Stephen and Jacqueline McCoppy share a backyard fence with the former Kandy Stripe Academy campus in Sunnyside. They say a fire behind the vacant property in 2025 put their home at risk, and they want the building demolished before another incident occurs.
In its report, KHOU 11 quoted Stephen McCoppy, who is in his 60s and attended the school when it was Fairchild Elementary. He described the building as little more than a shell and said the fire could have cost the couple their home. The campus later operated as Kandy Stripe Academy, a charter school whose contract the Houston Independent School District voted not to renew in 2018, leading to its closure, the station reported.
Jacqueline McCoppy told KHOU that the vacant grounds have drawn people experiencing homelessness, pests and illegal activity. She described seeing people in parked cars engaging in sex in broad daylight. Stephen McCoppy said people enter the couple’s backyard and move around at night, while trucks go in and out of the property.
Neighbors Take Security Into Their Own Hands
The McCoppys have chained the gates in attempts to restrict access, but people still enter the campus, according to KHOU’s report. The couple also reports illegal dumping and overgrown grass. Cleanup crews have periodically cleared the site and removed people staying there, the station reported, but they tend to return.
Police told KHOU they have received multiple calls for service involving the property. The station also found open 311 service requests concerning a dangerous building.
City Council Office Says More Cleanup Is Coming
District D Councilmember Carolyn Evans-Shabazz told KHOU her office has coordinated repeated cleanups with the Houston Solid Waste Management Department’s illegal dumping hot team, and that another crew is expected at the site. Her office also plans to work with HISD and its real estate representatives to encourage maintenance while the property is marketed for sale, the station reported.
HISD's Real Estate Department is tasked broadly with directing, overseeing and executing the strategic planning, acquisition, management, leasing and disposal of district properties, according to the Houston Independent School District. That portfolio is sprawling: the district manages 321 sites, 3,700 acres of land and 592 buildings across Houston.
A Separate Example of a Campus Sale
KPRC 2’s ENOUGH team reported that Habitat for Humanity purchased the former Chatham Elementary building, which closed in 2005. That is a documented sale of a different former HISD campus; it does not establish a buyer or a future plan for Kandy Stripe.
A Wider Pattern of Closed Campuses
The Kandy Stripe site is part of a wider debate over what happens to closed campuses. In August, the HISD board voted unanimously to declare Burrus and eight other newly closed schools surplus property, authorizing the superintendent to begin the sale process, according to Click2Houston. The report also found that more than 80 campuses had closed across Texas during the school year it examined, and that there is little required public input or a statewide standard for districts’ decisions to sell or repurpose closed schools.
For the McCoppys, the broader policy debate matters less than what is happening over their fence line right now. They want those responsible for the Kandy Stripe property to take action before conditions worsen, and they say demolishing the building is the only real fix. KHOU 11 reported it reached out to Houston ISD and the mayor's office for comment on the situation.
