Daniel Jose Henkel arrived in Fort Worth from Mexico without speaking English.
Going to the store was hard, as was imagining how he would navigate an American high school as an incoming freshman.
At the International Newcomer Academy, he found a place built for students like him.
“I felt less lost,” Henkel, now 26, said. “I didn’t feel quite as alone as I thought that I was going to feel.”
Now, Fort Worth ISD is considering closing the campus serving sixth through ninth grade that helped him get started.
District leaders are proposing the closure of the International Newcomer Academy as part of an update to the district’s facility master plan, according to board documents for the April 28 meeting. The plan lists the campus among those scheduled to close in June.
A separate proposal on the same agenda would also reduce staff tied to emergent bilingual programs, including coordinators and district-level leadership positions, raising questions about how services for newcomer and English learners would continue if the campus closes.
Staff learned about the possible change at the end of the day Friday, said Faiha Al-Atrash, the school’s community and parents coordinator. Families were then invited to a Tuesday evening meeting at the campus to hear from district leaders.
“INA is not only a school, it is a community center for these families,” Al-Atrash said. “We become their home.”
The possible closure would affect a campus that has served newly arrived immigrant and refugee students in Fort Worth for decades. The district’s newcomer program dates back to 1983. The International Newcomer Academy was established as a stand-alone campus in 1993 to help students learn English, adjust to U.S. schools and transition into other campuses.
District officials did not respond Tuesday and Wednesday to questions about the proposal, including how students would be reassigned or how specialized services would continue if the campus closes.
The proposal comes as Fort Worth ISD operates under state intervention, with a board of managers appointed by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath now holding governing authority over the district. Superintendent Peter Licata, who was appointed during the transition, has emphasized systemwide changes as the district works through a broader restructuring that includes school closures, staffing adjustments and program shifts.
A model built for newcomers
International Newcomer Academy serves students who often arrive with little or no English — and in some cases, limited formal schooling.
That specialized mission has long made it different from a traditional campus, advocates said.
“They hold your hand,” said Anael Luebanos, a Fort Worth ISD elected trustee who attended INA as a student. “INA laid the foundation for so many.”
Luebanos said the district previously considered breaking up the campus into smaller programs but backed off after community pushback. Academy students go on to do great things, he said — even becoming an elected trustee.
“We needed this campus the way we have it because we know it has worked,” he said.
Al-Atrash said the school’s support goes far beyond academics. The campus connects families with housing assistance, food, clothing and other resources, supported in part by community donations that total about $100,000 each year, she said.
“This school is a lifesaver,” Al-Atrash said.
Without that structure, she said, students could struggle to adjust if placed directly into traditional campuses.
“Absolute disaster,” she said.
A sudden notice, unanswered questions
Teachers and staff were left with little information heading into the week.
“A lot of our members at INA felt blindsided,” said Steven Poole, executive director of the United Educators Association. “They were left all weekend wondering what’s going to happen to their school and their future.”
The timing also raises concerns for staff’s future as other campuses previously slated for closure have already held internal job fairs, Poole said.
At the same time, the April 28 agenda includes a separate proposal to reduce staff as part of a districtwide program change.
That list includes the International Newcomer Academy campus and multiple emergent bilingual positions, including coordinators, directors and program staff.
For teachers, the two proposals are closely tied.
“It’s very alarming,” said Jay Mata, a seventh-grade teacher at the school. “Teachers who are not specialized to teach emergent bilinguals are not ready to teach them.”
Measuring success — and missing context
The share of students meeting grade level on STAAR tests at International Newcomer Academy has remained far below district and state averages.
But teachers say those scores don’t reflect the reality of the students they serve.
Many students counted in accountability data are new arrivals or students with interrupted education who have only been in U.S. schools for a short time, Mata said.
“The right tool to measure student achievement is not always STAAR,” he said.
He pointed instead to growth data used within the district and campus, which he said shows his students making significant gains in reading and math.
Enrollment shifts, recent investment
District leaders have frequently pointed to declining enrollment when recommending school closures across Fort Worth ISD.
Enrollment dropped in 2021 when the program transitioned between campuses, then steadily climbed — reaching nearly 500 students in 2024 — before falling to 429 in 2025, according to Texas Education Agency data.
The recent dip comes after the campus moved to its current Eastline Drive location in late 2024. The district moved the school to address overcrowding at its previous site, where hundreds of students were learning in portable classrooms.
The move, funded with more than $4 million from the district’s 2021 bond, was intended to expand capacity and better serve newcomer students with access to a full campus.
What could be lost
For former students like Henkel, the impact is hard to quantify.
When he arrived in Fort Worth, he said the school gave him the time and support to learn English and adjust to a new country before moving on to the next step in his education.
“The teachers were really, really patient,” he said.
He later attended Como Success Academy — then known as Success High School — and is now working toward a degree in math.
He credits International Newcomer Academy for his success.
“I don’t think I would have been able to reach this level,” he said.
Disclosure: The Sid W. Richardson Foundation, which is led by FWISD manager Pete Geren, is a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. FWISD manager Laurie George is a member of the Report’s reader advisory council. FWISD manager Courtney Lewis is a member of the Report’s business advisory council. 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.
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
