graphic above was intended to brand every elementary school in Coppell ISD as a low-tech campus, but the trustees obviously didn’t take it that way. “How do we message that better, then?” Shivers asked. “How do we market that better, if that was the intent, of kind of marching in this direction? Because it didn’t come across.”

Board President Nichole Bentley said the graphic needs some context to provide perspective. “If I don’t have kids in school already, I have no idea how many instructional minutes there are in a day at elementary, middle, or high school, so I don’t know if these numbers are high or low,” she said.

Bentley also said the trustees have to stop using the term “no-tech,” because it’s not an option. “We don’t have that choice. The state doesn’t give us that choice,” Bentley said. “So for us to have a conversation about ‘no-tech,’ I think, is just kind of disingenuous to the community.”

Bentley reminded everyone that STAAR testing, which begins in the third grade, is administered online. She would not want that to be a child’s first hands-on experience with technology.

“Our kids are going out into a world with technology, whether we all like it or not,” Bentley said, “and part of our job is to equip them at the appropriate level.”

Nonetheless, Walker later said she’d like Coppell ISD to have a campus where kids in grades below third wouldn’t have access to tablets. She reiterated her fondness for the recommended limits on screen time, but Walker also said they wouldn’t help “attract the [kindergarten] parents we might be losing.”

The trustees are supposed to keep discussing the recommended limits during their July and August meetings, and I presume those sessions will also include conversations about a low-tech campus. Your correspondent will be listening and taking notes on all of the key statements — assuming everyone’s microphones are working.

A Brief Promotional Interruption

I quit my other job last week. In advance of that momentous decision, I justified it to my wife/editor/muse via this text message: “The Chronicle provides me with joy, fulfillment, and money. This place provides me with just money. I can find money elsewhere.”

That’s where you come in. This newsletter has more than 2,200 free subscribers. If just half of them became paid subscribers (which costs $5 per month or $40 per year), it would help this enterprise become more viable.

(Convincing free subscribers to become paid subscribers is not my only strategy for replacing the salary from my day job. But every dollar helps.)

The CORE’s Locker Rooms Will be Renovated

Patrons of The CORE will get to enjoy renovated locker rooms after enduring a couple of months of inconvenience.

On June 9, the Coppell City Council approved a $444,000 contract with Custard Construction Services, a firm based in Flower Mound. The project will include the demolition and replacement of finishes, fixtures, and amenities in the locker rooms and restrooms, including tile, ceilings, lighting, showers, countertops, plumbing fixtures, and ADA accessories.

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I bet you’ve heard by now that the H-E-B in the Irving portion of Coppell ISD will start welcoming customers on June 17. The iconic grocery chain revealed the opening date for its first Dallas County store last Monday, when a press release was apparently sent to The Dallas Morning News, Channel 8, CultureMap Dallas, and other media outlets.

You know who didn’t get a copy of that press release? The dude who predicted in January of 2024 that H-E-B would construct a store along the westbound service road of Interstate 635. The dude who reported seven months later that the construction paperwork had been filed, news that was published before the store was officially announced. The dude who traded emails with an H-E-B spokesperson about the press release’s topic just two months ago.

But, hey, it’s cool. Whatever. I didn’t really want to know about the opening date anyway. Besides, I’ve got plans for that Wednesday morning. I’ll be perusing the marked-down meat at Market Street after grabbing some store-brand potato chips and trail mix at Kroger.

Soccer Association Reports Resident Rates

With a global soccer event about to begin1, now seems like a good time to check in on the local version of the world’s most popular sport.

Coppell Youth Soccer Association officials presented their annual report to the Coppell Parks and Recreation Board last week, and as always, the percentage of players who reside in the city was a topic of discussion.

All of the local youth sports associations are supposed to ensure that at least 75 percent of their participants are Coppell residents. Last fall, 57 percent of the kids playing in the Coppell Youth Soccer Association lived within the city limits. In the spring season, that stat increased to 59 percent.

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Kiddin’ Around is Seriously Closing Down

Coppell parents are lamenting the loss of a popular childcare option. Kiddin’ Around Coppell announced last week on its social media that it will close permanently on June 20.

“We are so grateful for the families who have trusted us over the years,” the posts on Facebook and Instagram said. “It has been an honor to be a part of your children’s lives and to share in so many special memories.”

Kiddin’ Around offers drop-in service for families who are charged hourly rates. If you can’t find a babysitter who’s willing to watch your kids for just an hour or two, Kiddin’ Around can accommodate you.

“I hate to hear this! It's definitely an end of an era,” Angie Biggs said in a long comments thread under a post in the “Coppell, Texas” group on Facebook. “My kids used to beg us to let them stay there. It was a great experience with wonderful people.”

The closure announcement invited people to submit questions via email, and your correspondent was among those who did so. One of the owners, Coppell resident Madhavi Makkena-Patel, provided some context when responding to my inquiry.

“We did not make this decision lightly,” Makkena-Patel wrote. “We knew this would impact our staff, the families we serve, and the broader community. This decision is not related to quality of care or operational issues. It reflects changing circumstances that unfortunately made our model more difficult to sustain.”

Makkena-Patel then listed some of those changing circumstances: reduced childcare needs with more people working remotely since the pandemic, the increased costs of just about everything due to inflation, and the aging of the Coppell community with fewer young families moving in.

Kiddin’ Around has been in business on Parkway Boulevard since 2000, when it was founded by Debbie Williams and Gina Jones. Coppell resident Jyoti Masurekar began working there in 2004 and has been the director since 2008. Makenna-Patel said Masurekar “has been with us through it all and is the core of what makes Kiddin’ Around special. She cares for the kids, parents, and staff like they are her own family. And there is no better staff than the ones at Kiddin’ Around. They made it fun for the kids because they cared so much about them.”

Since the closure announcement, Kiddin’ Around’s social media accounts have featured pictures of fixtures and equipment that are available for sale. Those posts say all proceeds will go toward staff bonuses.

Makenna-Patel said customers, employees past and present, and supporters are invited to stop by on June 21 to take photos, connect one last time, and say goodbye. Children will be able to choose a favorite toy or keepsake so they can take a small piece of Kiddin’ Around with them.

Coppell ISD Combats Declining Enrollment

Coppell ISD’s demographer predicted that the district’s total enrollment will be 10 percent lower in five years and 17 percent lower a decade from now.

There were 13,056 students in Coppell ISD during the school year that just ended. During the May 18 meeting of the Board of Trustees, Zonda Demographics presented a forecast that says only 10,814 students will be enrolled during the 2035-2036 school year.

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This situation reminds me of a line Robert DeNiro’s character in Goodfellas issued about Joe Pesci’s character, who started out as his teenage protégé: “We’re gonna be working for this guy someday! He’s gonna be a boss!”

Teenager Lauded for Lifesaving Effort

A 13-year-old is being hailed as a hero for saving the life of a 10-year-old last fall.

While playing basketball in Coppell on Nov. 15, Nasir “Nas” Brobby felt chest pain. A couple of minutes later, he fell to the ground unconscious.

His friend Jace Giles immediately started chest compressions to the beat of the song “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong. Jace’s mom, arriving after the realization that both kids’ phones were dead, joined in on the compressions while calling 911.

Emergency medical technicians from the Coppell Fire Department arrived on the scene promptly and rushed Nas to Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas, where doctors ran tests. They found that he had an undiagnosed congenital heart disease called ventricular fibrillation (V-Fib), which disrupts blood flow to the left coronary artery.

Jace, his mother, and dispatchers from the North Texas Emergency Communications Center were honored at a May 22 press conference at Life Safety Park. The event, which was scheduled to coincide with EMS Week, started with a speech from Coppell Mayor Wes Mays.

“Today, we honor a very extraordinary act of collaboration and courage that occurred to save a child’s life in our Andy Brown Park,” Mays said. “A 13-year-old teen used CPR, and his training learned here at the Life Safety Park, to help save his friend’s life after a medical emergency on the basketball court.”

Mays’ speech was followed by a short video that narrated the unfolding of the event. “His heart muscle was starving from blood,” Dr. Tia Raymond, a pediatric cardiologist, says in the video.

Jace, who attends Coppell Middle School West, and his mother, Charisse DeLoria, both spoke at the May 22 event, but DeLoria did most of the talking.

“I did not have any CPR training at all,” DeLoria said. “But yeah, thank you so much. I didn’t know what I was doing. So scary, but thank you for walking me through that again. I’m so happy that we were able to save Nas’ life and make a difference.”

Nas is a student at Dallas ISD’s Dallas Hybrid Preparatory at Stephen J. Hay. His mother, Terese Tunia, also expressed gratitude to all involved.

“You guys saved my son’s life, which is saving my life,” Tunia said. “Thank you to everybody for all your support during this time and everything that you guys did.”

Michael McDowell, a Division Chief with the Coppell Fire Department, then presented awards to Jace, DeLoria, 911 dispatcher in training Erin Rocha, and 911 dispatcher trainer Rylee DelaGarza.

“This was a big event,” McDowell said, “and we’re so thankful for the outcome to see Nasir today as an honor and a privilege for all of us.”

McDowell then invited Life Safety Park Manager Bethany Everett to stage a CPR demonstration with Jace, who was put on the spot but was able to demonstrate the process with ease.

“Summer is a great time for families and children to learn CPR,” Everett said. “We encourage that — to learn them together.”

A Brief Promotional Interruption

Before we get to all of the non-Neev content behind this week’s paywall, I wanted to make time for a sales pitch (or two).

The dude with the stunning head of hair is my son Gabriel Koller. Last week, he exited Coppell ISD’s transitional program for graduates with special needs. Despite his teachers’ and therapists’ best efforts, Gabe’s prospects for gainful employment are slim to none due to his mental disabilities, so my long-term plan is for the Coppell Chronicle to fund his adult life. Yes, this is a blatant attempt to tug at your heartstrings so you’ll upgrade to a paid subscription, which costs $5 per month or $40 per year.

If you want a T-shirt like the ones Gabe and I are sporting in that picture, you can buy one here. You can also tell people you read all about in the Coppell Chronicle via youth T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, and caps.

Stadium’s Concession Stands Will Cool Down

Good news for Coppell High School band parents: The conditions in your concession stands are going to get a lot cooler.

During football games and other events at Buddy Echols Field, concessions are sold primarily by musicians’ moms and dads. As a former band parent, Coppell ISD Trustee Nichole Bentley has firsthand knowledge of those food-service experiences. She once handled the popcorn machine during a football season opener, when the astronomical season was still technically summer. Consequently, her working conditions were quite hot.

“I had to throw my clothes away, between the sweat and the grease,” Bentley shared during the trustees’ May 18 meeting. “I can tell you that is a miserable, miserable duty early in the fall.”

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Here’s the simple idea:

1. You clone your voice.

2. You add your knowledge, links, content, and basic rules.

3. Your Double learns how to represent you and what to say.

4. Your audience can talk to your Double when you are busy.

Seven minutes after his godforsaken email landed in my inbox, he had my answer:

“You could not have found a less likely client for your product. Everything about your ‘simple idea’ offends and horrifies me.”

My response included one more sentence that’s not appropriate for a family-friendly newsletter.

Cowgirl Wins State Title in Shot Put

Coppell High School senior Ainsley Bramer won a gold medal in shot put at the UIL Track & Field State Championships on Saturday.

Bramer heaved the shot 45 feet and 0.75 inches on the fifth of her six attempts. That was 7.25 inches better than the best attempt by silver medalist Zoey Deal of Garland Naaman Forest. The bronze medal went to Madison Gonzales of Midland Legacy, whose longest heave of 43 feet and 5.5 inches was a foot shorter than Deal’s.

“We took care of some business down in Austin today! No better way to finish my high school career,” Bramer said in an Instagram post that includes footage of one of her throws. “Definitely not the numbers I wanted, but a win is a win, and there is a lot of work to do before nationals.”

Bramer, who signed with the University of Texas in November, finished in fourth place at last year’s state meet. Her gold medal on Saturday was the first for a Coppell athlete at the state meet since 2023, when Sky Schuller won the championship in girls pole vault. Schuller’s siblings, senior Noah Schuller and junior Mia Schuller, also represented Coppell on Saturday. Each of them earned a trip to state by winning a regional title in pole vault, but they both finished in seventh place in Austin.

On the track, Coppell’s 4x100 relay team of senior Ella Corry, sophomore Janiah Merritt, junior Hannah Polito, and senior Sophia Williams finished in fourth place on Saturday, but their time of 45.61 seconds was a school record. The medalists were Lancaster (43.99), Duncanville (45.11), and Alvin Shadow Creek (45.34).

Williams, who committed to Baylor University last month, also competed in two individual races on Saturday. She finished in sixth place in the 100 meters — when the medalists were again from Lancaster, Duncanville, and Shadow Creek — and she was fifth in the 200 meters, which was led by runners from Duncanville, Shadow Creek, and Katy Morgan Ranch.

In other sports news …

• Ryan Agarwal, who graduated from Coppell High School in 2022, spent the past four years on the Stanford basketball roster. Despite earning his degree, he has one year of eligibility left, so he recently signed to join the team at Loyola University in Chicago. The Ramblers play in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

• Julianna LaMendola, who graduated from Coppell High School in 2023, spent two years on the Indiana basketball roster before playing for Grand Canyon University last season. She recently decided to transfer to Miami University in Ohio. The Redhawks play in the Mid-American Conference.

• I’m trying to compile a list of Coppell High School graduates who will compete in the NCAA baseball tournaments. If you know of any, sound off in the comments.

Leave a comment

Voting Opens Monday in Primary Runoffs

Can you believe it’s time for another election? Because the powers that be in Texas haven’t embraced the concept of instant runoffs, the state’s voters are being beckoned back to the polls to settle a few party primaries.

Republicans have three statewide contests to decide:

• U.S. Senator: John Cornyn or Ken Paxton

• Attorney General: Mayes Middleton or Chip Roy

• Land Commissioner: Bo French or Jim Wright

Paxton has been Texas’ Attorney General since January of 2015. Just about a year ago, I wrote about the dismissal of his lawsuit against Coppell ISD over critical race theory, with both sides claiming victory. (See “Paxton’s Suit Against CISD Goes Away” in Vol. 5, No. 12.) That article ended with this statement: “I look forward to calculating how much support Paxton receives from Coppell ISD voters.” Well, I’ve done the calculations, and they show that Paxton had less support around here in the March primary than he did statewide.

Interestingly, Paxton fared even worse in the precincts within Coppell’s city limits than he did in the precincts across Coppell ISD, which includes portions of Dallas, Irving, and Lewisville.

Either Cornyn, who is seeking a fifth term in the U.S. Senate, or Paxton will face Democratic nominee James Talarico in November’s general election.

Meanwhile, Democrats have two statewide campaigns to consider in this month’s primary runoff:

• Lieutenant Governor: Vikki Goodwin or Marcos Isaias Velez

• Attorney General: Joe Jaworski or Nathan Johnson

Democrats in the Dallas County portion of Coppell will also help decide whether Kevin Burge or TJ Ware will be their nominee in Congressional District 24. (That link will show you the district’s gerrymandered boundaries.) My fellow Substack writer Michelle H. Davis published an extensive analysis of that race that she called “TX24 Is Sitting Right There.” Either Burge or Ware will advance to face Rep. Beth Van Duyne, a Republican who is seeking a fourth term in the U.S. House.

Additionally, Democrats who live in Valley Ranch and Cypress Waters will choose whether Colin Allred or Julie Johnson should be their nominee in Congressional District 33. And Republicans who reside in District 33 must decide whether their party’s nominee will be Patrick David Gillespie or John Sims.

If you’re a Dallas County resident, you can preview your primary runoff ballot by entering your name and date of birth here. If you live in Denton County, you can do the same here.

Early voting will begin on May 18 and conclude on May 22. Election Day will be May 26.

Apartment Complex Evicts Flood District Board

I’m sad to report that one of this newsletter’s persistent opportunities for humor has come to an end.

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Cowboys Win State Lacrosse Championship

UNIVERSITY PARK — The Coppell lacrosse program has completed quite a remarkable turnaround: One year after wrapping up a winless season, the Cowboys captured a state championship.

Coppell won the Class C bracket of the Texas High School Lacrosse League’s playoffs on Sunday morning by recording a 7-6 victory over Regents School of Austin, the top seed in the field. (Coppell was seeded 11th of 16 teams.)

Senior midfielder Duncan Ross was named the tournament’s overall MVP because he had two goals in the championship game and five more in the Cowboys’ 9-4 win over Parish Episcopal School on Saturday. Ross chalked up the stark difference between this season and last season to grit and hard work.

“Our hard work proved to pay off,” said Ross, who will play collegiately for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy

Junior attacker Sawyer Smith, who scored three goals on Sunday and two on Saturday, was named the Offensive MVP for Class C, and senior defender Knox Wharton earned Defensive MVP honors. I might be biased, but junior goaltender Aiden Martin also deserves mention, as he made just enough saves to make a difference.

(Bias disclosure: I was Martin’s Cub Scouts Den Leader for five years. Did that half-decade of mentorship help shape him into the goalie he is today? Perhaps. Who can say?)

You may be wondering why Coppell, a team affiliated with one of Texas’ largest high schools, competed in the Class C tournament, while Sunday’s Class AA title game featured two schools of comparable size, Jesuit and The Woodlands, and the Class B final was between Keller and Prosper. Unlike the UIL, which classifies schools according to the sizes of their student bodies, the Texas High School Lacrosse League bases classifications on the number of players in each program. Coppell didn’t have enough players this season to field a junior varsity team, while Jesuit and Episcopal School of Dallas each had two squads qualify for the playoffs.

This is the second season that the Coppell Lacrosse Association’s team for high school boys has been led by Brandon Mullins, a Coppell High School graduate who played lacrosse professionally after starting for Syracuse University. He said this year’s lacrosse team benefited from the addition of a few football players, which helped from a leadership and athleticism perspective.

“This group just jelled a lot more,” Mullins said. “They became friends, you know what I mean, which helped us on the field. So I think, just from a chemistry perspective, we were far and beyond where we were.”

In other sports news …

Lacrosse: The Coppell Lacrosse Association didn’t have enough players to field a team for high school girls this season, so nine Coppell residents played for Flower Mound, representing more than a third of that squad. Flower Mound faced St. Stephen’s Episcopal School from Austin on Saturday in the Texas Girls High School Lacrosse League’s Division 2 semifinals, and I got there in time to see Coppell resident Claire Wenzel break a 7-7 tie in the third quarter. But St. Stephen’s ultimately prevailed by a score of 12-11.

Tennis: Last week’s UIL Class 6A State Tennis Tournament in San Antonio was the fourth featuring Coppell High School senior Lexie Patton, who qualified this year in girls doubles, paired with fellow senior Gabby Rice. They lost in the semifinals to Jastine Escamos and Angela Shu of Fort Bend Clements, who would go on to beat another Clements duo in the finals. In girls singles, Coppell freshman Varsha Sivaprasad lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual state champion, Ahona Chowdhury of The Woodlands.

Golf: The Coppell High School girls golf team, which won the UIL Class 6A state championship in 2025, finished 10th at last week’s state tournament in San Antonio. Austin Westlake won the 2026 team title, besting Southlake Carroll by 10 strokes. Individually, Coppell senior Riya Bapna was among four golfers who tied for fifth place with a two-day score of 151, nine strokes behind the champion, Carolyn Liu of Katy Jordan.

Rowing: Coppell High School graduate Naida Paschal is a rower for the University of Kansas, and she’s a member of the school’s 3V8+ crew that earned Big 12 Boat of the Week honors last week by winning the Minnesota Invite. Paschal and her fellow Jayhawks crossed first with a time of 6:57.84, topping Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa to secure the victory.

Tesla Robotaxis Hub Proposed in North Irving

Tesla would like to dispatch thousands of autonomous vehicles from a property in the Coppell ISD portion of Irving, but the city’s firefighters and police officers want more time to understand the technology.

The property in question is 4203 W. Royal Lane, which is just south of Interstate 635, between Freeport Parkway and Belt Line Road. Tesla’s proposal was on the Irving City Council’s May 7 agenda because the company’s plan would require changing the parcel’s designation on Irving’s future land use map from “Business/Office” to “Manufacturing/Warehouse.”

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Coppell ISD Voters Choo-Choose Chaka

The candidate with a train-themed campaign is on track to become Coppell ISD’s newest trustee.

Kevin Chaka earned more than 62 percent of the early votes in his race with Khanh Windham, and his haul increased to more than 63.5 percent once the Election Day tally was completed early this morning.

Here’s something I’ll address only because multiple people have asked about it: Although Chaka will succeed Board President David Caviness, who is stepping down after three terms, the title of president does not come with the Place 5 seat. After Chaka takes his oath of office, the seven trustees will decide amongst themselves who will serve as president, vice president, and secretary.

It’s certainly possible that Chaka could raise his hand for one of those roles, as he’s not shy about volunteering. His campaign touted his service on Coppell ISD’s District Educational Improvement Committee, its Community-Based Accountability System Advisory Council, its Bond Oversight Committee, and its Facility Evaluation Rubric Development Committee.

Chaka will be one of two former Coppell ISD students on the Board of Trustees, joining Leigh Walker. He and his wife, Holly Stokes Chaka, met when they were students at Coppell High School. They have two children in elementary school plus a toddler.

Chaka won all but three of the district’s precincts. The candidates tied in Precinct 2803, and Windham won two — Precinct 2801 in Coppell and Precinct 2601 in Irving; surprisingly, that’s not the Irving precinct in which Windham resides.

Here’s something that was not at all surprising: Chaka’s victory was driven by Precinct 2805, which includes Town Center Elementary School. Last year’s debates about closing that campus created a political movement, and Chaka’s most passionate supporters are former, current, and future Town Center parents. The 476 votes Chaka garnered in Precinct 2805 represented nearly 20 percent of his 2,423 total votes. He was favored by more than 80 percent of Precinct 2805’s voters. His next best result on a percentage basis was in Precinct 2808, where he was the choice of about 70 percent of voters.

(If you were expecting to see a color-coded map of the precincts in this edition, I have an embarrassing admission to make: I did not realize until this morning that Dallas County had created a new precincts map since last year’s election. Big-time oops on my part. You can review the new map here.)

After I spent consecutive Saturdays hanging out in the Coppell Town Center parking lot, my gut told me this was going to be the May election with the lowest turnout since the Chronicle began in 2021. However, the facts say otherwise. There were fewer voters in 2024, when Nichole Bentley won a third term while facing an anemic challenge from Eneida Padró.

When people asked what I thought about this election, I said the school district would be just fine no matter who won. Chaka and Windham were both qualified candidates, and I believe each of them could be a worthy trustee. And Windham could give it another go in a future election. After all, Jonathan Powers was elected to the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees on his second attempt, as was Tracy Fisher, who served from 2012 until 2022.

Meanwhile, check out this Election Day bingo card produced by Windham’s campaign team. I was flattered to be referenced twice on the bottom row.

Here’s a roundup of other election results that should interest residents of Coppell and Coppell ISD:

Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees — Incumbent Carolyn Benavides of Carrollton won another term, and she will be joined by Cinthya Noda of Farmers Branch. The candidates left standing in the district’s game of musical chairs were Dave Jimenez of Coppell, who was separated from Noda by half a percentage point, and Luis Palomo of Carrollton.

Last week’s edition included an article called “Candidate Accuses CFBISD of Electioneering.” It was about Jimenez filing complaints with the Texas Ethics Commission and the Texas Attorney General over Palomo’s appearances on CFBISD’s social media. After that article was published, the district’s Communications Department forwarded me an April 27 letter from Jordan Hunn, the Texas Ethics Commission’s deputy director of enforcement, that says the commission doesn’t have jurisdiction over the matters in Jimenez’s complaint. But Hunn’s letter also says this:

“None of the communications identified in the complaint constitute political advertising, as they neither prominently feature the candidate nor mention his candidacy or the election. The bare fact of the candidate’s appearance is not sufficient to make the communications political advertising. Therefore, this allegation does not state a violation.”

Irving City Council — Al Zapanta easily won the mayor’s seat, earning more than 67 percent of the votes despite having two opponents. Meanwhile, it appears that incumbent Council Member Abdul Khabeer and challenger Kejal Patel are headed to a runoff in District 3, which includes the Parkside West subdivision within Coppell ISD. According to the unofficial final results, Patel bested the third-place candidate, Tamman Alwan, by only four votes.

The remainder of Zapanta’s term representing District 6 — which covers the vast majority of the Irving portion of Coppell ISD — will go to Fahad Ahmed. That means Irving and Coppell will each have a councilman who owns a martial arts studio in the other city. Ahmed owns Sixth Sense Martial Arts on MacArthur Boulevard in Coppell, and Kevin Nevels owns Championship Martial Arts, which has a location in Las Colinas. I can think of only one appropriate response to this factoid:

Lewisville ISD Board of Trustees — Staci Barker won a second term.

Lewisville City Council — Ronni Cade was reelected over two challengers, and Brent Kuykendall won the seat that Bob Troyer gave up after three terms.

Fun fact: Troyer has a distinctive look (a long white beard without a mustache), so I was 95 percent sure I spotted him working at Globe Life Field in an official capacity last week. When I emailed him to confirm, he informed me that he supervises the 50/50 raffle for the Texas Rangers Foundation.

Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Board of Trustees — It’s been a dramatic school year in the district to our west. Their superintendent resigned in November, a 5-2 majority of the trustees voted in December to close two elementary schools, and the Grapevine High School baseball team — the back-to-back state champs — lost a playoff berth last week for using an ineligible player. The drama continued on Saturday, when three trustees — Mary Humphrey, A.J. Pontillo, and Dianna Sager, all of whom voted to close the elementaries — were ousted by Darrell Brown, Matthew White, and Lindsey Sheguit, respectively.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit — Three municipalities’ voters were asked if they wanted to continue contributing sales taxes to DART. Nearly 70 percent of Highland Park voters said no, but more than 53 percent of University Park voters said yes, as did more than 70 percent of Addison voters. If Addison had gone the other way, the town would have lost its Silver Line stop.

District Preparing for Another Bond Election

Coppell ISD voters should expect to see at least a couple of bond propositions on the ballot one year from now.

The Board of Trustees meeting on April 27 included a preliminary discussion of a 2027 bond election. Coppell ISD’s most recent bond election happened in 2023, when a majority of voters approved four propositions with a combined value of $321.5 million.

During the April 27 meeting, Superintendent Leanne Shivers said her administration would like to establish a pattern of asking voters to consider bond packages every five years, which would mean an election in 2028. But Chief Financial Officer Amber Lasseigne said the Texas Legislature was laser-focused on such elections during their 2025 session, and conducting one next year would allow the district to avoid any new regulations lawmakers might concoct in their 2027 session.

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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.

• Kejal 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.

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Coppell ISD Trustees Back Different Candidates

I can’t remember a previous Coppell ISD election that featured endorsements from multiple sitting trustees, but this year’s does.

Coppell ISD voters have only one choice to make over the next two weeks: Should Kevin Chaka or Khanh Windham succeed David Caviness? On April 15, Caviness suggested they choose Windham.

“Above all, what has stood out the most is how she engages. Khanh listens. She seeks to understand before forming conclusions,” Caviness said in a Facebook endorsement. “And she approaches difficult topics with a level of respect and composure that helps move conversations forward rather than divide them further.”

One day later, Trustee Jonathan Powers said he’s voting for Chaka.

“Kevin grew up here, is raising his family here, and has already given years of service to this district — as Co-Chair of the District Educational Improvement Committee, on the Bond Oversight Committee, and more,” Powers said in his own Facebook endorsement. “That’s what stands out to me most: Kevin put in the time to understand this district before asking to help lead it.”

These dueling statements are interesting not only because of their very existence but also due to who issued them. The only other endorsement by a sitting trustee that I can recall happened last year. That’s when Caviness endorsed Powers in his campaign against Julie Waters, who had challenged Caviness in 2023.

Chaka and Windham both have long lists of other endorsements on their websites — Chaka4CISD.com and Windham4CISD.com — and each of those lists features at least one former Coppell ISD trustee. He’s backed by Tracy Fisher, and she has support from Judy Barbo and Thom Hulme.

Here’s something else Chaka and Windham have in common: They both responded to a short questionnaire from the Coppell Chronicle. You can review and compare their answers in this PDF.

Coppell ISD Board Of Trustees Place 5

248KB ∙ PDF file

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Kevin Chaka and Khanh Windham are competing for the seat that David Caviness is vacating.

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I also sent questionnaires to the four candidates for the Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD Board of Trustees — because a portion of that school district is in Coppell — and to eight candidates vying for three seats on the Irving City Council, because a big chunk of Irving overlaps with Coppell ISD.

Carrollton Farmers Branch ISD Board Of Trustees

255KB ∙ PDF file

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Carolyn Benavides, Dave Jimenez, Cinthya Noda, and Luis Palomo are competing for the seats occupied by Benavides and Randy Schackmann.

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Irving Mayor

214KB ∙ PDF file

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Olivia E. Novelo Abreu, Zhanae Jackson, and Al Zapanta are competing for the seat that Rick Stopfer is vacating.

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Irving City Council District 3

227KB ∙ PDF file

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Tammam Alwan, Abdul Khabeer, and Kejal Patel are competing for the seat occupied by Khabeer.

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Irving City Council District 6

186KB ∙ PDF file

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Fahad Ahmed and Dana Collins are competing for the seat that Al Zapanta is vacating due to his mayoral campaign. (Sushil Patel dropped out of this race, but he will still be listed on the ballot.)

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I had not received answers from all of those candidates by the time I published this edition. If I receive them after this edition is published, I’ll update the PDFs on the Chronicle’s website accordingly.

Dallas County residents can preview their ballots by entering their personal details here. Denton County residents can do the same thing here.

Early voting for local elections will begin on April 20, pause on the state holiday known as San Jacinto Day (seriously), resume on April 22, and continue through April 28. Election Day is May 2.

District Officials Celebrate Deficit Reductions

Spirits are high at Coppell ISD’s headquarters because the school district’s deficit has been lowered.

During an April 13 workshop, administrators told the Board of Trustees that more than $8 million has been shaved from the budget since February. That amount was attributed to zero-based staffing, continued evaluation of enrollment and class sections, and position reductions achieved through attrition and early-resignation incentives.

“That represents a lot of hard work and a lot of dedication by this group here to get us into the right direction,” Superintendent Leanne Shivers said.

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