There are three things constant in life: death, taxes and that New Tech High @ Coppell will always be under threat of closure. It seems that threat partially became a reality on Aug. 28, when the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees approved re-imagine the district’s choice high school, New Tech High @ Coppell, by closing its current campus and renaming it Coppell High School Leadership Academy. The school will move to what is currently the D hall wing of Coppell High School for the 2026-27 school year.
And truthfully? I think it’s the correct decision. Just not now.
I would not want to be in the shoes of the Board of Trustees, stuck between closing New Tech entirely or preserving it in its current fashion. Thus, the compromise they chose makes sense: New Tech remains its own independent school, delivering a similar experience while reducing operation costs that come from shuttles and operating a separate building.
Considering attendance numbers are directly tied to school district funding, and CISD’s enrollment is projected to decrease, the district will lose funding despite already being in a deficit. It simply does not make financial sense to run a school operating below capacity.
According to a CISD press release, the decision saves $1.4 million. With a proposed deficit of about $8.5 million for the 2025-26 school year, this decision is a fair compromise that keeps the beloved school intact, but just in a different form.
Opponents to the decision should consider the reasonable alternatives. One was to allow open enrollment from non-CISD students, but an estimate by the board’s New Tech Special Project Team on July 14 showed it would require the district to advertise towards 200,000 households to attract just 122 students. Another was simple closure, which comes at the expense of the beloved life lessons students affectionately claim the school uniquely offers.
However, I think most of the reasons cited for this closure are not as relevant as they should be for such an immediate decision to be enacted.
For starters, New Tech was given a second chance in the Sept. 16, 2024 board meeting, when the campus was removed from consideration of consolidation. New Tech administrators would attempt to re-brand and re-market the school to attract greater enrollment. That second chance was taken away with this recent decision.
Additionally, enrollment declines are not immediate. An enrollment update from the board on July 24 shows, if the high school were to only include current CISD elementary/middle school students, class sizes will only dip below 1,000 students after the year 2031 (the current fifth grade class). This means much of the funding predicament the district is facing is not current. In fact, historic school funding bill House Bill 2 was signed by the Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in June: once its allocation of almost $8.5 billion statewide makes its way to CISD, the funding dilemma can be reduced for the time being.
The fact this is not immediate does not justify reducing capacity for an already crowded Coppell High School. Even with the creation of a new fine arts center, capacity will simply remain at its current level despite the upcoming classes being equal/larger in size than previous years.
Of course, what is done is done: the best thing the Board can do now is to smooth out this transition and maintain the spirit of New Tech in its new, re-imagined location.
At the end of the day, it is clear all parties involved care deeply about New Tech. The students who attend it are passionate about the lessons their school teaches in leadership, dedication, citizenship and creativity. A new location comes with issues to overcome, but new opportunities as well.
The Board knows this just as well as New Tech students do, so I’m confident their choice will be made to benefit students above all.
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