Dear CISD Families, 

 One of my favorite things to do as a Superintendent is when I get the opportunity to read aloud to our students, as reading out loud to children is an important building block for future academic success. I also consider myself a lifelong learner, and enjoy reading books that enhance my leadership skills and provide me with the opportunity to learn and grow.  Currently, I am reading “The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business.” I have asked my Cabinet to join me in reading this book as part of a team book study. Some of the book's content was also incorporated into a Board Retreat that was held for the development of our school board. While I know we do an excellent job in Coppell ISD, we can do better and should always strive towards continuous improvement in our collective mission of creating profound learning experiences for our children.  In other words, we should practice what we teach amongst ourselves. 

Therefore, I am elated that several of our elementary schools are engaging their parents and guardians in parent book clubs.  You will read more about these clubs below, but I hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to learn together. Even if your school is not participating, we are sharing some of the titles of the books with you. I encourage you to read these books in order to expand your own knowledge as we work together to educate the whole child. 

This week, I also had the opportunity to present a State of Education update with the Coppell Chamber of Commerce. This annual tradition allows me to share more of the CISD Story with our business and community partners.  I look forward to doing the same with the Irving-Las Colinas Chamber next week. I am ending my week by meeting in a small group with Gov. Greg Abbott, today, as part of the US India Chamber of Commerce DFW Small Business Forum.  I plan to share how grateful we are that HB 3 allocated more funding for schools and provided property tax relief, which enabled CISD to lower our tax rate by 8.9 percent for 2019-2020. I look forward to continuing to share our legislative goals with Gov. Abbott and our state representatives, including our commitment to redefining success and redefining assessment, as it is never too early to prepare for the 2021 Legislative Session. 

To that end, I hope you will take advantage of our first Lunch Bites Facebook Live event next week on Sept. 18, which is all about Community Based Accountability and CISD.  We hope that these 30 minute events, which consist of a 20 minute video followed by a Facebook Live question and answer session, will help our community learn more about topics of interest in the district. 

 I also want to take this opportunity to remember 9/11 and to thank CISD’s own first responders for keeping our students, teachers and staff, and visitors to our campuses safe each and every day.  I also want to thank our community for your patience at our first home football game last Friday at Buddy Echols Field. I know adjusting to our new safety and security procedures may have been a challenge, but we appreciate your cooperation in working with us to ensure these games are a safe and fun experience for all. I hope you will save the date and join us for our next home football game and 3rd Annual Community Tailgate on Oct. 4.  We will share reminders about this event, as well as about safety and security procedures prior to that game, as we continue to improve our commitment to safety and security in the district. 

I hope you enjoy this weekend with your family,

Brad Hunt

CISD is excited to be implementing a new assessment tool this school year called the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), which will help measure growth and skill mastery for our Kindergarten-9th grade learners.  Your child/ren will be taking the online assessment twice during the school year. Once during our fall testing window and once during our spring testing window. Our fall testing window currently is open, and we are now working to ensure all of our educators have access to the data and a clear understanding of how they can use the data in order to differentiate instruction to support overall learners needs.  Our Kinder-2nd grade learners are taking a reading and math assessment. Our 3rd-8th grade learners are taking a reading, math and science assessment, and our 9th grade learners are taking a reading and math assessment. Our campuses will be working with all of our families on sharing the data during the month of October. Until then, here is a link to the MAP Parent Toolkit that gives insight into what you will receive about your child’s assessment data.  Link: https://www.nwea.org/parent-toolkit/

We know that our wonderful CISD educators were able to discuss grading practices and expectations during our Curriculum Nights this fall. We also want to share these again for our families as a reference. Click here to view the elementary expectations and here to view the secondary expectations.  As you read over the document for secondary expectations, you will notice that the district is not having final exams for our middle school or high school campuses this year.  

As the expectations state, "No semester exams or spring final exams will be given in 6th-12th grade. Educators will have a summative assessment that will be part of their 2nd and 4th nine week grades designed to comprehensively measure overall growth. These will be given near the end of the 2nd and 4th nine weeks, and the reassessment practice does not apply to these summative assessments.”  

We hope to relieve some of the overall pressure with assessments, since a majority of our state testing (STAAR, End of Course Exams, IB and AP Exams, etc.) occurs in the final weeks of our school year.

CISD is expanding its Feeder Pattern Nights to some high school girls volleyball home games.  Students will receive free admission to a game on their designated night with purchase of parent/guardian ticket. Come out and cheer our Coppell Cowgirls at the CHS Arena and enjoy time with your school and feeder pattern community! We ask that parents attend the game with their elementary and middle school children. Our Feeder Pattern Nights are:

• Sept. 24, 5:30 p.m. vs. Flower Mound Marcus  — CMS East, Austin, Lakeside, Mockingbird and Pinkerton Night; 

• Oct. 15, 5:30 p.m. vs Flower Mound — CMS North, Cottonwood Creek, Denton Creek, Town Center and Wilson Night; 

• Oct. 22, 5:30 p.m. vs. Irving MacArthur  — CMS West, Canyon Ranch, Richard J. Lee and Valley Ranch Night.

CISD is launching a new Facebook Live series called “Lunch Bites” to engage with our community. This is a series that can be viewed over lunch and will feature 20 minutes of video content followed by a 10 minute question and answer session live on Facebook.  Our first Lunch Bites is Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 11:30 a.m. will focus on Community-Based Accountability System and why CISD is adopting this program. View Lunch Bites at www.facebook.com/coppellisd.

CISD invites our community to join us for our 3rd Annual Community Tailgate Friday, Oct. 4 from 5:30 p.m. to game kickoff at 7 p.m.  The tailgate will be held in the parking lot of Buddy Echols field at Coppell High School in front of the tennis courts. Dinner from Hard 8 BBQ will be available for $5, which includes either a turkey or beef sandwich, two sides and a drink. The only way to guarantee a meal is to purchase tickets in advance by the end of the day Sept. 30.  To purchase a ticket, visit https://www.schoolpay.com. We also will be celebrating the district’s 60th birthday with a Pop Up Party at the Community Tailgate. Join us in celebrating CISD and supporting our Cowboys as they play Hebron High School. Game tickets are still required to enter Buddy Echols Field to watch the game. We ask that parents attend the game with their elementary or middle school children.

CMS North Selected as Model Professional Learning Community

For the third consecutive year, CMS North has been chosen as a “Model Professional Learning Community School” by Solution Tree, a global leader in Professional Learning Communities (PLC). Only 232 schools in the U.S. and only 28 schools in Texas have this designation, which is given to schools that demonstrate a commitment to Professional Learning Community concepts that result in improved student learning.  PLC is an ongoing process in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. PLCs operate under the assumption that the key to improved learning for students is continuous job-embedded learning for educators.

• Sept. 18 - Grand Opening Celebration Canyon Ranch Elementary 9 a.m. 

• Sept. 18 - 11:30 a.m. Lunch Bites via Facebook Live www.facebook.com/coppellisd. 

• Sept. 23 - Regular CISD Board Meeting 7 p.m 

• Oct. 4 - Community Tailgate at Buddy Echols Field

• Oct. 11 - First Grading Period Ends/Professional Development Day (No School)

• Oct. 14 - Columbus Day Holiday (No School)

• New Assessment for  Learners

• Grading Expectations + Final Exams

• Volleyball Game Feeder Pattern Nights

• Lunch Bites Sept. 18

• Community Tailgate Oct. 4

• Sidekick National Award Finalist

• Model PLC Community: CMS North

• Broadway Star Visits CHS 

• COVER STORY

• YOU MATTER 

• Volunteer Application/ Background Checks

• Seeking Crossing Guards

• Super Star Nominations Due Sept. 27

• UPCOMING EVENTS