Fantasy Reynolds knows closing schools is emotional.
Reynolds, a leader of the nonprofit R4 Foundation, stood at the lectern with a message for Fort Worth ISD trustees: Make the difficult decision. For the sake of the children, she said.
“Through the consolidation of schools, there is a huge opportunity for our district to invest in our kids, not these aging old buildings that need new roofs,” said Reynolds, a Ridglea Hills resident and mother of four Fort Worth ISD graduates.
Reynolds struck at the heart of the push and pull Fort Worth ISD leaders and residents have debated throughout 2025. Financial, demographic and academic realities pushed district leaders to propose May 13 the closing of 14 schools, on top of shuttering four already approved campuses, over the next five years.
Trustees are expected to consider the plan at their May 20 meeting.
The district’s buildings plan, developed with consultant Alabama-based Hoar Program Management, addresses two major challenges: shrinking enrollment and aging infrastructure.
Fort Worth ISD has lost more than 12,783 students since 2019 and expects to lose an additional 6,556 by 2030.
To maintain its buildings, the district would need to spend $1.2 billion in repairs over the next five years.
The goal, district officials said, is to stop spending money on half-empty buildings and redirect it into classrooms. By closing schools, the district can pare down more than 8,800 unused seats and save more than $77 million over five years — mostly by avoiding future repairs and cutting support staff.
The financial benefits would support enhanced academic offerings, including pre-K seats, literacy support and programs focused on gifted-and-talented students as well as science, technology, engineering and math.
“Our students deserve more,” Superintendent Karen Molinar said. “They need STEM activities on their campuses embedded every day. That takes resources.”
Parent concerns
Westpark.
Tanglewood.
Overton Park.
Kelly Moreno listed off the elementaries and compared them to her child’s campus, De Zavala.
All four are A-rated campuses. Yet De Zavala has an enrollment with higher percentages of students from low-income families and is demographically closer to the overall district.
“Only one of these four schools is slated for closure,” Moreno said. “ There are hard, smart decisions and there are hard, misguided decisions. The district may have decided that ratings do not matter for school closures, but the state has responded loud and clear that ratings do, in fact, matter a lot.”
Board President Roxanne Martinez asked the superintendent how the closure of an A-rated campus like De Zavala would impact the district’s overall accountability rating.
Ratings change year to year, Molinar said.
“Overall, it’s hard for us to do projections,” she said. “Will closing an A campus hurt our overall rating? It’s really dependent on that year, that test and that day.”
Edward J. Briscoe Elementary teacher Ashley Dean told the board her children walk nearly a mile each day to school — crossing busy intersections and passing stray dogs and transient activity.
If Briscoe closes, she said, their walk would double.
“Would you consider it reasonable for your own children to walk 1.7 miles each way for the universal human right of an education?” Dean asked trustees.
Molinar responded.
“Yeah, we need to go walk that,” Molinar said unprompted during a separate discussion. “When there’s a busy street, when there is danger for our students, when the sidewalks are not safe, we will add routes.”
Trustee Wallace Bridges thanked Molinar. He also said parents wondered whether all Briscoe students would be guaranteed transportation to their new schools.
Molinar assured parents and the board: The district will review boundaries to minimize walking distance and will consider adding routes for students with safety concerns.
Monica Hernandez, a J.T. Stevens Elementary PTA member, said families spent years building up the school’s applied learning program. Now, she said, it’s being handed to another campus without the staff, culture or community that made it successful.
“We are more than just a building,” she said. “We are a program.”
Trustee Anne Darr asked whether the applied learning model would be preserved, or diluted, in the transition.
Officials said the program would be moved and expanded at another school, with training provided to ensure instructional continuity. The district also hopes to grow applied learning across more campuses.
“We’re not doing away with the programming,” Molinar said. “It’s just the facility.”
Potential takeover looms
Speaker after speaker issued a reminder to Fort Worth ISD leaders: The Texas Education Agency is watching.
The state is weighing a potential takeover of the district after a now-closed sixth-grade campus earned an F five years in a row. A decision is expected in August.
Around the same time, the state likely will release accountability ratings for 2024 and 2025 as well as results from the spring standardized test.
Roughly a handful of schools teeter on the edge of triggering the state’s intervention law. The state would have two choices: take over the district or close the schools.
Reynolds, the R4 Foundation leader, reminded trustees that improved academics are possible through school closures.
“These consolidation efforts are not easy to swallow, but by doing this, it means we can allocate valuable resources to educating our students so they can reach their full potential,” she said. “The consolidation, to me, is about making it better for all of our kids.”
Jacob Sanchez is a senior education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez.
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1.
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