Most teachers at Fort Worth ISD’s newly designated turnaround schools will earn a base salary of $100,000 next year.
Educators, principals and other staff at six of the district’s most struggling schools will receive bigger paychecks than their counterparts at other FWISD schools starting in August. Trustees approved the pay Tuesday as part of overhaul efforts aimed at jump-starting academic gains.
“We’re putting the best teachers at these schools,” Superintendent Karen Molinar told trustees.
Campuses include Western Hills, Clifford Davis, Eastern Hills and West Handley elementaries as well as William James and Morningside middle schools.
Teachers and principals must reapply for their jobs to remain at the schools participating in the Accelerating Campus Excellence, or ACE, turnaround model.
The new base salaries for teachers at these campuses for the 2026-27 school year are:
$100,000 for teachers in STAAR-tested courses and other core subject classes.
$91,000 for nontested classes.
$88,000 for student-support positions.
The state provides additional dollars to public school districts implementing the ACE model if they meet requirements.
For example, educators must have at least two years’ experience, and half of the teachers at an ACE campus must hold state-recognized bonus pay designations for being highly effective teachers, which are tied to student academic growth on STAAR tests and evaluations.
Elementary principals will earn $130,000, while middle school principals receive a salary of $145,000. Assistant principals, counselors, librarians and licensed health professionals will get a $10,000 stipend on top of their current salaries.
Trustee Camille Rodriguez, the lone dissenting vote against the pay structure, questioned the district’s ability to fund a plethora of six-figure salaries at the campuses.
“We’re already about $40 million over budget, so how are we going to be able to sustain the additional salaries?” Rodriguez said.
FWISD has not been accepted into a Texas program allowing for additional funding, Molinar said. District leaders are shifting federal dollars to the six campuses and considering cuts elsewhere in administration, the superintendent said. The schools are a priority because of their persistently low academic performance.
“Academic excellence is priority one, and our strategic plan and everything must support that,” Molinar said.
Rodriguez said she supports the ACE model, but other schools are a concern, too.
“I don’t want to neglect any of our other campuses,” Rodriguez said. “That’s about 130 other campuses that won’t be ACE campuses. Stuff rolls down hill. I want to make sure everybody gets their share.”
Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez.
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