Pankaj Jain believes the deck is stacked against him as an Asian-American living in Coppell ISD’s attendance zones.

Jain, originally from India, has filed a lawsuit against the district, alleging that the way it elects its board members leaves Asian-Americans disenfranchised in a district in which they represent a majority of the population.

“The Asian-American population in Coppell represents a huge part of the Coppell ISD student population, and yet these students and their community are denied representation on this school board,” said Jain, a professor who teaches in the Philosophy and Religion Department at the University of North Texas.

Coppell elects its school board members through an at-large process.  The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Texas’ Dallas Division court by the Brewer Storefront, the community service legal affiliate of Brewer, Attorneys & Counselors. The suit claims that the district’s method dilutes the minority vote and allows whites to vote in a bloc because candidates are elected by the entire voting population instead of voters in smaller geographic areas within the district.

The lawsuit calls for single-member voting districts in Coppell like those established after Brewer filed a similar lawsuit in Grand Prairie. Carrollton-Farmers Branch school district established a cumulative voting system after Brewer filed suit against the district.

Jain said he became aware of the difficulties minority candidates face in local elections when he met someone during a campaign event who unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Carrollton-Farmers Branch school board. Jain has two children who attended Coppell ISD schools.

“Our client believes that Coppell ISD is unfairly denying the local Asian-American community an equal opportunity to participate in the electoral process,” said William A. Brewer III, Jain’s lead counsel. “Our hope is that the school board’s leadership will recognize its responsibility to embrace a more inclusive future — one that provides representation for the largest demographic group enrolled in the school system.”

School district officials could not be reached for comment.  Amanda McCune, Coppell ISD’s director of communications, said district personnel were in a meeting to discuss the lawsuit and didn’t comment further.

Brewer said Jain and a few others approached the firm several months ago with concerns about Coppell ISD’s system of voting.

“We do have an office in India, so it’s not that we’re unfamiliar with immigration issues and other concerns of those communities, but the population is growing, and quite frankly it just wasn’t on our radar until Dr. Jain approached us,” Brewer said.

Jain ran in a three-way race for Place 3 on the school board in May, eventually finishing third with 24 percent of the vote. Incumbent Anthony Hill, the only black member on the seven-member board of five women and two men, defeated Ronald Hansen in a runoff.

Jain was one of three Asian-Americans who sought seats on the board. Bac Cao Nguyen finished third in the Place 2 race between eventual winner Jill Popelka and Jonathan Kirby. Venky Venkatraman filed to run in Place 3 but later withdrew.

The district’s Asian population surpassed 41 percent this year, making it the largest ethnic population enrolled in Coppell schools, according to the Texas Education Agency. Whites make up about 38 percent of the approximately 12,000-student population, while Hispanics make up 13 percent and blacks 5 percent.

The lawsuit comes down to more than just minority representation, Brewer said.

“It starts with that, and that’s how you ultimately make change in a diverse community, but it’s also about the misallocation of resources,” he said.

The Asian population also is under-represented among school faculty, the lawsuit claims. Only two Asian-American teachers were employed at Valley Ranch Elementary in North Irving during the 2014-15 school year, even though Asians make up 80 percent of the school’s enrollment, the lawsuit states.

The district also is falling short on its dual-language programs, according to the lawsuit. Several elementary and middle schools offer immersion courses in English and Spanish, but none in any of the five common Indian languages spoken by approximately 392 English Language Learners — a group larger than the 336 ELL students who speak Spanish, the lawsuit claims.

“There is a giant part of the population that is not being reached since we don’t have these language courses,” Jain said.

Brewer said the case became a natural one for his firm to pursue once Jain came forward.

“We have a commitment to these kinds of cases,” Brewer said. “Frankly, when it was brought to us, we didn’t really know ourselves if the community was really polarized, but when we did what we always do — we did some research and really looked into things — the answer stunned us.”