One topic. Ten subjects. Team effort. This is what defines the Coppell High School Academic Decathlon (AcDec).
In the 2025-26 school year, AcDec will no longer be available as a class. According to Principal Laura Springer, the closure is due to Coppell ISD’s budget crisis, as well as AcDec coach and chemistry teacher Kathleen Kamphaus’s departure next year.
“There’s money issues, and we’re at a time where sponsors like Ms. Kamphaus is not coming back next year, and we keep trying to find teachers that want to be part of it, so we decided to try and get it as a club,” Springer said.
According to the United States Academic Decathlon website, the cost for AcDec teams with 1-2 participants is $449 with curriculum materials designed to help students study for the competition. The cost for a team with 10-29 members is $220 each.
”I will admit that it’s a pretty expensive operation, so it does take budget money,” AcDec coach Tim Dixon said. “We pay for a registration fee for the year and then we also have a regional competition that requires a lot of work. Coppell hosted it in 2014 or 2015, and that cost money.”
If AcDec becomes a club, students will have to pay for these fees themselves.
“I think if kids really are interested in it, they will come and be a part of it,” Springer said. “They’d have to pay a lot of their ways to do some of this stuff like we have other club members do.”
Having AcDec as a class, Dixon said, means that students of different grade levels and different grades can work together as a team despite their individual goals.
“It pushes kids in a different way, not because the teacher assigned it and not because they’re worried about their GPA, but because they want to be competitive for their team or individually be competitive,” Dixon said.
Senior AcDec captain Raihaan Girish thinks AcDec allows students of different academic standings to be able to learn from each other.
“The real benefit of AcDec is that you mix people with all different grade levels and all different levels of experience with studying or different backgrounds or circumstances,” Girish said. “The best part is that you rub off on people who are really good students, even if you’re not a super great one. If it’s a club you’re taking away from that consistent in-class experience which I think is the most important part.”
Dixon thinks AcDec gives students who may not be the best in school an opportunity to showcase their strengths.
“You can see the little things kids do,” Dixon said. “Sometimes they’ll blow off every assignment in your class, and yet they’re reading a book constantly — that means there’s an intellect going on there, they just don’t like the class. Sometimes they are math genius, but they just don’t like to waste their time learning about literature or social studies. Those are the exact kids I look for.”
Dixon has coached AcDec for 27 years and has seen growth from many students because of the program.
“One thing that we’re losing from AcDec is that those kids benefit from a second opportunity,” Dixon said. “A reboot if you will, to prove themselves academically.”
Follow @CHSCampusNews on X.
