Vara Kuppam (Place 5)
“Introduce yourself, do you have any children attending ISD in Coppell, why are you running for this office?”
“Good evening my brothers and sisters. My name is Vara Kuppam, I am running for Place 5. I’ve lived here in Coppell for the last five years with my wife, two children and my parents. My parents raised us as we are raising our kids, on a phrase, Matha, Pitha, and Guru Devo Bhava. Translated in English, a mother, father, and teachers are to be treated as God. These are the people, they serve us 24/7 and expecting nothing in return. The reason why I’m running for Coppell ISD right now is that when I look at Vision 20/20, also known as Pinnacle 20/20, it demands that an experienced person, especially in forward thinking, considering the growth of 356 students coming every year for the next five to seven years, as well as a lot of challenges currently we are facing. Secondly, with 20 years of technology background, I can direct ISD evaluating and filtering the products, allowing teachers to get more time to spend with students and parents. Also, I can safeguard parents, teachers and learners from technology risks. Third, academic excellence. With 42 years, being a student here today, attending many universities and schools, I have observed a lot of successes from different schools and countries, and here I am today to give it back to Coppell ISD, to the community. In order to prepare our kids to better compete in this complex and interconnected world. Once again, thank you to the organizers, and each one of you for taking time and being here. Thank you.
“Can you tell us about the organizations who are endorsing your campaign and approximately how many CISD Board meetings you’ve attended in the past?”
“I’ve been recently attending the Board meetings and especially recently this year. I also attended a recent [meeting] last month where IBM was trying to present [its plan], as a technology expert, I would have asked many good questions, asking them ‘Where is the data?’ ‘What kind of data is being collected?’ ‘How long is it going to store?’ ‘What kind of phycology are you trying to draw’, ‘What are you trying to do with the kids?’ ‘How much time needs to be spent for the teacher to add this data?’ A lot of questions were missing, and this is something [we] really need, technology expertise, where we have the right questions to asked and bring the right products, filter them, allow the teachers to spend more time with students and teachers, instead of the screens. When I’ve been to many, many families on the ground, everyone, or 90 percent are frustrated with the screens. Since that, teachers having less time, I’m not blaming the teachers please, teachers are doing a lot of work that the other administration works with the teacher and student ratio. This is something as a Board member I’d like to work [on], simply the teachers, understand them, use the right amount of technologies, as well as help the students and safeguard them before the danger really happens. Again, my technology expertise, my strategy [with] students for the last 20 years, helps the current challenges and the upcoming challenges to the ISD, especially in the growth, as well as to the academic excellence.”
”How can we keep our best and brightest teachers and administrators on our campus?”
“Currently, Coppell ISD is going through the growth pains. As I already mentioned, 356 students are adding every year, and for the next five years, 1800 students is going to be added to the school system. With that there is stress among the students as well as the teachers. Here is a stressful glance four for the students, four for the teachers, and also parents. We are going through a lot of stress in the Coppell ISD. We can manage this. Our budget has grown in the past five years to $169 million, that’s over $15 million increase. We have to hire good teachers, complement them, along with that let’s understand what can we do more for these teachers, how can help them. Also I reached a lot of the students and many of them say, it’s kind of a rat race in getting them grades. There is a different mechanism. I have gone to schools in China, Australia, and they have different mechanisms, including our neighboring ISD Dallas. We need to learn from their mechanisms and bring that kind of a change in Coppell ISD. Along with that, if I were on the Board, last month I would have asked IBM, can you go and build a question bank for the students and if they can’t give the answers back, can your phycology technology evaluate automatically. I would have asked a question, because I come from the technology. I understand the thing. My dad was a teacher, and I understand. He raised us, and he raised us as a family, and then he spent time as a family, and it’s time for the experts and experienced people like us getting on to the Board and bringing a change.”