On Tuesday evening, the seats in the Coppell Middle School West auditorium were filled with inquisitive parents, waiting to hear about the future of their students at the new middle school and ninth grade center.

The town hall meeting touched on areas from construction to curriculum, and left the community more informed than they came.

“My seventh grader will sit through the construction for two years and then she’ll be the guinea pig that gets to go to the ninth grade center,” parent May Olson said. “I think they have a good plan and I think communicating with parents is key.”

The meeting took questions from the audience via note cards handed out and picked up by meeting coordinators and answered them throughout.

To begin, Coppell ISD Superintendent Dr. Mike Waldrip provided background information about the project – to be completed by the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year – and the timeline for upcoming months.

“The two facilities, the middle school and ninth grade center, are going to have to be remodeled and built at the same time because the plan is to move ninth graders into this facility as the middles schoolers move out to the new middle school,” Waldrip said.

Representatives from Corrigan Design walked through the design outline of the new middle school, complete with two floors, a spacious library and collaboratively linked classrooms. They shared the site plan for the current middle school and soon-to-be freshman center, with new athletics facilities, expanded cafeteria and classrooms.

Lakeside Elementary PTO head Jennifer Bunting, who has a child that will attend the freshman center, named CHS9, was pleasantly surprised by the design of the new center.

“I’m actually excited, it looks really nice,” Bunting said. “It looks more modern than I thought it would, I think the kids will enjoy it here.”

North Star Construction was up next to address another important subject- student safety.

They informed parents of safety procedures, noise containment and the constant communication between them and the school that would take place.

Administrators took some time to review questions posed by those in attendance. Possible redistricting and more traffic on Wrangler Drive are issues being resolved by the city.

They also helped ease fears about too many students at the new facilities, with projections showing them not exceeding the maximum capacity of 1,200 students in future years.

The district is also exploring how to transport students to classes at the high school and proposed instead bringing teachers from the high school to the center when appropriate.

CMS West principal Emily Froese answered a question posed by many parents in the building: what would happen for current middle school students during construction?

Froese explained the construction, which is scheduled to begin in four to six weeks, will result in demolition of a gym and some of the fine arts department. However, the school will meet the need for space with temporary classrooms.

“I hope they see that and also hear the message of construction is not going to stop, kids are going to come first,” Froese said. “They are assuring us that it will be done on time and that we have the best team, and I truly believe we do.”

The meeting concluded with a word from Dr. Waldrip, who reiterated the concern for quality education and safety that the district places on the projects.

“Our number one priority is that the education we provide for your kids continues, the quality of it doesn’t diminish, that is priority number one with us,” Waldrip said. “Safety is priority number one with us.”

In the next few weeks, the CISD website and FAQ will be updated with questions posed at the meeting. Any additional questions can be submitted to [email protected].