Angela Andrews wants to know whether she will teach at Dolores Huerta Elementary next year.
Bradley O’Bannon wants Fort Worth ISD to do better — but with locally elected leadership.
Both are educators who voiced their concerns about Texas taking control of FWISD during a forum Thursday evening. More than 150 people attended the meeting at the District Service Center to hear from Texas Education Agency officials about the next steps for the takeover of the city’s largest school district.
Andrews is in her first year as a special education teacher at Huerta Elementary, but has spent more than two decades teaching in FWISD. She knows the district well and knows improvements are needed, but she just can’t stop thinking about the students and her fellow teachers, she said.
“I am concerned about so many things, like I don’t know where to start,” Andrews told the Fort Worth Report.
She said she’s worried about strong, excellent teachers with proven records of student success being forced to move to underperforming schools without proper support and any input on the decision.
“What are you going to do with teachers like us? Are we going to be flung to different schools?” Andrews asked TEA Deputy Commissioner Steve Lecholop.
Ultimately, that decision is up to the superintendent, Lecholop said. TEA will not make any operational decisions for FWISD. Only the superintendent and the board of managers whom Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath appoints in the spring have that power.
Fort Worth ISD arrived at this point after one school received five consecutive failing grades on the state’s academic accountability system, Lecholop said. Beyond that, he explained, the 67,500-student district faces widespread academic issues across the entire system based on STAAR performance:
- 2 in 3 students cannot read on grade level.
- 7 in 10 students cannot do math proficiently.
- Nearly 1 in 3 campuses are either D or F rated.
Lecholop compared Fort Worth to Dallas and Houston. Both districts have seen improvements following the COVID-19 pandemic — Fort Worth ISD has not, he said.
“Despite what many are saying, over time, the district has not actually improved outcomes for kids,” Lecholop said.
No one disagrees with FWISD’s issues, said O’Bannon, a special education teacher at M.H. Moore Elementary. However, many disagree with what students and teachers will have to go through next school year as the state formalizes its control of the district.
O’Bannon understands the law must be upheld and that Texas must intervene, he said. However, the removal of the nine elected trustees who are familiar with schools and students means the community is losing a direct connection in the decision-making process, he said.
“ We should do better. Our kids deserve the best, they deserve more and we want your help to ensure that the community is not misrepresented,” O’Bannon said.
Other speakers voiced concerns about whether appointed managers will live within the boundaries of Fort Worth ISD. State law does not require that, but Morath has typically appointed managers who represent the community, Lecholop said.
“If a great applicant applies who happens to live on the wrong side of the street, they are not excluded from service on this board,” he said. “Our North Star is to try to appoint a board that represents the Fort Worth community.”
The unknown is what’s so scary for Andrews, she said. So many questions are still unanswered, she said, and won’t be until Morath makes his appointment.
“I don’t know what’s coming,” Andrews said. “It makes me want to look for another job in another district that isn’t being taken over by TEA.”
Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
