Last August Board meeting brings block schedule, bond updates

“We are going to have a busy year, a very busy year.”

Assistant superintendent for business and support Sid Grant explained the May 2016 bond project status to audience members during Monday night’s Board of Trustees meeting, one that would be full of updates and anticipation for projects this year.

“Since the passage of the bond election we’ve hit the ground running and are working diligently on several projects again,” Grant said.

Grant projects the bond’s major proponents, the conversion of Coppell Middle School West into a ninth grade center and the building of a new middle school, will be completed by the start of the 2018-19 school year.

“Very instrumental in that process have been all the other areas,” Grant said. “Athletics, technology, choir, band, we’ve had them all involved in the process and will continue to do so.”

Grant expects the schematic design to be complete within the next few weeks but, as of now, is focused on trying to get the site plan finished and sent to the City of Dallas. From there, the plan is brought back to Coppell in October, have a building bid in February and start construction in March.

“It’s a whole lot easier to say that then probably doing it will be because there’s a lot of variables at play,” Grant said. “But we feel like we’ve assembled the very best team. We’re really looking forward to this project and creating something students can learn from for decades and decades to come.”

The bond also goes toward financing many other projects for Coppell schools; a year from now Grant projects progress on restroom renovations, Coppell High School locker room renovations and District-wide parking spot renovations.

Up next to the podium was CHS Principal Mike Jasso, who presented an alternative scheduling model for CHS and the upcoming ninth grade center, or “CHS 9”.

“The committee, after an exhaustive list of questions and discussions, came back and deliberated and overwhelmingly decided that the Allen modified block model was the way for us to go,” Jasso said.

With the proposed plan to be implemented next fall, the “A” day would have first, second, third, fourth, and eighth periods, with first and eighth being a “skinny period” (shorter). The “B” day would have skinny first and eighth periods again, and longer fifth, sixth, seventh periods. Teachers would see approximately 100 students a day.

The passing period, because of the greater distance between the two campuses, will change to fifteen minutes.

“The logical question is ‘what are we going to do with all that time?’ Our friends in Southlake, one of the things that they do is keep the cafeteria open all day, for kids to have something to eat,” Jasso said.

CHS 9, would run on the same bell schedule. The same core courses for Math, English, Science, and Social Studies will be offered at CHS 9. Spanish and French would be languages offered but any others would require students being shuttled to the high school.

Band, art, choir, debate, theater, physical education and Silver Stars are all extracurricular programs that would be offered at CHS 9.

“The preference would be to move adults rather than students, so we’re trying to minimize the number of students that would be moving back and forth,” Jasso said.

To conclude, Jasso addressed the new blocked schedule once again with a plan of action.

“Right now our tentative plans are to run a three day pilot when we return from winter break,” Jasso said. “There’s three days that first week of January [2017] where we are setting plans to run a [blocked schedule trial run].”