There are only four days left to vote for the second annual Hometown Hero, brought to you by the Public Service Academy at CHS. The Hometown Hero project is put together by high school students, and is set up to honor very special people in our town. Like last year, the winner will be announced at the next home football game which will be on next Friday.

These are the nominees for this year:

Donna Cranston, the ‘mother of all soldiers’ who organizes greetings for soldiers at the DFW airport and takes care of them in times of need.

Eileen Higgins, who works with the Coppell Circle of Friends and Special Olympics.

Former CHS Principal and current assistant superintendent Brad Hunt, who has inspired us all to have a great high school experience.

Candy Sheehnan, former and first female mayor of Coppell, breast cancer survivor and Iron Man competitor.

Coppell Middle School East Principal Laura Springer  is nominated for the second year in a row due to her inspirational qualities to students and faculty.

All of the nominees have great passion for what they do, and have touched many lives along the way. If you would like to take part in the voting, click here.

Assistant principal Sean Bagley: the booming voice dominating the announcements, leader of pep rally chants, Silver Spur organizer and now Outstanding Assistant Principal of the Year.

Bagley, along with Coppell Middle School West assistant principal Jeff Minn, were chosen to represent Region 10 in the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals (TASSP) as Outstanding Assistant Principals of the Year.

Every year assistant principals are nominated by teachers and coworkers, and the submissions go to the TASSP Principal Image Committee who select finalists based on performance and leadership in education. One middle school assistant principal and one high school assistant principal are selected from each region, with both coming from CISD this year.

Region 10 is made up of 80 public school districts, with more than 650,000 students and 53,000 educators.

“I was nominated by [Assistant Superintendent and former CHS Principal] Brad Hunt, who, in addition to working with him, has been a great friend for a long time,” Bagley said.

For Hunt, Bagley was a clear choice.

“When I think of outstanding administrators, Mr. Bagley is at the top of my list,” Hunt said.

Coppell High School Assistant Principal Sean Bagley was chosen by peers to be one of the Outstanding Assistant Principals of the Year for Region 10. Photo by Jodie Woodward.

According to Hunt, Bagley’s character highlights the qualities that make him an effective educative administrator.

“His love for kids, his outgoing personality and his great attitude make him the type of administrator you want around your children,” Hunt said. “It was a pleasure to be able to work alongside of him for five years and an honor to call him a friend.  Mr. Bagley is most deserving of this prestigious award.”

The news came as an exciting surprise to Bagley.

“I found out through email, and I’ve been receiving a lot of feedback from the administration and teachers that has been very congratulatory,” Bagley said.

Bagley believes his experience in education, as well as being part of CISD, played a role in the award.

“I believe I was awarded because of the reputation of CISD,” Bagley said. “We have a really exemplary district. Also, this is my 20th year in education, and my seventh as an AP, so I’ve had the opportunity to be seen more.”

Minn, like Bagley, believes he was awarded based upon the performance of his school and CISD.

“I’m surrounded by the most amazing and talented teachers, support staff and administrators in the state of Texas,” Minn said. “Their influence on me is immeasurable, but very influential in molding me as an educational leader.”

His personal philosophy of putting others before himself also contributed to his award, according to Minn.

“I believe in being a servant leader,” Minn said. “I feel it is important to serve others first and look at the needs of others, whether it’s students, parents, teachers, or the campus as a whole.”

Minn and Bagley serve their schools both as administrative leaders as well as personal resources for students.

Bagley is known for the way he shows an extraordinary amount of school spirit, evident at pep-rallies and showcased by the Silver Spurs, which he oversees. Bagley’s recognition came as no surprise to students, as his charisma and attitude make him stand out as an AP.

“I’m not surprised Mr. Bagley won the award. He’s extremely spirited and loves what he does,” senior Silver Spur Chase Porter said. “He really connects well with the Silver Spurs, and the entire student body in general.”

He is also well-liked among students for his general performance as an assistant principal.

“He’s also a very helpful and supportive AP in general. He has been my AP for four years, and has always been a huge help in anything I’ve needed,” Porter said.

Bagley’s influence on students as both a valuable resource and friendly face explains why he won the award.

“I have to thank everyone at the high school, and especially Mr. Hunt. This wouldn’t have happened without him,” Bagley said.

New principal Mike Jasso has many new ideas and plans for Coppell High School this year. Photo by Brian Hwu.

This past year, former principal Brad Hunt was offered a position as Assistant Superintendent. Although he was a big contribution to Coppell High School, a new principal now runs the halls. Mike Jasso is his name, and he’s out to make CHS even greater.

Jasso comes to Coppell after serving as principal of Haltom High School.

“The biggest pride point for me was the fact that my father was the custodian of a high school, and now I’m the principal of a high school, and that’s a tremendous pride point for my family and me,”Jasso said.

As a former CHS assistant principal, Jasso steps into the new role of principal with great ambitions. Attracted by the newly established programs such as the academies, the International Baccalaureate (IB) program and the variety of new courses, Jasso is eager to continue developing these programs to create an even more commendable variety of courses for students.

A devoted athlete and sports fanatic, Jasso fell in love with teaching and athletics at age 12, and from then forward devoted himself to a life filled with sportsmanship and children.

“I began to get involved in athletics and activities,” Jasso said. “It was fun, it was how I made friends, it was how I learned life lessons, it’s how I learned how to work hard. I was very blessed that I never had a time in my life where I was like, ‘Gosh, what am I gonna do.”

Photo by Brian Hwu

A self-described “shrimpy little guy,” Jasso was able to star on both the basketball and football teams at Balmorhea High School.

“I won a lot of athletic awards on my way,” Jasso said. “I wasn’t very good, but I tried really hard.”

Not limited to sports, Jasso also made a point to participate in other extracurricular activities such as One Act Play and student council.

As an administrator, Jasso notes the differences of CHS when he was an assistant principal and now. He wants to highlight these changes and make CHS a more open-minded and aware place.

“When I was last here we didn’t have as many minorities,” Jasso said. “That’s not a good or bad, it just means we’re different; it just means we need to start to learn a little more about each other’s cultures and appreciate each other more, because we are growing. Diversity can now be our strength—it’s more like a global school now.”

With these kinds of strengths, Jasso hopes to reach his ultimate goal as principal of Coppell High School – to make it the best public high school in America.

“[It’s] extremely difficult. I don’t do it alone, I am very comfortable in telling you that,” Jasso said. “The way I make Coppell better is to surround myself, and surround you, with great assistant principals, a great support staff who believe that we can be the best American public high school, and put us in a position where we can really do great things with that.”

Jasso has received positive responses from both students and teachers thus far.

“Right now Mr. Jasso is sweeping change and I think that is good; it’s a mark of a good leader, especially someone who is coming new,” librarian Lex Anne Seifert said. “Right now he is listening, observing, and learning some of the things that are working well.”

Former co-workers of Jasso are familiar with the face walking the halls of Coppell High School.

“Mr. Jasso is a very caring, he cares very much about the individual child, he is very warm,” campus receptionist Rita Lucero said. “And I’m happy to have him, I’m happy to have him back.”

Irma Kennedy works with a student on a KCBY segment. Kennedy was named the ISD secondary teacher of the year. Photo by Rowan Khazendar.

Erica Rohde
Staff Writer

The woman with a passion for broadcasting and the mastermind behind Coppell High School’s KCBY program, Irma Kennedy, has been recognized as the district Teacher of the Year for 2011.

Her name was called among 400 spectators at the Student/Teacher Academic Recognition Banquet on May 3. After much anticipation, multiple essays and committee visits and 9 years of teaching, Kennedy is the first teacher in six years to have received the award among teachers at CHS.

The process of choosing the winner is not easy. It takes a series of committees to review the applications and committees to observe the teachers work in the classroom.

“Getting the district teacher of the year is huge,” Principal Brad Hunt said. “I think she has done so much for the KCBY program. She’s so committed to those students and so knowledgeable. She’s done a great job.”

As for the night of the banquet, Kennedy came across an old friend, taking her back to her early days as an educator. Nadya Gulam, a 4^th grade teacher at Valley Ranch elementary and the elementary district teacher of the year, did her student teaching as Kennedy first began at Shulz Elementary in Irving.

“To hear her name announced was amazing,” Kennedy said. “And then they called up me. It was so meaningful. It was someone that I knew and that I had a past with. We got our picture taken together and sent it to everyone at Shulz.”

Kennedy has not always been involved with teaching, but gained her knowledge about media through her own ventures. As a graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, Kennedy had originally worked for ABC News in New York as a reporter. Along the way, she started her own Spanish TV network in North Carolina.

“I was one of the producers for the network,” Kennedy said. “Then sometime after, I moved to Dallas and had a daughter. I needed some place to settle down. I wanted a schedule to fit her.”

Kennedy began teaching under an alternative certification and moved to Coppell to teach Spanish at Mockingbird at Lakeside.

“That year they cancelled the program,” Kennedy said. “The district asked if I wanted to work somewhere else. Then this job in Coppell opened up. It was perfect for me; broadcasting and journalism skills for teaching, and I could combine both.

This is Kennedy’s fifth year at CHS and has served the school, district, and community with the audio visual production of KCBY while enhancing her student’s skills.

“She’s like the mom and treats us all like her children, not just what we’re doing in school,” senior KCBY student Keely Leonard said. “She’s taught me everything I know. Mainly how to be responsible, and what the real world in media is like.”

Although she is proud of her award, Kennedy believes that all other hard working teachers deserve their recognition.

“It is a huge title that makes me feel uncomfortable, particularly because I’m not a traditional teacher with an education degree,” Kennedy said. “And those teachers from my experience are all amazing educators. I share the award with all teachers K-12 who work on the front lines every day; teaching, inspiring and nurturing students. I couldn’t do what I do in my classroom without everyone’s help.”

Coppell High School has been mourning the loss of Brad Hunt as its principal – so much so that a student created a “Hitler finds out” YouTube video. For those who are not familiar, “Hitler finds out” is a video meme in which a person takes a famous clip from the movie Downfall and add fake subtitles to the German dialogue, dealing with everything from Hitler finding out his gaming account has been banned from XBOX Live to Hitler finding out Sarah Palin resigned from resigned from office.

The Hunt video, created by sophomore Ben Cowlishaw, features stabs at the administration and CHS, but, more importantly, shows how much CHS cares about its principal. Watch it here:

Residents of Coppell have heard the “Coppell Bubble” many times, but why do people say this and what does it mean to them?

There is the, “Ugh, I’m so bored, Coppell is such a bubble,” or the “Coppell has that nice small town atmosphere, it resembles a bubble.” Whether it is in a positive or negative way, the saying always seems to find its way into conversations.

Many people have seen the Coppell Bubble comparison for a long time, including Coppell High School Principal Brad Hunt. He seems to see both the positives and the negatives of this bubble concept.

“If [students] do not have any exposure with different people or don’t know how to handle an issue or deal with real world problems, then that is a negative [phrase], but we have diversity and all walks of life here and, to me, that is a positive,” Hunt said.

One of the negatives based on the Coppell Bubble idea seems to revolve around the fact that Coppell is a relatively safe place, which in its self is a good thing, but people worry that when those that have grown in Coppell leave they may not be able to cope with real-life issues, such as homelessness, poverty and other problems the world faces.

Foreign exchange student from Sweden, junior Elin Lundin, believes that the Coppell Bubble idea could possibly be bad idea for that same reason.

“I believe the Coppell Bubble could be bad, but not too bad because it is important to get to know other environments, how other things work, and to meet different types of people,” Lundin said.

There are many positives that go with this saying, too. People enjoy seeing people they know when they go around town, as well as the fact that Coppell is relatively a safe place.

“I like the fact that I run into kids and the small town atmosphere created here in Coppell,” Hunt said.

Lundin thinks Coppell has many positives to the bubble ideas and seconded Hunt’s statement.

“I feel like there is much more school spirit here than in my school in Sweden. I feel like I know more about my surroundings and am safer here, even though Sweden is a safe country,” Elin says.

There is an increasingly new idea, though, that with the widespread use of technology and communication today, Coppell is becoming less of a bubble. Coppell has grown and now seems to be intertwined with surrounding suburbs. Another reason is the athletic success of Coppell.

“I realized that Coppell was less of a bubble when I had a friend from Alabama and another from Tennessee comment on our recent success during the football season,” senior Kallie Savage said.

Whether you agree with the term, don’t agree with the term or maybe just think that Coppell has changed, it seems like one of the words used to describe Coppell will be, like many other suburbs, a bubble.

It seems that recently much of the talk at Coppell High School has been about drugs, alcohol and students’ recent struggles with these. Principal Hunt did not try to hide this, but, instead, addressed it head-on in his recent February newsletter.

In the newsletter, Hunt used the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” as a way to show his view on how the recent problems should be handled.

He went on to explain reasons why kids might turn to alcohol and drugs along with ways Coppell is trying to stop the problems. Lastly, he encouraged others not to ignore the problems, but stand up for the well-being of the students.

I think this was a positive way to stand up and not shy aways from these problems. You can tell he wants to get this fixed and have others help.

You can read the newsletter here at: http://www.coppellisd.com/chs/site/default.asp

While the Invisible Children’s Club has always been a prevalent one within Coppell High School, they are surely stepping up within the next few weeks through a series of fundraisers to promote their cause to help underprivileged, or “invisible”, children in Uganda. The club is attempting to raise money for the Pabo secondary school while simulatenously competing in a contest against other schools in Texas to see who can raise the most money.

Their first plan is to “red out” the stands at the Coppell vs Keller game on November 5. In order to do this, the club will be selling red shirts for $8 throughall lunches until that date. In addition to this, on the night of the game, students are encouraged to go to Goodfish to eat dinner. A portion of all the receipts gained that night will go towards helping the Invisible Children Organization.

The whole week this is happening, from November 1st to 5th, the club will be having a contest between all fourth period classes. The goal of each of these classes is to gather change for the “Change for Change” charity, which will also go towards helping the Invisible Children. Whichever fourth period class is able to raise the most money will win a pizza party, courtesy of the club.

On November 2, 3 and 4, the club will be hosting a bake sale after school in the main hallway, across from the horseshoe. Students can stop by for baked treats, while sponsoring the cause at the same time. None of the money made from any of these fundraisers is going towards the club itself, but rather the charity.

If CHS is able to raise over $200 before halftime at the Keller game, Principal Brad Hunt has promised to grace the stage with a person rendition of “Baby” by Justin Beiber. So, if not for helping promote education in a third-world country, helping this cause will at least allow CHS students to see their principal in action at the football game.

Coppell Independent School District holds a legacy of high academic distinctions. Among these is Coppell High School’s ranking in the Top 500 best high schools in the nation out of 21,500 schools according to U.S. News and World Report. It also consists of 13 “Exemplary” campuses and one “Recognized” campus. Texas Education Agency (TEA) tittles CISD an “exemplary” district, and awards CISD with 10 gold performance acknowledgements. CISD hopes to keep its quality standards with The Tax Rate Election (TRE).

Ever since the Texas House Bill froze district revenues for Texas’ schools at the 2005-2006 level with no inflationary factors, CISD has experienced financial issues. The only minimal relief provided to districts was in 2009 when the legislature provided an extra $120 per student (also required mandated raises), and no financial relief is anticipated from the State in the 2011 Legislative session.

New revenues that CISD receives only come from growth in student enrollment and through tax rate increases. In result the district has begun to indebt itself; in 2008-2009 $1.44M of the General Fund Balance was consumed, and this past year the budget defect was a rough 3.8M.

“Dipping into these funds puts schools behind money wise makes it more costly for us, as the parents of students, because the school can no longer fund as many things,” Parent of three, Michelle Hernandez said.

In result, CISD is created the TRE which will be an increase on Home Taxable Value. This is an increase of $.13; for example, a $275,000 home will cost approximately $339 annually ($28 monthly). Generally $.01 above $1.06 will be generate between $345,000 and $360,000 (net of recapture); so, the $.13 rise will be generating $5.28M net of recapture. Seniors citizens that are 65 years and over are not subject to this tax increase.

“In simpler terms your monthly six cups of Starbucks Coffee or monthly pedicure and manicure will be going towards your Home Taxable Value,” Chief Financial Officer Kelly Penny said

These tax rates are essential for The Maintenance and Operations (M&O) which is what provides salaries for educators, utilities, supplies, insurance, and equipment. Maintaining a healthy fund balance is also essential; as the district’s saving account it must remain financially healthy to maintain excellent credit and Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) ratings. This fund balance will cover cost of operations without borrowing, provide flexibility in uncertain financial times, give the district the ability to cover unexpected costs, and save taxpayers money on bonds.

If the TRE fails, the results will be impactful on CISD. This would consist of: larger class sizes, restructure of the high school’s instructional day, impact future
raises, fewer extra and co-curricular courses, and either the reduction or elimination of
non-mandated courses (art, athletics, literacy, music, etc.). As well as the elimination of
12 positions at middle schools (4 at each middle school), ($660,000), 6 positions at Coppell High School ($330, 000), and 5 other including 1 central administrator ($291,000).

CHS principal, Brad Hunt said, “These cuts are hurting our extracurricular opportunities along with the class sizing. If there are fewer teachers, this results with less volunteers to run our extracurricular programs.”

But when presented with the facts other Coppell residents like sophomore, Lindsey Hiles disagree with the financial stability of our school,
“It appears that our school district is financially dependent, and these taxes would just furthermore tarnish Coppell’s financial inconveniences.”

On the other hand if the TRE were to be passed, students would have more
opportunities within schools; with the consistent expansion of new extracurricular activities as well as courses, and updated technology like Smart Boards and Macbook Pros would be able to be provided more to students. Over-crowding can also be eased to the highest degree, with a bigger staff and smaller classroom sizes. Coppell resident, and father of three students, Wayne Barnes understand the need of this proposal to be passed,

“Our family personally understands why we need these tax rates to increase. We have one daughter who plays the violin, and since there is no longer a strings program to be offered, we would hate to see anymore of the arts programs cut.

But where will your money be going? CISD board president Cindy Warner said,

“If the TRE is passed then this money will be organized into the general fund to pay teachers, electricity and other basic necessities. It will be managed and controlled by the super intendment, chief of financial office, and the school board.”

Coppell residents that are 18 years or older, and are a registered voter in Coppell are all encouraged to participate in this election on September 11th. For the convenience of residents multiple early/mobile voting sites will be available at 10 CISD campuses as well as Town Center/Coppell City Hall. For the complete list of locations and dates click here.