Fort Worth ISD families say sweeping restructuring could weaken the tailored support their students — from English learners to college-bound seniors and kids in speech therapy — depend on.
International Newcomer Academy teacher Whitney Peters is worried her students — and English learners across FWISD — won’t receive the support they need if specialized instruction is replaced with a one-size-fits-all approach in traditional classrooms.
Shannon Jones is worried her two sons, who attend Young Men’s Leadership Academy, will see a lack of individualized college guidance if a career readiness specialist position is eliminated.
Kendra Frank is worried her son, who receives speech therapy through the district, will see interruptions in services as staffing cuts create support gaps that schools may struggle to fill.
Families like theirs are now trying to understand what the now-approved staff reductions and operations overhaul from the district’s state-appointed leadership means for their children. The board of managers unanimously approved the program change early Wednesday morning.
More than 100 people spoke during more than five hours of public comment that was often punctuated by cheers and jeers from the audience during a standing room-only meeting.
Superintendent Peter Licata said he is reducing district administration and resetting the entire FWISD system. The district is refocusing on providing direct targeted comprehensive support for students based out of their campuses.
Jones, though, doesn’t quite see it that way. As a Mansfield ISD administrator, she understands the pressure the district’s leaders are going through. But the cuts she’s concerned with ensure students can get into college.
“Listen, I get it: We have to balance the budget, but we have to consider what positions actually impact kids,” Jones said. “We’re firing or getting rid of positions that are student-facing.”
FWISD is built for upwards of 90,000 students, but enrollment next year will be around 66,500 students, Licata said. Existing support and services created one of the worst performing urban school systems in Texas, he added.
Eliminating jobs in three departments along with 32 position types and shuttering International Newcomer Academy allows district leaders to move bilingual and special education services closer to campuses, Licata said. Four regional chiefs will now direct those services and quickly address issues rather than forcing students and parents to wait on someone in the District Service Center.
“We will rebuild those programs with even more support systems for our students,” Licata said. “We have to get the glut out of this building and out of some other buildings that aren’t supporting students.”
Speakers said the district has not clearly explained how those services will be delivered moving forward.
“Who will provide these services? What is the plan to staff and retain qualified specialists?” Marisol Herrera, a FWISD parent who works for the district, told managers. “Eliminating these roles does not reduce student need, it reduces access to support.”
The staff reduction could save the district at least $6.8 million, according to a Fort Worth Report analysis. To determine the potential cost savings, the Report compared the list of impacted positions to an employee directory.
Not all positions could be found in the directory, which is from the start of the school year.
The Report found at least 95 staff members are impacted by the layoffs, representing more than 800 years of combined experience in Fort Worth ISD. Nearly half of those affected by the cuts worked at the International Newcomer Academy.
Families and educators say the shift from centralized expertise to campus-based services raises questions about how specialized support can be maintained. Although many speakers said they saw the district eliminating key services, Licata emphasized that bilingual and special education support are mandatory under federal and state laws.
“Let me be very, very, very clear. We are not discontinuing any services for students,” the superintendent said.
Bilingual education concerns
As director of secondary emergent bilingual, Liz Garza-Garcia has worked to address enrollment growth among such students. She is among the people whose jobs were cut.
Since 2016, enrollment of emergent bilingual students has grown by 9%, Texas Education Agency data shows. Students with such needs now represent 42% of the district’s declining enrollment. A decade ago, they were a third of all students.
“If INA is closed and the (emergent bilingual) department is dismantled, the responsibility to serve our students doesn’t go away,” Garza-Garcia told managers. “ It redistributes into systems that aren’t trained, don’t have the capacity or focus on the support our students consistently need and that they deserve.”
Peters said the services in increased demand require specialized training that cannot be easily replicated across every campus.
Teachers at International Newcomer Academy are trained to build language skills alongside grade-level content, she said, meaning teachers don’t just teach subjects like science or history — they also teach students the English they need to understand those lessons, helping them to build their vocabulary and practice speaking before asking them to read or write about a topic.
“The misconception is that we need to water down the curriculum or we need to make it easy,” Peters said. “No, we teach content level, on level, and language at the same time.”
Other educators and administrators said that work reflects years of intentional investment as the district’s English learner population has grown.
The specialized support provided at International Newcomer Academy and through the district’s bilingual department is required by law and cannot simply be absorbed by general education classrooms, Garza-Garcia said.
However, bilingual teaching staff has not kept pace with student growth. The district has long faced a bilingual educator shortage that has resulted in teachers taking on bigger workloads.
Peters said that gap is already visible at traditional campuses, where students may be placed in large classes without the same level of support. She said the concern is not just for newcomer students, but for English learners across the district.
“One-size-fits-all tier one instruction disproportionately harms (emergent bilingual) students,” Peters said.
Bilingual students performed worse on the reading STAAR than the district average, according to Texas Education Agency data. Last year, 27.5% of bilingual students met grade level on the reading test. The district average was 38%.
Speakers pushed back on how the district has measured International Newcomer Academy’s performance, arguing that state testing does not fully capture student growth at the campus.
Academy teachers said it is unfair to evaluate newcomer students using STAAR results, noting many arrive with little to no English — and in some cases limited formal education — making grade-level performance unrealistic in less than a year or even two.
“INA serves students at the lowest levels of English proficiency — students with the greatest barriers,” seventh grade teacher Jay Mata told the managers. “That data does not prove INA failed.”
International Newcomer Academy staff will be notified about new positions available on campuses where they can support their students, according to district leaders. Each teacher is important as the district faces a shortage of bilingual teachers, Licata said.
Before the vote, manager Rosa Maria Berdeja, an immigration lawyer, assured families International Newcomer Academy students will have opportunities leading to better student outcomes.
“They deserve the opportunity to flourish, surrounded by their peers, where they can build friendships, share experiences, and thrive in a vibrant learning community,” Berdeja said.
Speech therapy, special education impacted
Sitting in his motorized wheelchair, Logan McCartney begged managers not to cut the supports he has relied on.
The R.L. Paschal High School junior said his ability to feed, dress and clean himself — and speak — wouldn’t have been possible without speech therapy.
“I would not have the skills to be speaking to you all tonight,” Logan told managers. “Please do not take away much needed services.”
Other speakers warned that those services are already strained by increased student needs.
“Special education enrollment has steadily increased,” said Saqouia Layton, a speech-language pathologist with the district. “We are now serving thousands more students with specialized needs than we were just a few years ago.”
Managers Laurie George and Tennessee Walker said they understood people’s anxiety around the changes. Their children rely on the same support from FWISD schools, they said.
Walker stressed that he and George would have raised serious concerns if they felt like these supports would not be in place next school year.
“We have skin in the game. We have kids in the district,” Walker said. “We rely on the same supports that a lot of you do, and we do not intend to see those go away.”
He said he understands this is hard, but the managers will hold Licata and his team accountable for achieving the district’s goals.
Frank said her son relies on the district for the constant speech therapy he needs — support she fears could become harder to access.
Districtwide, staffing changes have not always aligned with student needs, she said, even as enrollment and demand for services continue to fluctuate.
Speech-language pathologists who spoke at the meeting said those concerns come as the district is already struggling to staff special education services. Many campuses are operating with unfilled positions, they said, forcing therapists to take on larger caseloads even before the cuts.
The district’s existing special education services show a lack of support for students from central administration, Licata said. He noted that special education students will have more opportunities to participate in electives, specialized courses and career readiness classes.
The uncertainty around staffing — including whether the district can fill vacant positions — leaves families without clear answers, Frank said.
“I can’t just hope that my son will get his services,” Frank said.
Those services are foundational, she said, especially for younger students.
“Everything starts with language, and when there’s gaps, you can’t recover,” she said.
Disclosure: FWISD manager Pete Geren leads the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, 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.
Jacob Sanchez is education editor 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.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
