Fort Worth ISD will pay former Superintendent Karen Molinar at least $412,000, plus benefits, under a resignation agreement approved three months after Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath replaced her as the district’s leader during its state takeover.
The agreement, approved by the state-appointed board of managers June 23, gives Molinar one year of salary and benefits. Her contract set her base salary at $360,000.
FWISD also agreed to pay Molinar for 20 accrued but unused vacation days and 15 personal leave days earned during the 2025-26 school year. Based on her base salary, those 35 days are worth about $52,720.
The final amount could be higher. The agreement includes benefits and incorporates a December contract amendment that added a long-term service incentive to Molinar’s annual compensation. The amendment called for $100,000 in net payments over the life of her contract, treated as salary and wages, though it also says payments continue until her service as superintendent ends.
The separation agreement does not list a total dollar amount.
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Molinar’s resignation will take effect at 11:59 p.m. July 31, closing out her employment with the district about four months after Morath appointed a new superintendent and board of managers to oversee FWISD.
Until then, Molinar will continue in the advisory role she has held since the state intervention began March 24. The agreement says she has no administrative duties, responsibilities or authority.
Molinar is available to advise the successor superintendent on staff performance, budgeting, finance, instructional management, district improvement, student management, personnel management, construction projects and other district operations.
Her departure is one of the final contractual steps in the leadership change that moved FWISD out of local elected control and under state-appointed governance.
The agreement says Molinar’s employment was governed by a contract that began March 11, 2025, and was set to run through June 30, 2028. When Morath announced an intervention March 24, the agency appointed a board of managers and new superintendent Peter Licata.
The board of managers concluded the separation agreement “will serve a legitimate public purpose related to the educational mission of the District,” according to the agreement.
The agreement requires Molinar to return district property by 5 p.m. July 31, including keys, credit cards, student records and official district records in her possession.
After her resignation date, Molinar must cooperate with the district, its trustees, agents and attorneys in response to any legal proceeding tied to her time as superintendent. If she does that work, FWISD will pay her at her daily rate and reimburse documented expenses.
The agreement also releases both sides from claims related to Molinar’s superintendent contract, except for the terms laid out in the separation agreement.
Molinar spent nearly three decades in FWISD before becoming permanent superintendent in March 2025. She sought to remain in the job after Morath announced the takeover, but the state instead selected Licata to lead the district under the board of managers.
“I am grateful that I was part of the Fort Worth ISD family for over 28 years,” Molinar said in a statement to the Fort Worth Report. “So thankful that FWISD took a chance on a first year teacher from Delaware and provided me with opportunities to grow professionally. I will continue to miss the wonderful educators and students that make up our amazing FWISD community.”
Molinar has since started as CEO of Rev Partnership, a regional education nonprofit that works with 17 Tarrant County school districts. She told the Report this month that the new role allows her to keep serving Tarrant County students.
“I am excited for my new role at Rev Partnership that allows me to continue to serve our community,” Molinar said.
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1.
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. 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.
