On Monday night, Coppell ISD Board of Trustees heard concerns from Pinkerton Elementary School parents regarding its consolidation, and discussed the ongoing mental health crisis in students along with drug awareness and prevention.
During the open forum, Pinkerton parents expressed their concerns for their children and how they felt about the consolidation, in addition to rezoning of Wilson and Denton Creek Elementary Schools.
Pinkerton parent Melinda Melnick is concerned not just for her son, but other families adjusting to this change as well.
“If you hear nothing else that I say tonight please hear this: do not deprive families who depend on their proximity to Wilson Elementary of having that choice,” Melnick said. “People are upset, feel insignificant and are beginning to worry about the mismanaging of taxpayer resources.”
Pinkerton parent Sherry Hill has concerns about the proximity of her child’s future school to home.
”Don’t ask us what our plan is if you haven’t figured out yours,” Hill said. “With the traffic in Denton, I only have 20 minutes to pick up my son from school and take him back before risking tardiness at my job that could result in termination.”
Following an open forum, chief communications officer Angela Brown and executive director of intervention services Stephanie Flores began the discussion about mental health struggles in students and how they plan to remedy that.
Brown touched on Parent University Lunch Bites and its effectiveness in allowing parents to be updated with important information from the school board on a variety of topics with mental health at the forefront.
Some topics included attendance policies, suicide prevention, intervention services and the upcoming topic for Parent University in December will be on drug prevention aided by Officer Jermaine Galloway.
“Officer Galloway provides up to date information on drug trends, helps parents know what to look for in their kids regarding drug use and says that parents can’t stop what they don’t know about,” Brown said.
Galloway’s Parent University session on drug awareness was the most attended session last year.
In September, Parent University will hold a session about suicide awareness with a goal to end suicides by changing the way that people communicate and connect with mental health.
During closing statements about Officer Galloway’s Parent University, Superintendent Dr. Brad Hunt provided a slight maturity rating for his sessions.
“We want to be cautious about what we bring our children to, so when we have Officer Galloway speak, we have him speak to just our staff members but if parents would like for their children to know about drug prevention at a young age they’re more than welcome to sit in,” Hunt said.
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