Lake Worth schools will be under the control of state-appointed managers while Superintendent Mark Ramirez’s future remains uncertain after Texas officials announced a takeover of the 3,200-student district Thursday.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath will install a new board of managers and appoint a superintendent in the coming months, tasking them with reversing years of academic decline. In a letter to Lake Worth leaders, Morath attributed the district’s persistently low academics to failure of governance.
“I do not make this decision lightly,” Morath wrote. “The inability of the district to implement effective changes to improve the performance of students in the district or at the campus necessitates the interventions announced by this letter.”
Morath’s decision comes after Lake Worth’s Marilyn Miller Language Academy failed to meet state academic standards for five consecutive years, triggering a Texas law that requires the commissioner to either close the campus or replace district leadership.
This is the second state intervention of a district in Tarrant County, following Fort Worth’s takeover in October.
The state’s action is meant to ensure stability and renewed focus on student achievement, Morath said. Community members, meanwhile, have voiced concerns about losing local control in a district facing steep challenges.
“Lake Worth ISD’s low level of student achievement is a long-standing issue, predating the COVID-19 disruptions, and has gotten worse recently,” Morath said.
School officials could not be reached for comment immediately.
Lake Worth ISD BOM and Conservator_signed_12-11-25 (1)Download
Superintendent Mark Ramirez took over the district along the northwest border of Fort Worth in May.
Ramirez has previously said Lake Worth educators are committed to rebuilding the district’s academic systems and giving students the consistency they deserve — a message he repeated throughout the fall as the district awaited the state’s decision.
“We’ve been working hard on consistency from campus to campus, knowing every student, where they’re at and what they need,” he said in October.
In the coming weeks, Morath will appoint a conservator to monitor the Lake Worth ISD and guide the transition, ensuring state-directed turnaround plans are being used, according to the enforcement letter.
A conservator has the authority to oversee district operations and may overturn decisions made by the locally elected school board and superintendent if they conflict with state directives or campus turnaround requirements. That person will remain in place as a state-appointed board of managers is seated and a superintendent is chosen — a process that typically unfolds over several months and shifts governing authority away from locally elected trustees.
It is not immediately clear if Ramirez is a candidate to remain as superintendent.
As part of that transition, the state-appointed board will assume the duties of Lake Worth ISD’s seven elected trustees:
- Sonja Norman, trustee since 2005
- Armando Velazquez, elected in 2008
- Tammy Thomas, trustee since 2013
- Mac Belmontes, trustee since 2017
- Cristina Gallagher, first elected in 2022
- Cindy Burt, elected in 2024
- Mary Wilson Coker, elected in November
Soon, Texas Education Agency officials will open the application for board managers in Lake Worth. Morath has said he seeks candidates who demonstrate experience in governance, finance, instruction or community leadership.
Once appointed, the board assumes all governing authority — adopting budgets, approving contracts and policy decisions as well as evaluating the superintendent — while locally elected trustees remain in office but without power.
What led to the takeover of Lake Worth ISD?
The state’s move follows a near decade of academic underperformance, shrinking enrollment and recent leadership changes that left Lake Worth schools vulnerable to intervention.
“Beyond the performance of individual campuses that are unacceptable, Lake Worth ISD has demonstrated a chronic inability to support students to learn and achieve at high levels,” Morath wrote in the letter sent to district officials Dec. 11.
The immediate trigger was Marilyn Miller Language Academy, an elementary campus of about 500 students where 91% come from low-income families and nearly half are learning English.
The school has failed to earn an acceptable accountability rating for eight years, dating back to 2017, including a 59 in this year’s ratings — just one point shy of passing.
Under state law, once a school reaches five straight failing ratings, the commissioner must either close the campus or install a state-appointed board of managers. At Miller Language Academy, those five ratings were reached with the release of the 2025 scores, officials said.
Ratings labeled “Not Rated” during the pandemic did not break the chain of unacceptable performance, TEA officials said, and enforcement actions tied to the five-year threshold resumed once ratings were publicly released again.
Districtwide results gave Morath further reason to act.
In 2025, five of Lake Worth ISD’s six campuses received an F rating. Only the high school managed a D. Overall, the district improved from an F to a D but still ranked near the bottom of Tarrant County in reading and math proficiency. State officials cited data showing just 22% of students meeting grade level, well below the state average of about 50%.
Enrollment declines deepened the crisis.
Just before the pandemic in 2020, the district enrolled nearly 3,600 students. This fall, that number fell to about 3,250 — a loss of nearly 10% in five years.
Leadership turnover compounded the challenges.
Ramirez replaced longtime Superintendent Rose Mary Neshyba with promises of a new vision built on data-driven instruction.
Lake Worth administrators said they’re working on progress after setting “ambitious” goals, which include raising the district’s ratings and sharply increasing STAAR proficiency. Ramirez and district officials logged hundreds of classroom visits and pushed new instructional systems across campuses, they said.
In October, Morath visited Lake Worth schools in person, observing classrooms and saying he saw both evidence of growth and continued challenges.
His visit underscored the urgency of the district’s turnaround work and set the stage for the state’s impending action.
Now, the state steps in to decide Lake Worth ISD’s path forward.
This is a developing story that will be frequently updated.
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1.
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.
