Lake Worth ISD board President Tammy Thomas wants to ask the state for a trade: Remove the school board but keep Superintendent Mark Ramirez.
“This school board will gladly walk away,” Thomas told the Fort Worth Report after the board’s Dec. 15 meeting. “This school board will gladly let a board of managers and a conservator come in if they will trade us and let us keep Dr. Ramirez.”
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced a state takeover of the district Dec. 11, ordering the appointment of a state board of managers and a conservator and directing TEA officials, including himself, to select a new superintendent.
The action followed years of low academic performance in the 3,200-student district, including five consecutive failing state academic accountability ratings at Marilyn Miller Language Academy, which triggered the intervention.
Monday’s meeting was the first since the state’s decision. It came amid uncertainty over how quickly control will be stripped from locally elected trustees and how long Ramirez, who has led the district since May, will remain in his role during the transition.
Ramirez confirmed after the meeting that he will not be a candidate to remain superintendent once the state appoints new leadership, a decision he said came from TEA.
“I’m disappointed because of the work we’ve started here,” Ramirez said.
In a call with reporters last week, Morath did not explain why Ramirez would not be considered to remain as superintendent once the state installs new leadership. Instead, the commissioner praised Ramirez’s short tenure in Lake Worth, calling him “a very skilled leader” who has made “many, many changes” since arriving in May.
The district’s elected trustees waited too long to make a leadership change, he said.
“If they had taken steps to bring Dr. Ramirez in five years ago, I highly doubt we’d be having this conversation,” Morath said.
Ramirez said he understands the decision, given the district’s history, but wishes recent progress had more time to take hold.
Still, the educator used the meeting to highlight what he described as early signs of progress — and to correct what he said were outdated descriptions of the district’s academic standing.
The district recently won an appeal to the Texas Education Agency related to 2025 accountability ratings, boosting Lake Worth High School’s overall score from 69 to 79. That bumped the campus up from a D to a C.
“I know it’s been reported that every school in Lake Worth ISD is a D or F, but that’s no longer the case," Ramirez said.
The district’s overall score also increased, Ramirez said, from 62 to 66 — not enough to change the district’s letter grade but enough to matter symbolically, he said.
“It does matter to this community,” he said. “We’re no longer the lowest-rated school district in North Texas.”
‘Facts are better than dreams’
Ramirez framed his remarks around a phrase he repeated throughout the meeting: “Facts are better than dreams.”
He cited last year’s STAAR results — which showed just 22% of students meeting grade-level expectations — as a key reason state intervention was triggered.
“This is not a number we excuse, we minimize or accept,” Ramirez said.
He then pointed to middle-of-year testing data that shows the share of students meeting grade-level expectations increased from 22% to 38% over about 65 days of instruction. The percentage of students in the lowest achievement group dropped from 41% last year to 28% this year.
Lake Worth ISD Superintendent Mark Ramirez gives his update during a school board meeting on Dec. 15, 2025. Soon Ramirez will no longer lead Lake Worth ISD when Texas takes control of the district. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America) “We’re not yet where we intend to be,” Ramirez said. “But the facts are the facts.”
District leaders logged more than 2,000 classroom visits so far this school year and vowed to keep expectations high as the transition unfolds, Ramirez said.
Katrina Lemond, a third grade teacher at Effie Morris S.T.E.A.M. Academy, urged the state to reconsider removing Ramirez before his work could take hold.
“For the first time in many years, we have clear, actionable steps, aligned strategies and procedures that give our staff a structured path toward improvement,” Lemond said. “The type of change our district needs cannot happen overnight and it cannot happen without consistent leadership.”
State Board of Education member Brandon Hall, who represents the Lake Worth area, praised Ramirez’s leadership and encouraged parents, teachers and community members to make their voices heard during the transition.
“In the face of a TEA takeover and everything that’s happening right now, which is incredibly difficult, it’s really all about the students and seeing them succeed,” Hall said. “I’m going to be putting my support behind whatever makes that happen in a timely and efficient manner.”
State Board of Education member Brandon Hall walks to the back of the room after speaking during public comment at a Lake Worth ISD school board meeting on Dec. 15, 2025. (Maria Crane | Fort Worth Report/CatchLight Local/Report for America)
Trustees consider appeal options
Ramirez walked trustees through the six-page letter from the Texas Education Agency outlining next steps. The letter calls for:
- The appointment of a board of managers, made up of local community members who must apply, complete state training and interview with TEA.
- The appointment of a conservator, to be named at a later date, who has authority to oversee district operations and governance and to direct or override decisions made by the school board and superintendent.
- The appointment of a new superintendent.
The letter did not provide a firm timeline for when new leaders will be installed, Ramirez said, noting that some dates depend on whether the district appeals.
The letter schedules an informal review for Dec. 19 in Austin with TEA leaders. The review will focus on the managers and conservator and will proceed “with or without Lake Worth ISD participation,” Ramirez said.
The district plans to send Thomas and trustees Cindy Burt and Mac Belmontes to the meeting. Trustees will consider whether to appeal the intervention following that discussion with TEA officials, Ramirez said.
Thomas said she plans to push back on the state’s decision even as she acknowledges the law gives Morath broad authority.
“I don’t agree with the process, but I respect the law,” she said. “I will abide by their decision.”
Her proposal reflects what she believes is best for students, even if it means surrendering local control, Thomas said.
“I want every child in this school district to know that I fought to the end for them,” she said.
Ramirez said he will assist with the transition until a new superintendent is appointed, but his focus in the weeks ahead will remain on classrooms.
“We have to be in schools,” he told the Report after the meeting. “We have to be visible. Even more so now.”
During the meeting, he held up a keychain he said district leaders received earlier in the day, stamped with the number 3,177 as a reminder of how many students Lake Worth ISD serves.
“Our task is simple: Stay focused, stay strong, and let’s do what’s right for these kids,” he told attendees.
The room responded with a standing ovation from trustees and members of the audience.
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 Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
