Fort Worth ISD to recruit top-level teachers for seven struggling schools
The Fort Worth Independent School District will begin work next month to recruit top-performing teachers to send to its most challenging campuses, Superintendent Karen Molinar said Tuesday — even if it means poaching them from other districts.
The district is applying to the Texas Education Agency to adopt the Resource Campus Model, a school turnaround strategy, at seven struggling campuses.
The affected campuses will be Morningside Middle School, William James Middle School, Wedgwood Middle School, Clifford Davis Elementary School, West Handley Elementary School, Western Hills Elementary School and Western Hills Primary School.
The district will merge Morningside with a newly-constructed William James after the 2028-29 school year. Molinar said it’s essential that both campuses adopt the model so students will have consistency after the merger.
Among other things, the model involves offering stipends to attract highly effective teachers to underperforming campuses. Although the district won’t begin implementing the strategy until next school year, Molinar said district officials need to begin recruiting teachers now if they want to have enough in place by the end of next summer. That means talking to experienced teachers already in the district, she said, but also going into other districts across North Texas and talking to eligible teachers about opportunities in Fort Worth ISD.
Texas lawmakers initially created the Resource Campus Model in 2019 as a part of House Bill 3, a sweeping overhaul of the state’s school finance system. The model was based in large part on the Dallas Independent School District’s Accelerating Campus Excellence model, which floods underperforming campuses with extra resources and offers extra pay to attract top-tier teachers to come work at those schools.
In its initial form, the Resource Campus Model’s requirements left few school districts eligible, and none adopted the model. But during this year’s legislative session, lawmakers loosened certain requirements, making it easier for districts to adopt. For example, in its original version, the model was only open to elementary schools, but lawmakers later opened it to middle schools as well. Lawmakers also relaxed requirements for how many years a campus must receive a failure rating before it becomes eligible for the model, allowing districts to act earlier when campuses are struggling.
As a part of the change, teachers and administrators at those schools will have to reapply for their jobs if they want to stay at their campuses. Molinar said that doesn’t mean those employees won’t have a job in the district, but they may be asked to move to another school.
The seven campuses where the district plans to adopt the model are challenging environments for teachers, she said. They have to contend with high rates of absenteeism and large numbers of students moving in and out of the school in the middle of the year. If those schools are to have any chance of succeeding, the district needs to staff them with experienced teachers who have a track record of helping students grow academically, and who are prepared to handle the challenges associated with working there, she said.
The district is facing the possibility of state takeover after one of its campuses, the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade Center, received five consecutive academically unacceptable ratings. The district has since closed the campus. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath is expected to announce in the coming months whether he’ll take the district over.
This story was originally published September 23, 2025 at 9:21 PM.
