Dear CISD Families,
Throughout this year, I have seen us come together as a CISD family to tackle the problems that the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown our way while continuing to deliver the exceptional education experience for which we are known. It has furthered my belief that we are stronger together, and there is nothing in this district that we cannot handle as a team.

Now we have another challenge to come together to overcome — a budget deficit. When our Board of Trustees passed this year’s budget in late August, it was with a more than $7 million deficit. CISD budgets have been passed with $2 to $3 million deficits for the past few years. CISD has used our fund balance to cover these budget deficits. However, the district cannot continue to run with a budget shortfall of this size and are taking the necessary steps to balance our budget.

Factors contributing to the current adopted budget deficit include declining growth of revenue due to House Bill 3, slowing growth of student enrollment, implementation of the required full day Pre-K with only 50% funding from the state, opening of CHS9 and Canyon Ranch Elementary and the staff required, growth of Special Education enrollment and expenditures, COVID-19 expenses, increased safety costs with the City of Coppell no longer funding School Resource Officers at 100 percent and the district funding the full cost of School Resource Deputies for our schools outside of the City of Coppell and increased compensation for teachers and veteran teachers, which also a requirement of HB 3.

CISD is embarking on a two-year process to reduce our deficit level. We had our first Budget Workshop on this topic on Monday, Dec. 7. I encourage you to use the links below to view a video of the workshop and access the presentation shared. More workshops and opportunities for feedback are set for the future. As always, you can email input@coppellisd.com with your questions and feedback.

Though I know this will be a tough process for our district, I know that by using our core values as our guide and keeping children first in our decisions, we will come through this stronger, together. I thank you for your continued support of CISD.

Sincerely,

Congratulations to Valley Ranch Elementary 5th grade student Aditri Amerish, who is the winner of the CISD 2020 Holiday Card contest for elementary students. Her art teacher is Jodi Benway. Aditri’s work is featured as the cover of the 2020 CISD Holiday Greeting Card. The three runners-up also are featured on the back of the card — Ananya Ram, 5th grader at Town Center; Prisha Aggarwal, 5th grader at Mockingbird; and Amy Chi, 5th grader at Town Center Elementary. Have an “Awe-Zoom” Holiday!

Congratulations to The Sidekick student newspaper, led by adviser Chase Wofford, and KCBY student tv station, led by adviser Irma Lazos-Kennedy, for being chosen as 2020 National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) Newspaper and Broadcast Pacemaker finalists. NSPA Pacemakers are the highest national honors given to high school journalism programs. CHS is the only school — public or private — in the U.S. to have Pacemaker finalists in both newspaper and broadcast categories. Read more at go.coppellisd.com/20Pacemaker.

CISD’s Open Enrollment Program for those who live within the City of Coppell, but outside the district’s enrollment boundaries, is accepting mid-year applications through Dec. 15 at 4 p.m. Visit www.coppellisd.com/openenrollment for more information or to apply for the Open Enrollment Program.  

CISD will host a Lunch Bites on the Community Based Accountability System or CBAS on Wednesday, Dec. 16 at 11:30 a.m. at www.facebook.com/coppellisd. The CISD CBAS team will share more about this system and the community can participate in a questions and answer session live on Facebook.

The City of Coppell Cozby Library and Community Commons is sponsoring the city-wide reading program, Coppell Reads, this year from Dec. 14 through Jan. 31, 2021. All programs and activities will be virtual. The book is “Front Desk” by Kelly Yang. The summary from the Cozby catalog reads:

“Recent immigrants from China and desperate for work and money, ten-year-old Mia Tang's parents take a job managing a rundown motel in Southern California, even though the owner, Mr. Yao is a nasty skinflint who exploits them; while her mother (who was an engineer in China) does the cleaning, Mia works the front desk and tries to cope with demanding customers and other recent immigrants--not to mention being only one of two Chinese students in her fifth grade class, the other being Mr. Yao's son, Jason."

The Cozby Library will begin passing out free copies of the book beginning Dec. 14 — one book per family or household. Read more at www.coppelltx.gov/library.

•  Dec. 11 - Early Dismissal
•  Dec. 14 - Regular Board Meeting 7 p.m.
•  Dec. 16 - Lunch Bites on CBAS 11:30 a.m.
•  Dec. 17 - COVID-19 Facebook Live 6 p.m.
•  Dec. 21-Jan. 4 - WINTER BREAK
•  Jan. 5 - Teacher/Staff Work Day
•  Jan. 6 - Students Return to School/1st Day of Third Grading Period