State will take over Fort Worth ISD, replace school board, commissioner says

The Texas Education Agency will take over the Fort Worth Independent School District because of years of failing ratings, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced Thursday morning.

The move means that Fort Worth ISD’s elected school board will be removed and replaced with a slate of state appointees. Morath also plans to appoint a state conservator to oversee the transition and the district’s finances.

It’s unknown whether Superintendent Karen Molinar will remain in place. In an enforcement letter to the district dated Thursday morning, Morath said he plans to review prospective candidates in a nationwide search before appointing a superintendent. Molinar will be one of the candidates included in that review, he said.

Morath said he’s been impressed with actions Molinar has taken over the past few months to put Fort Worth ISD on a path toward progress. But he said he has a responsibility to make sure the best person is in place to help the district move forward as quickly as possible.

“She, with certainty, has earned an opportunity to interview for that role,” he said. “We’ve not made any decisions yet”

During a new conference Thursday morning, Molinar acknowledged the district should have acted more quickly to bring in extra support for struggling campuses. She pointed to actions Fort Worth ISD has taken recently, including adopting a state turnaround model at seven low-performing schools.

“That should have been done years ago,” she said. “No campus should be five years or more unacceptable.”

“I do not make this decision lightly,” Morath wrote in his letter informing the district of the takeover decision. “As a former elected school board member myself, I understand the importance and impact local school board members can have on the quality of schools in their districts. Ultimately, the Fort Worth ISD school board has, collectively, through action and inaction over many years, failed the students of Fort Worth ISD. The inability of the district to implement effective changes to improve the performance of students in the district or at the campus necessitates the interventions announced by this letter. Furthermore, the interventions are in the public interest as the failure of governance is demonstrated by the continual academic deficiencies at the campus and across the district.”

In a statement responding to Morath’s announcement, the school board said, “The Fort Worth ISD Board of Trustees acknowledges the Texas Education Agency Commissioner’s decision regarding the District’s governance. While the Board respects the Commissioner’s commitment to student success and accountability, it is disappointed by the decision and hopes the matter will be reconsidered. The Board firmly believes that local, elected leadership is best positioned to sustain Fort Worth ISD’s progress and continue improving outcomes for every student in the district.”

“Over the past year, our Board and Administration have worked tirelessly to strengthen instruction and accelerate student outcomes,” Board President Roxanne Martinez said. “Our elected Board is in the best position to drive the sustainable improvements the Commissioner seeks, with measurable progress already underway. We respectfully ask him to reconsider his decision as we continue partnering with families, educators, and state leaders to keep this momentum going for every Fort Worth ISD student.”

The timeline for the takeover includes an opportunity for the district to appeal, according to Morath’s letter. He said he anticipates naming the appointed board and superintendent in the spring.

“The timeline for the district to engage in the appeals processes allowed under the Texas Education Code ... begins as of the date of this letter,” he wrote. “I will appoint members of the board of managers, the conservator, and the superintendent as permitted by law after appropriate appeals processes have concluded.”

The school board said it is “exploring all available options” in response to the commissioner’s decision.

The TEA posted an application on its website for Fort Worth residents who are interested in serving on the district’s board of managers. The application deadline is Nov. 21.

The agency will hold community meetings to get feedback, and it will evaluate the applicants over the next several months. Initial community meetings are planned for 6 p.m. on Nov. 6 and Nov. 13, at locations to be announced later.

“We’re looking for a broad group of people with a wealth of different lived experiences that can represent the district on that governing body,” Morath said. “But that are united in their belief that if we, the adults in their lives, can properly support them, all children can learn and achieve at high levels.”

The elected board trustees will remain in office but won’t have decision-making power during the takeover. Elections will continue as scheduled, and the state will set goals to be met before returning power to the elected trustees.

Five F ratings lead to state takeover in FWISD

The takeover comes after a single campus in the district received five straight failing grades in the state’s A-F accountability ratings. When a campus receives five consecutive failure ratings, a Texas state law passed in 2015 requires the state education commissioner to do one of two things: Order the district to close that campus, or take over the entire district, replacing its elected school board with a state-appointed board of managers.

Fort Worth ISD’s Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade Center received its fifth consecutive F rating earlier this year, when the state released its ratings for 2023. Those ratings were tied up in a court battle for two years. The district has since closed Forest Oak Sixth and merged it with Forest Oak Middle School.

During a news conference Thursday, Morath noted that Forest Oak Sixth wasn’t the only campus in Fort Worth ISD that had several consecutive years of failure ratings. He wants to see the district have no campuses with consecutive years of F ratings before restoring the district’s elected board.

“We cannot have an entire generation of kids, four or five years in a row, going to a school that does not give them any kind of access to the American dream in terms of their level of academic preparation,” Morath said.

More than 60 Fort Worth ISD schools moved up a letter grade in the latest A-F scores the state released in August, and there were about a third as many F-rated campuses as last year. But the district still has 11 F-rated campuses, down from 31 the previous year.

Twenty campuses have had unacceptable ratings for at least two years. Eight schools in the district have three consecutive years of failing grades from 2023-2025: William James Middle School, Morningside Middle School, Wedgwood Middle School, Leonard Middle School, Eastern Hills Elementary, WM Green Elementary, Edward Briscoe Elementary and Clifford Davis Elementary.

Molinar credited the recent academic gains to progress made at the end of last school year.

Molinar was hired in March after doing the superintendent job on an interim basis following the resignation of Angélica Ramsey. She has spent 26 years working for the district.

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said Thursday that she supports Molinar staying in the job, citing improvements in the district under Molinar’s leadership.

“She’s not done yet. I think she still has her heart in the district, and wants to continue to be the superintendent,” Parker said.

TEA takeover of Houston ISD led to gains, workforce challenges

Fort Worth ISD isn’t the first big urban school district in the state to come under state intervention. TEA took over Houston ISD, the state’s largest school district, in 2023 after a single campus received five straight F ratings.

The Houston superintendent lost his job when the state took over that district in 2023. He was replaced by former Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles.

The results in Houston have been something of a mixed bag. Since the takeover, the district’s STAAR scores have improved dramatically. As of this year, Houston ISD has no F-rated campuses. But the district has also seen high turnover among teachers and principals, and enrollment declines have accelerated.

During a webinar Wednesday organized by the Houston Chronicle, Morath said increased teacher turnover isn’t necessarily a bad sign. If the teachers leaving the district are mostly ineffective, and they’re largely being replaced by higher-quality educators, it could be a net gain for the district, he said.

“It entirely depends on the nature of the staff that are leaving,” he said.

Rachel White, a professor in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, said she thinks it’s premature to hold Houston ISD up as an example of the good that can come from a state takeover. It’s true that the state intervention there led to gains on the STAAR, she said, but it’s too early to say how it will affect longer-term success metrics, like the district’s high school dropout rate or the percentage of students graduating ready for college, a career or the military.

But over time, White said, state intervention can lead to detrimental results, including instability in the teacher workforce like what Houston ISD has experienced. A takeover can also damage the trust that communities place in their school leadership, she said.

Rather than taking over districts outright, White said she’d prefer to see TEA work alongside local leaders to fix the problems that are causing schools to struggle. She worries that a takeover, and the heightened emphasis on test scores that comes with it, doesn’t take into account the needs of communities, or the complexities of educating children.

“Learning to read and write is a really important part of it,” White said. “But in what ways does a strong emphasis on improving test scores impact their love for learning, their long-term desire to be an avid reader and to contribute to their communities?”

Morath also is considering a potential takeover of a second Tarrant County school district, Lake Worth ISD, which he visited on Tuesday of this week.

Takeover is ‘a gut punch’ for Fort Worth, says UEA director

Steven Poole, executive director of the United Educators Association, called the news of the takeover “a gut punch” for Fort Worth teachers. Many of the district’s teachers are already concerned that they’ll see the same changes that led to high teacher turnover in Houston. Teachers in Houston ISD have complained about being forced to teach lessons from a script and a loss of autonomy in how they do their jobs.

If those kinds of strategies come to Fort Worth, Poole said, he expects teachers to leave the district in droves. Some have already asked him about jobs in neighboring districts, he said.

“The good quality teachers that Fort Worth would want to retain, I think, are going to look at options elsewhere,” he said.

The timing of the change is especially frustrating, Poole said, because for the first time in years, the district appears to be making progress. Molinar has a good vision for the district, he said. If Morath decides not to keep her as superintendent, Poole worries that progress could be disrupted before it has a chance to take hold.

Zach Leonard, leader of the parents group Families Organized Resisting Takeover, or FORT, said he was disappointed but not surprised by the news. While he acknowledged that the district has struggled for too long, he was hopeful that Molinar and the current board had finally put a plan in place to get the district moving in the right direction. Even if the progress is incremental, it’s progress, he said. For that reason, he hopes Morath will keep Molinar in place as superintendent.

Going forward, Leonard said he hopes more families see the takeover as an opportunity to get involved in the school system.

“We need more parents engaged. We need the community engaged in our education,” he said. “This should be a wake-up call for everyone.”

Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, leader of the parents organization Parent Shield, welcomed the news of state intervention. The district has struggled for too long, she said, and she’s hopeful that the takeover will provide the reset its schools need to begin making progress more quickly. She acknowledged that Houston ISD has seen considerable turmoil during its time under state intervention, and said she expects Fort Worth ISD will see a certain amount of teacher turnover, as well. But the takeover could also be an opportunity for high-performing teachers who have left the district to come back, she said.

Dorsey-Hollins said she also hopes to see Morath keep Molinar in place. The superintendent has implemented changes that have led to promising signs during her short time in the position, she said. But she has less confidence in board members, many of whom have been in office for years.

“What improvements have been made in their tenure?” she said. “I’m not confident to say that there’s been very many.”

This story was originally published October 23, 2025 at 8:53 AM.

Silas Allen

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Silas Allen is a former journalist for the Star-Telegram