Fort Worth ISD revamp starts at top, goes to core

In more than a year of searching for a new superintendent, Fort Worth ISD trustees looked exhaustively for an agent of change, someone who could come in and improve every aspect of district operations, particularly at 21 chronically low-performing schools.

On Tuesday, it began to look like they found that change agent when they hired Kent Scribner. At least he knows how to lay out an extensive and thoughtful plan for needed improvements.

Scribner officially started as FWISD superintendent on Oct. 15. He dove into learning about the district’s structure and peculiarities, and he gave trustees what he calls “Phase 1” of his change plan on Tuesday.

It starts with trimming jobs from the top. Scribner will cut his top-level staff from 20 administrators to 10.

Armchair school reformers typically suggest that move as a way to return money to taxpayers. Scribner wants to plow the $1.3 million in savings into additional resources at those 21 schools rated “improvement required” under the state accountability system.

More about how he’d spend it should come out this spring when the district puts together its new budget.

The upper-echelon cuts come because Scribner doesn’t want so many administrators between him and the schools. But another part of his plan also is telling.

He points to the 70 teacher support professionals housed at the central administration building. They fan out daily to schools across the district and help teachers and administrators solve problems.

Scribner wants to station them all permanently in schools with the greatest need — those 21 “improvement required” campuses.

There’s more to his personnel and program shakeup, but that’s enough to show the new superintendent has firm ideas about the organizational structure he wants.

What may cause more of a stir is the educational philosophy those changes reveal.

The school board has nine trustees, each elected from an individual geographic area. It’s natural that each tends to push for things that are important to people in the area they represent. But that’s not Scribner’s vision.

“I want us to build one Fort Worth ISD,” he says. He wants to see the board “move away from adult conflicts” and focus on student achievement all across the district.

Now it’s time to see whether the trustees are willing to stand behind the change agent they hired.

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Fort Worth ISD revamp starts at top, goes to core."