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May 19, 2009 3:48 pm US/Central
Coppell Community Opposes Opening Charter School
COPPELL (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
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Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church
KTVT / KTXA
Building a new school in a residential neighborhood is usually viewed as a community positive, but in Coppell, there's a fight over the plan for a charter school.
The Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church, on S. Heartz Road, has a school building attached to it that is currently empty.
Classrooms are ready to be leased and the plan is to fill the building with children enrolling in a new school, but Randal Williams, who lives down the street, says 'no way'. "My main concern… I think the people in the neighborhoods main concern is, what's it going to do to the traffic in the area and the quality of life that we have in our neighborhood," he said.
Because of complaints about potential traffic volume increases, the City of Coppell has called for a re-zoning process. That means the planned school, which has a permit, now needs a new one.
"We decided we needed to look at the intensity," explained Sharon Logan with the City of Coppell. "The dynamics of that entire intersection have changed, so it's important to us that we make sure that traffic flows properly, not only for the folks that are coming to the school, but for the neighborhood that's impacted."
An Irving-based group plans to take the Lutheran Church campus, and turn it into a public charter school, with enrollment as high as 500 students.
For Coppell resident Dr. Sree Pariti, 500 kids are too many. "Nobody is opposed to the school, per say. School is an educational institution. That's where I went. That's where my kids go. That is what we need in the community… but the volume of it," she said discouragingly.
For now, the school building sits empty. A meeting to discuss the issue is set for Thursday at Coppell City Hall.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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