The next few years for the Fort Worth ISD school board will be filled with tough decisions as district leaders deal with the effects of declining enrollment.
Eight candidates are running for three single-member seats to have a say in those discussions. Most told the Fort Worth Report the best way to turn around enrollment is to focus on boosting academic performance.
Fort Worth ISD has lost an average of 2,436 students annually since 2017. Superintendent Angélica Ramsey expects enrollment to flatten at 55,000 students.
Ramsey is in the middle of a reorganization of the district so that it is leaner, cheaper and more focused on student achievement.
When to vote
Early voting begins April 24 and ends May 2. Election Day is May 6.
School closures are likely on the horizon for Fort Worth ISD because of enrollment drops and a tighter budget. Two incumbent trustees told the Report closures are coming, but those plans will come from the superintendent and the school board will consider formally backing them.
District 3
Valeria Nevárez, one of two challengers in District 3, boiled down Fort Worth ISD’s enrollment drop to three reasons — lack of transparency, lackluster communication and subpar student outcomes.
“If we got those down, enrollment will go up,” she said.
While campaigning, Nevárez has heard from parents who left the district because their children were not at grade level, she said. Good teachers are leaving, too, she said.
As trustee, Nevárez wants to give teachers the tools they need to improve student outcomes, she said.
Focus on the basics and people should return to Fort Worth ISD, Nevárez said.
Incumbent District 3 trustee Quinton Phillips wants the district to analyze where families are going when they leave Fort Worth ISD. Shifting demographics and increased competition from charter schools and traditional school districts have contributed to the decline.
As enrollment declined, the number of people living inside Fort Worth ISD increased 18% to 543,738 since 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Fewer young children are living inside Fort Worth ISD. Between 2010 and 2020, the number of residents 5 and younger dropped 4% to 38,251.
Phillips recalled a conversation he had with some fellow Fort Worth ISD alumni. They discussed how they decided where to send their children to school. But their home district didn’t lead their conversation, he said.
“What we have to do now is make sure Fort Worth ISD is the first choice,” Phillips said.
Fort Worth ISD needs to be a top performing school district to lure people back, he said.
Candidate Mar’Tayshia James attributed Fort Worth ISD’s enrollment decline to families wanting better educational choice and activities. However, the district has plenty of those choices, she said.
For example, she pointed to Dunbar High School as the only campus in Fort Worth ISD with an aviation program. Students are learning crucial skills for future careers and reinforcing other lessons, like math, she said.
Fort Worth ISD needs to capitalize on the successes of its unique programs, James said.
“I feel as though we need to focus on making sure that our community knows what our schools offer,” she said.
District 2
Which schools close will be up to Ramsey and her administration, District 2 trustee Tobi Jackson said. However, closures are inevitable, Jackson said.
“It’s happening across the United States of America, and that’s OK. It’s a challenge we’ll deal with and we’ll do what’s best for kids and keep rockin’ and rollin’,” Jackson said.
Part of why some families have left Fort Worth ISD is that other traditional school districts and charter schools have newer schools, Jackson said.
“Don’t be fooled by new,” Jackson said. “We have new bright shiny buildings, too. We’ve been doing this for over 100 years, and we’re very good at what we do.”
Jackson’s challenger, Pat Carlson, attributed Fort Worth ISD’s enrollment losses to students not learning what they need to be successful.
“We just have to look at the curriculum,” Carlson said. “I think it’s all this extra stuff that we’re putting into our classrooms … this racial equity department, this climate change stuff. We’re pushing so much stuff on our students instead of talking about reading, math and arithmetic, giving them the basic tools to be successful in life.”
Carlson has not looked at what Fort Worth ISD teaches, she said. However, she would push the superintendent and administration to focus on improving academics to stop enrollment losses.
District 5
The best way for Fort Worth ISD to turn the tide on enrollment is to become an A+ school district, said CJ Evans, the incumbent in District 5.
However, Evans acknowledged some factors are beyond the school board’s control, such as the birth rate in the district. The birth rate in Texas dropped faster than the nation’s, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
“The biggest factor is that we’re not an A+ district. We’re going to get there and our enrollment is going to stop declining,” Evans said.
Evans disagreed with Ramsey’s prediction that Fort Worth ISD’s enrollment will plateau at 55,000 students. Evans expects the district’s reorganization will lead to a more efficient school system that can boost academic achievement and lure parents back.
Fort Worth ISD has not been in its best shape in the past four years, said Kevin Lynch, one of Evans’ challengers.
Declining enrollment, low student outcomes and growing budget deficits have created a bad situation for the largest school district in Tarrant County, he said.
Like Evans, Lynch wants the school board to focus on issues within its powers.
“We have to own our world and what we can control. Our job is to put the best product out there for the kids in Fort Worth,” Lynch said.
That means setting more rigorous goals, he said.
Candidate Josh Yoder wants Fort Worth ISD to ask parents why they left the district and what would bring them back. He expects the answers to point to one conclusion: improving education.
Yoder listed reasons for why parents left, including the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion effort as well as straying away from reading and math.
However, improvements will have their limitations and many parents may not return, he said.
“We’ve failed so far already that they probably never will,” Yoder said.
More companies and people will move into Fort Worth ISD if the district improves, Yoder said.
Fort Worth Report journalist Kristen Barton contributed to this story.
Jacob Sanchez is an enterprise journalist for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or via Twitter.
