Fort Worth ISD board approves closure of this primary school. Why?
Another Fort Worth Independent School District campus will close at the end of the current school year after the school board approved the closure of 18 other campuses earlier this year.
Western Hills Primary, a campus serving pre-K to first grade students, will close at the end of the current school year and consolidate into Western Hills Elementary. Both campuses are on the same property in west Fort Worth, so attendance boundaries will stay unchanged for impacted families. Sixteen out of the 18 other campuses will close over the next four years; two of them closed at the end of the 2024-25 school year.
Western Hills Primary, which has an enrollment of 390 students, received a D rating from the Texas Education Agency for the 2024-25 school year.
The school board unanimously approved the closure on Tuesday without discussion after Superintendent Karen Molinar announced in September that both campuses would adopt a state turnaround model — known as the Resource Campus Model or Accelerating Campus Excellence model — meant to improve struggling schools. It consists of restaffing the schools with high-performing teachers and staff. Rather than hire double the staff to serve both schools, officials said it was more cost-efficient to consolidate them since they would be adopting the same turnaround model.
“This model is designed to replace the systems and conditions that have failed students for too long,” district leaders said in September. “FWISD will hold itself accountable for redesigning staffing, instruction delivery, and funding at these campuses to achieve the level of improvement our students need and deserve.”
The model comes with additional state funding and extra stipends for top-performing teachers, an extended school day and an increased emphasis on reading and math. Other campuses adopting the model are Morningside Middle, William James Middle, Wedgwood Middle, Clifford Davis Elementary and West Handley Elementary.
