Fort Worth’s public school system is being remade from the ground up — and thousands of staff members may not have a seat in the new version.
Fort Worth Independent School District leadership has unveiled a sweeping turnaround plan that includes non-renewing or outright terminating Chapter 21 contracts — the protected employment agreements covering teachers, principals, librarians, nurses, and counselors. The move, framed as a restructuring effort, comes as the district grapples with declining enrollment, a bruising state takeover, and years of stubborn academic underperformance that finally caught up with it in court.
The Plan, in Plain Terms
District leadership isn’t mincing words about why this is happening. “The superintendent of schools has determined it is in the best interest of the District to restructure certain areas of the District,” the district stated in official communications. “The program change is part of the ongoing efforts to address the decrease in student enrollment, improve efficiency, and redirect resources to positively impact students. This restructuring will result in changes to a number of employment areas within the district.”
The cuts are targeted, at least on paper. The plan zeroes in on 19 low-performing “ELEVATE” campuses — most of which earned D or F academic ratings in 2025. It’s not purely punitive, though. Teachers who remain at those campuses are being offered higher compensation and an extra school day, and the district plans to replace outside substitutes with so-called resident teachers. Whether that sweetens the deal for staff facing uncertain contracts remains to be seen.
Six additional campuses are also caught in the crossfire — already approved for closure. They are Milton Kirkpatrick Elementary, Charles E. Nash Elementary, Riverside Applied Learning Center, Edward J. Briscoe Elementary, Western Hills Primary, and De Zavala Elementary. For families at those schools, the turnaround plan isn’t a fresh start. It’s a final chapter.
How It Got to This Point
The state takeover didn’t come out of nowhere. Under Texas law, a single campus receiving five consecutive “F” academic ratings is enough to trigger intervention by the Texas Education Agency — and that’s exactly what happened. The now-shuttered Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade hit that grim milestone, prompting the TEA to move in.
Fort Worth ISD fought back. It lost. The district’s appeal was denied, clearing the way for the TEA to dissolve the elected school board and replace it with a state-appointed Board of Managers. Former Superintendent Dr. Karen Molinar, who was still leading the district at the time of the ruling, said it wouldn’t change the district’s priorities. “The ruling does not change the district’s focus,” she said, adding that they would continue working with the agency while keeping students at the center of decisions. It was a measured response — though by then, the decision had already been made for her.
New Leadership, New Playbook
Enter Dr. Peter B. Licata. The TEA-appointed superintendent isn’t arriving with a caretaker mentality. State officials selected specific individuals for both the Board of Managers and the superintendent role to drive real structural change, according to reporting from the Star-Telegram. Licata has made his priorities clear from the start: higher teacher pay, aggressive reorganization, and professional development that actually moves the needle.
“In order to get academic instruction and achievement at the highest level for these children,” Licata said, “we have to have the best talented workforce.” It’s the kind of line that sounds obvious until you consider what executing on it actually requires — in this case, potentially replacing large swaths of a district’s existing staff.
What’s at Stake
That’s the catch, isn’t it? Turnaround plans that displace educators carry real human costs. Teachers who’ve spent years — sometimes careers — in Fort Worth classrooms now face the prospect of non-renewal, with their futures tied to a restructuring process they had no vote in designing. The elected board that might have pushed back? Gone. Replaced by state appointees who answer to Austin, not to Fort Worth voters.
Still, the district’s academic situation is hard to defend as it stands. Campuses with mostly D and F ratings, declining enrollment draining resources, and a flagship failure that triggered state law — something had to give. The real question isn’t whether change was necessary. It’s whether this particular version of change will actually work, or whether Fort Worth families will find themselves, a few years from now, still waiting for the turnaround that keeps getting promised.
For now, the machinery is in motion. Contracts are being reviewed, campuses are being shuttered, and a state-installed superintendent is betting that a better-paid, better-trained workforce can do what years of local management couldn’t. The children in those classrooms don’t have the luxury of waiting to find out.
