On Tuesday, Coppell ISD parents, staff and board officials gathered at Coppell Middle School North to talk about the upcoming voter approval tax rate election (VATRE) and information on the VATRE as a whole.

The evening started off with CISD chief of communications Angela Brown and chief financial officer Diana Sircar presenting a video to attendees on what the VATRE is and the effect it will have if passed.

In the video, Sircar detailed the penny system, which is used to understand how much money the district gets to use. Tier one, which are gold pennies, are pennies that are not subject to recapture and therefore can be kept fully and used by the district. However, tier two copper pennies are subject to recapture in which part of the revenue would go back to the state. All 17 pennies were approved by community voters until a 2019 law that compressed the pennies by 3.17.

The VATRE proposes to add the 3.17 previous voter approved pennies back to the Maintenance and Operation (M&O) tax rate, which will generate $2.4 million for CISD. CISD on average spends more money on teacher salaries than its peer districts, with the diversion being 4% and 5.6% more. If the proposal is approved, the addition of pennies would go towards increasing teacher salaries, as well adjusting inflation, providing livable wages and safety/security.

“It’s important that we give them the information and inform our voters to educate them on what this means,” Brown said.

What this would mean for Coppell residents is a $163 increase in tax pay per year. Taxpayers over 65, whose school taxes are frozen, will be unaffected by the VATRE.

Of the $11,166,955 that will be presented on the ballot, CISD will keep approximately $2.4 million, with the rest being subject to recapture.

“Looking at the different opportunities that we have to kind of pull those different levers, it’s one of the ways for us to bring in more revenue to help support our teachers and increase safety and security of our students which is a huge priority for me,” Coppell resident Amanda Nevels said.

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