Laura Obuchowski was a part-time speech-language pathologist until Fort Worth ISD eliminated her position in April.
Two weeks ago, she said the district called to ask if she’d come back as a contractor.
FWISD opened the school year 32 speech-language pathologists short — months after cutting positions in an effort to strengthen the service. Now, the district is rehiring those same roles, a reversal that prompted apologies from two members of the Texas-appointed board of managers.
“ Your community asks that you hold the people responsible for this emergent situation accountable,” Obuchowski told managers during an Aug. 11 meeting. “Our children should not absorb the consequences of poorly made staffing decisions or lack thereof.”
Records obtained by the Fort Worth Report show the district cut seven speech therapists and 10 assistant speech therapists — positions that did not appear in earlier records released by FWISD showing which jobs it had eliminated.
The cuts were meant to build toward a new model of 100 full-time speech-language pathologists. In June, managers approved $700,000 in contracted services to fill in staffing gaps, including for speech-language pathologists.
Managers Tennessee Walker and Laurie George apologized for understaffing speech positions. Walker said Superintendent Peter Licata had assured the board the district would begin the year fully staffed.
“That didn’t happen,” Walker said.
‘We’re behind the eight ball’
Licata told managers that he will provide a report on speech-language pathologists by the end of August. He said he has heard from therapists and parents and understands their frustrations.
The district’s speech-language pathologist model did not account for the higher salaries such positions receive in other districts and the private sector, Licata said. He estimated FWISD’s speech staff salaries are between $10,000 and $15,000 behind competing districts.
A review of Fort Worth-area districts’ salary guides shows FWISD is among the highest paid for starting salaries. At 187 days, the contract length several area districts use for speech-language pathologists, FWISD’s starting salary of $69,457 is above Hurst-Euless-Bedford’s $67,666, Crowley’s $62,710 and Lake Worth’s $60,771.
Across the Fort Worth-Arlington-Dallas area, speech-language pathologists earn an average salary of $91,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“I commit to this board that you’ll have a full report on everything, including some strategies to try and retain or attract,” Licata told managers.
Walker pushed the superintendent.
“I’m just going to tell you point blank — no ifs, ands or buts about it — I look forward to getting a report, but that doesn’t change things,” Walker said. “Now we’re behind the eight ball. That’s on us.”
The manager looked out into the audience and leaned into his microphone. Several speech-language pathologists and parents remained in the boardroom.
“I only can just apologize, but we were told we were going to be fully staffed and we weren’t,” he said.
In a June interview, Texas Christian University professor Karen Hennington said competition for speech-language pathologists is fierce. About half of all pathologists work in schools at some point, but many go into higher-paying positions in hospitals, private practice and clinics.
The field is projected to grow about 15% over the next decade, said Hennington, director of the Miller Speech & Hearing Clinic in TCU’s Davies School of Communication Sciences & Disorders.
The labor market made cutting part-time positions risky for FWISD, Hennington said. Replacing part-timers with full-time hires makes sense, she said. But the part-time speech therapists often specialized in a task.
Speech-language pathologists must hold a master’s degree and be licensed by the state, credentials that make them costly to recruit and slow to replace.
Once cut, Hennington said, they were not easily replaced.
‘It didn’t have to be this way’
Speech-language pathologists warned FWISD leaders this could happen. In April, several told managers that eliminating part-time and assistant positions would hurt students.
Among the speech-language pathologists who returned to managers and voiced their concerns was Max Pell. He is a speech-language pathologist at the Jo Kelly School, which serves medically fragile students with disabilities ages 3 to 21.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” said Pell, a 12-year FWISD veteran. “You were given a recommendation that suggested these positions we did not need, and we told you these were positions that were very much needed.”
Christina Sellers, a speech-language pathologist, said her department started last year fully staffed with around 120 — compared to the 68 ready on Aug. 10. She attributed part of the unfilled positions to the retirement of a longtime coordinator who recruited pathologists. A replacement coordinator was recently hired, she said.
Sellers, who has worked for FWISD since 2022, questioned the new speech therapy model and said 100 pathologists is not enough in a district with a growing need for the service.
“Overloaded clinicians lead to snowballing turnover and impacted student services,” she said. “So I’m asking now, what decisions caused those vacancies? What expertise informed those decisions? What expertise informed the 100 number? And what will we learn from our setback?”
Obuchowski, a former part-time speech therapist, has a stake in the services beyond the professional.
Obuchowski’s daughter lost her speech-language pathology team in the redesign, she said. Speech therapy depends on relationships built over years with a child and family, experts say, and changing providers can set that progress back.
“Her previous team knew her,” Obuchowski said. “They knew her communication and regulation needs, and they knew how to support her teacher before the first day of school.”
Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez.
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. 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.
