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Jun 17, 2009 6:26 am US/Central
Coppell Residents Oppose New Charter School
Compiled From Staff Reports
COPPELL (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
A proposed charter school in Coppell is under fire from its closest neighbors.
The Manara Academy Charter School wants to move into the Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church on South Heartz Road. It sits empty now. It hasn't been used for several years.
However, traffic has picked up on the street since then. Neighbors don't want any more. "There's already a lot of traffic there," Lem Miller asked the council on Tuesday night. "Why do I want to increase traffic?"
"We've grown so much our infrastructure, we can not take all the
traffic that is going to be pulled into that central part of the
community," said resident Pat Quinlan. "I'm very much against it
because of that."
"How can they say it's not going to immediately impact the neighborhood?" another man asked council members.
Manara Academy Charter School officials asked the council to consider a permit for 326 students. That's the number of students that were allowed in the church school previously.
Residents said that the school would grow, and so would traffic.
That wouldn't be a bad thing for someone like a doctor looking for new patients. "I think having new people and new traffic is helpful to me," a local doctor told council members.
At Tuesday's city council meeting, there were twice as many people
signed up to speak against the Manara Charter School. The city council
voted to suspend the time limits for public speaking.
Charter schools are like public schools, a city attorney explained. To vote it down, the city would have to find reasons effecting residents' health, safety or welfare.
The issue went before city council for a vote late Tuesday night. They approved the new school.
"I think change is difficult for anyone. This wasn't something they anticipated in their backyard when they purchased a home. We understand, and we're really committed to working with them," said Manara principal Amaris Obregon.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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