State Rep. Ramón Romero Jr. also provides his preferred timeline for the takeover to end.
FORT WORTH, Texas — While the Texas Education Agency (TEA) officially took over the Fort Worth ISD in October 2025, it only recently named the new Superintendent and Board of Managers for the district.
Longtime Florida educator Dr. Peter B. Licata is the new superintendent. He will work under a 21-day interim contract until the board formally approves the hiring.
State Rep. Ramón Romero Jr. (D-District 90) agrees with the national search that led to Dr. Licata’s hire. And the Democrat says he’s giving the educator the benefit of the doubt after hearing one thing.
“He called them our kids,” Rep. Romero told us on Inside Texas Politics. “For far too long, I have heard things like, well, my kids don’t have those problems, your kids have those problems. And as a Texas Legislature, every child in the state of Texas in public schools, they are all our kids. So, I appreciate him using that kind of language.”
Rep. Romero knows the district well. He is a graduate of FWISD’s Polytechnic High School. He still lives in that neighborhood to this day. His brother is also a teacher and coach at the school.
While the lawmaker acknowledges some constituents are skeptical of the board’s members, Romero says he’s encouraged by the makeup.
“I think that there’s a little bit of judgment right now on the board of managers, who they are, where they live, do they have the same shared life experiences that maybe I do or some of the teachers do or some of our community members do. And I think that that’s a fair criticism. But at the same time, the folks that are on the board, I like and love many of them and I think they’re very accomplished leaders,” explained the Democrat.
Romero says he’s hoping the district’s new leadership can change the way students feel about learning within FWISD, as well as improving communication with parents, increasing parental engagement, and improving scores for kids, which he says have only slightly improved since COVID.
And he hopes the state doesn’t stay any longer than is absolutely necessary, beginning the transition back to local elected officials within three years, and back to a full board within six.
“That’s the timeline that’s in statute. I hope that Fort Worth turns around faster than any school district around the state or around the country for that matter,” Romero said.
Rep. Romero also reacted to the recent revelations involving labor leader Cesar Chavez, who is now accused of sexually abusing women and girls for years. Since that New York Times investigation broke, Governor Greg Abbott declared the state will no longer observe Cesar Chavez day and the TEA told schools to remove Chavez from lessons and learning activities.
Romero understands the effort to remove Chavez. But he’s adamant there should be no effort to erase the farm workers movement.
“If they want to eliminate the name, I am okay with them eliminating the name. But don’t eliminate the movement because the real change in people’s pay, their education, their political power, all of those things were real changes that occurred through the farm workers movement,” argued the Democrat.
The Representative also wonders if Governor Abbott will begin taking steps to remove other controversial names and statues.
“I welcome Governor Abbott to invite me as he takes down a Cesar Chavez sign. And I welcome him to invite me when he takes down monuments from the grounds of the Texas Capitol. That is a part of history that we know that the same type of assault that we’re talking about occurred throughout the time period when Texas was a slave state, so much to the point that they put it in our Constitution. There’s a lot of fake history, a lot of myth that we will eventually get to at some point,” he argued.