Fort Worth ISD board unanimously votes to cut dozens more staff positions
Fort Worth school district’s Board of Managers voted on Tuesday to implement another reduction in force despite overwhelming, often aggressive pushback from parents and community members during a marathon board meeting that included over six hours of public comments.
Tuesday’s approved cuts impact staff members in the departments of Talent Management, Communications and Community Partnerships and Financial Services. The board voted unanimously to approve the reduction in force. Most of the cuts are related to positions that assist Early Language Learners.
The following positions will be affected, according to the meeting agenda:
- Postsecondary Specialists
- Campus Administrative Assistants - College and Career Readiness (CCR)
- SET Teachers/LC Elementary Teachers
- Executive Director - Emergent Bilingual programs
- Director - Secondary Emergent Bilingual
- Director - Elementary Emergent Bilingual
- Coordinators - Elementary Emergent Bilingual
- Coordinators - Secondary Emergent Bilingual
- Coordinators - Dual Language K-12
- Coordinators - ESL (English as a Second Language) K-12
- Analyst – Emergent Bilingual Budget
- Analyst – SpEd (Special Education) Budget and Grants
- Specialists – Restorative practices
- Specialists – Equity & Excellence
- Coordinator – Restorative practices
- Administrative Assistant – Adolescent Pregnancy
- Director – Elementary Literacy
- Director II – Learning and Leading (Academic Initiatives)
- Analyst- Learning and Leading
- Director – CCMR (College, Career, and Military Readiness )
- Specialists – CTE (Career and Technical Education) Instructor
- Specialist - Assessment
- STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Trailer Teachers (Grade 1-6 STEM)
- Director – Compliance, Related Services and Special Programs
- Director – Evaluation, Child Find and Psychological Services
- Managers - ARD (Admission, Review and Dismissal) Committee
- Speech Therapy assistants
- Speech Therapists – part time
- Occupational Therapist – part time
- Physical Therapist – part time
- Specialists – Diagnostic Evaluation – part time
- Psychologists – part time
The staff cuts come after days of intense debate and passionate difference of opinion from parents and education leaders across Fort Worth who argue the district would be worse off with less ESL, speech therapy and bilingual-related staffers. Superintendent Peter Licata said there will not be any less ESL, ELL, or emergent bilingual instruction, and argued it would actually be stronger.
The board also voted to close International Newcomer Academy, the district’s only campuses designated for immigrant and refugee students new to the country.
More than 130 people signed up to address the board during a public comment session that took so long the board paused for a five-minute recess halfway through to change microphone batteries. Most who spoke complained about how the district has not shared a plan on how students who require ELL instruction will continue to do so after staff cuts.
“While overall district enrollment has declined, the emergent bilingual enrollment has continued to increase,” said Alice Garcia, the district’s emergent bilingual director. “Our students who are learning English are not disappearing. They are arriving, many as newcomers, immigrants, refugees, often with interrupted education, significant resilience and a strong desire to belong and succeed.”
Despite overwhelming, chaotic community pushback on ESL-related cuts, the board remained confident that its path forward is best for the district. Licata told the Star-Telegram during an interview Monday that support for ESL students would not “just fall off the end of the earth.” He argued that they will actually have more help now because help will be on actual campuses and not in central administration.
“I have a lot of academic, scholarly backing that says this isn’t great for kids,” Licata said. “It’s actually unfair to them, because they’re not exposed to other things. As long as we are providing the support in the schools. That’s the key. It’s not falling off the end of the earth. We’re pushing in and giving just as much, if not more.”
Licata said the district has been operating as if it’s been serving about 85,000-90,000 students — the enrollment it was built for — rather than the roughly 66,500 expected to enroll the coming fall.
When describing his overall plan for ELL and emergent bilingual learning after staff cuts, Licata said those resources are not being spent in the right directions for students. A restructuring can change things for the better, he said.
“We have to start from square one,” Licata said. “We will rebuild those programs with even more support systems for our students. My history suggests very successful proficiencies in this model. We are not performing where we should be, and we owe it to our children to change.”
Almost everyone who showed up to speak disagreed with that notion.
“The district is already facing shortages,” said Kendra Frank, a Fort Worth ISD parent and PTA member. “Eliminating positions and planning to replace them assumes those positions can be filled, but they are not filled. I am asking you to be honest about these impacts that these program changes will have if staffing gaps continue. Because for our most vulnerable students, this is not about efficiency. It’s about whether they can communicate at all.”
Tuesday night’s reduction in force comes just two weeks after the board approved a separate round of staff cuts to schools that were previously slated to close stemming from votes by the previously elected school board. That announcement also came alongside the district announcement of its new Elevate Network, which will aim to improve campuses that have experienced underwhelming academic performance in recent years.
The flurry of changes to the district comes after Licata and the nine-person Board of Managers were appointed by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath to lead the district during a state takeover, which was prompted by the district’s years of stagnant academic performance.
