Near the end of Fort Worth ISD’s July 23 board meeting, board President Camille Rodriguez said she did not know the next steps for the district.
The comment followed a 5-2 vote against a strategic plan that aims to bolster academic performance across Fort Worth ISD for the next five years. Trustee Quinton Phillips and Rodriguez voted to approve the plan; trustees Michael Ryan, Roxanne Martinez, Tobi Jackson, Anael Luebanos and Wallace Bridges voted against it.
Trustees Kevin Lynch and Anne Darr were not present Tuesday night — a factor that led several trustees to vote against the plan.
The decision came nearly a year after the strategic planning process began in August 2023 and three months later than district officials initially expected. The plan, which cost the district $180,000 and was created partly through community feedback and advisory committees, proposes measures and goals like increased student achievement, employee recruitment and retention, expanded support for parents, and discipline and attendance goals.
Phillips and Rodriguez emphasized the urgency of approving the strategic plan to avoid further delays in its adoption.
“The five-year strategic plan is crucial for providing a clear roadmap for the district’s future. It outlines our goals and initiatives for addressing key issues,” Rodriguez told the Fort Worth Report in an emailed statement.
But the absence of two trustees, as well as concerns about insufficient public engagement, led Martinez and others to vote against its adoption.
“We need to be very intentional about getting this out to the community,” Martinez said, expressing that she wanted more residents to see that night’s presentation. “We want the community to own these goals as well as the board — we want that transparency and ownership.”
During the Tuesday meeting, Superintendent Angélica Ramsey recommended the board approve the five-year plan so any of her future performance evaluations could be tied to the goals. After conducting Ramsey’s July performance evaluation, trustees voted 5-4 to deposit an additional $15,000 into Ramsey’s retirement account. The move did not include a contract extension.
Rodriguez said it was crucial for teachers and principals to begin the school year with a strategic plan — and new goals — in place. The district’s first day of school is Aug. 13.
“The adoption of the plan would have provided all staff with specific goals and initiatives,” Rodriguez told the Report.
It’s up to the discretion of the board to bring back a vote on the plan, Rodriguez said.
“The decision is ultimately in the hands of the board, so we shall see what they decide,” she said. “While there may be a brief period without an official strategic plan, we are confident that the administration is moving forward in meeting the needs of our students and staff.”
Education leaders react to strategic plan’s goals
In the audience, residents, taxpayers and education experts who witnessed the presentation expressed concerns about gaps between the plan’s five-year goals and the measures proposed to achieve them.
Steven Poole, executive director of the United Educators Association, emphasized a disconnect between teachers and administration in how to apply specific measures.
The strategic plan is fine,” Poole said. “It’s all the level of detail behind it, all the action items, that are going to be really important. (For example), they can’t just say they’re going to eliminate suspensions without addressing the behaviors themselves.”
Robert Rogers, president of the Reading League of Texas, also highlighted some of the plan’s limitations.
“I’m not optimistic, based on past performance, that this is going to make very much of a difference,” Rogers said, emphasizing the district’s stagnation in academic outcomes since 2012.
A quarter of the goals listed in the plan’s draft focus purely on student academic success. Seven of the goals did not have targets, which Ramsey said would come later.
One goal addresses third-grade reading, while another addresses third-grade math. Others in the plan’s draft address sixth- through eighth-grade achievement and ninth-grade achievement. All are measured by State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, results and aim for at least a 17-percentage-point increase by spring 2029. Rogers is concerned that isn’t enough.
“I’m concerned that there was nothing to give the board any indication of how students in the kindergarten through second grade space are doing on literacy,” he said. “It is way too late to wait until the end of third grade to learn that students are failing.”
Rogers said he was glad the plan was not approved, for now.
“I’m not even sure they should be spending so much time on a strategic plan at all,” Rogers said. “Show me some evidence that it has changed things.”
Supporting the plan, Rodriguez said she doesn’t know what more the district can do to convince trustees to approve it, further stressing that the board’s disapproval in no way benefits the district.
“This is something we need to do. We can’t continue to put off important votes. We had community meetings. We had surveys. I do not know how else we could have reached out to our community,” she said.
During the planning process, the district conducted two online surveys, gathering feedback on priorities and goals from more than 3,700 participants. Officials held open forums that attracted more than 1,000 attendees.
The plan was also shared via email to 84,000 parents, Rodriguez said. The district had 70,675 students in fall 2023.
“If they wanted to respond, they could have. They had every opportunity to do it,” Rodriguez said. “In the end, 3,700 responses is not great, but it’s not 200. We got a voice of the community.”
Disagreement over plan’s messaging, transparency
Bridges, who voted against the plan’s approval, said he wants to see more messaging about the proposed plan to parents and community members. He thinks Ramsey must be the one who showcases the plan.
“The word that kept coming up tonight was transparency,” Bridges said. “I would have liked to have seen this information get out to the community quicker. I would have liked to see the head of this organization getting this out in front of the district. We have great principals, but the face of that plan should come from the leader of this district.”
Bridges, echoing sentiments expressed by trustee Jackson earlier in the meeting, also mentioned the absence of Lynch and Darr.
“I would have loved to have seen the entire board here to vote on this,” he said. “From a messaging standpoint — what it looks like to have everyone here voting on this process.”
While Rodriguez agreed, she continued to stress that the district can’t wait any longer.
“I wish trustees Darr and Lynch were here, but they knew the vote, they didn’t say to delay the vote. We need to move forward,” Rodriguez said. “Teachers are coming back and principals are coming back — it’s going to be very difficult to start a school year without a strategic plan.”
Poole, of the United Educators Association, disagreed.
“Schools will open and teachers will be prepared for their students, even if a strategic plan is delayed by a few weeks,” Poole said.
Regardless, he imagines the plan will be brought to the board sometime again soon, he said.
Phillips, who voted to approve the plan alongside Rodriguez, said the superintendent has to begin working toward meeting new goals now. He emphasized that goals must be updated so they can be tied to Ramsey’s evaluations.
The district must stop wasting time, he said.
“We talk a lot about accountability — we got to let it get to work then,” Phillips said. “Getting this plan really would help.”
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @MatthewSgroi1. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.