On Monday night, the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees held a meeting to honor students and staff while also discussing district-wide budgeting.

The awaited discussions of the district’s financial prospects began by an open forum for Coppell citizens allotted by the board.

This past summer, the board approved the VATRE program into coppell which results in a slight tax increase for citizens, which ultimately allots the district more funding.

“I want to discuss the recent failure of the VATRE program. We need to take action rather than continue to revisit the same issues year after year. I believe that it is critical to involve the community in the next step we take to avoid another situation like we experienced this year with the DLI and the IB program” Coppell resident Sherry Hill said.

Even with the extra funding from via the VATRE program, CISD still had to consolidate their dual language and international baccalaureate educational programs in response to budgeting issues.

“I strongly encourage the district to hold community events at the schools and to schedule a convenient time for the families. Additionally, I have requested that we take necessary steps to address our financial deficit this year. It is time to combine the reality and the tough decisions needed to maintain our school district.”

Trustees introduced an update on the ESSER Grant which intends to reduce the impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on elementary schools.

”The district utilizes these funds for additional staff, such as nurses, guidance counselors and permanent part time substitutes. The program focuses on hands-on learning and builds confidence in communication,” Director of federal and state programs Robyn Webb said.

Webb displayed a flow chart, detailing the dip in statewide test scores. After the implementation of the ESSER program, the district scores returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“This program was very successful and provided many benefits to learners. Student learning was impacted in the past four years due to Covid-19,” Webb said. “However, the programs implemented in the ESSER funds allowed Coppell ISD to meet the goal of addressing learning loss experienced by students as a result of the pandemic.”

Trustees discussed district wide budgeting plans for the current and proceeding  school year.

“The budget is based upon assumptions of attendance and enrollment, and both of these are down from what we expected,” chief financial officer Diana Sircar said. “However, we have had a lot of work being done on campuses to increase attendance.”

The district implemented a digital form for students and parents to use to submit absence notes, creating a much more efficient flow of keeping track of excused and unexcused absences.

“The form appears to be a much more successful way of getting absence notes into our campuses so we can properly excuse those absences,” Webb said. “We’ve had 25,000 submissions of absent notes through the form.”

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