Fort Worth’s Kirkpatrick Middle will close in 2029. Teachers consider it ‘home’
Kirkpatrick Middle School can’t be memorialized without “Mr. Kirkpatrick.”
The first day of school, Aug. 12, will mark his 36 years at the campus, and in the Fort Worth Independent School District overall, as an educator who’s taught music and English Language Arts. He’s walked the halls of the middle school as its mascot, the Wildcats. He rewrote the school’s song and recorded it in 1999, which notes that its “walls of learning (are) filled with dignity.” The school auditorium was dedicated to him just before COVID-19, spelling out his legal name in gold letters: “Leo Vaughns Jr. Auditorium.”
More fondly known as “Mr. Kirkpatrick” or “Pops” to students and community members, Vaughns plans to tentatively stay at the campus for another four years until the school closes for good in 2029, he said. It’s among 18 Fort Worth ISD campuses closing over the next four years in the face of the district’s declining enrollment and related revenue losses. Vaughns is among teachers who say they’ll remember the campus as a family-oriented place deeply embedded within the community it served.
Vaughns, 57, said he’s enjoyed building positive relationships across multiple generations of families, attending events such as quinceañeras. As a pastor, he’s officiated several wedding ceremonies for his former students; for others, he’s given eulogies.
“The whole deal of Kirkpatrick reaches home. It touches home. It’s a memory itself. It’s a place I don’t consider being work. I consider it me getting up from home, going to my second home — or my first home almost,” he said. “I’ve witnessed planting those seeds and witnessing the harvest growing down through the years.”
Although Vaughns takes on a nickname of the school, the middle school campus and its elementary counterpart were named after Milton Leonard Kirkpatrick, a Black Fort Worth educator who fought for equal education for Black students and equal pay for Black teachers. He died from illness at 33 years old in 1949.
Vaughns’ name is still officially tied to the campus, though, after the school board voted to name the auditorium in his honor in 2019, in addition to naming the eighth-grade wing after former principal Jorge Mendoza. For a long time, it was a shock for Vaughns to see his name displayed over the doors to the auditorium on a day-to-day basis. He considered it to be an answered prayer from God.
“When I first started working at Kirkpatrick, I noticed teachers were coming in and out. They were coming and going, administrators coming and going… I’m like, ‘Are we going to ever have anybody that’s going to be here consistent for years?’” Vaughns wondered. “I would offer a prayer. I say, ‘Lord, whenever I decide to leave, let there be something that they will remember me by.’ Lo and behold, when you walk into the school building, that will always be there.”
Retired art teacher recalls work relationships, home visits
Jody Johnson’s tenure at Kirkpatrick Middle overlapped with Vaughns’. An art teacher at the campus from 1990-1997, she went by the names of Jody Harvey and Jody Medcalf during that time. She taught in Fort Worth ISD for more than 20 years, also teaching at campuses such as O.D. Wyatt High and what is now known as Manuel Jara Elementary, she said.
Among Johnson’s favorite memories of the campus was building camaraderie with her colleagues, including Vaughns, she said. They were both in the fine arts pyramid when Vaughns was a music teacher.
“Leo was a character, a cut-up. He could be a stand-up comic, and he was a great teacher. The kids loved him,” Johnson, 72, said.
Johnson also recalled enjoying the campus’ 90-minute block schedule at the time, which she considered to be “progressive,” as the schedule was implemented by former principal Jorge Mendoza before other nearby campuses considered it. She said the longer class time kept her daily cohort of at least 225 students more engaged.
“It was hard to make them… put the projects up and go to the next class, because they always enjoyed my class,” Johnson said.
Johnson also said teachers were required to do home visits for their students at the time, which helped her better understand her students’ backgrounds and home lives.
“It just was an eye-opener to see where the kids came from and the conditions that they were subject to, some without electricity or water. Oftentimes, I know that our administrators helped in that situation to make things right… It gave the teachers a real understanding of where the students came from outside the classroom,” she said. “Teachers can’t be empathetic until they not walk in their shoes, but see where those shoes go.”
