The students, buzzing with first-day energy, were supposed to be walking.
Most were not.
Inside the Marine Creek Leadership Academy gym Tuesday morning, physical education teacher Jake Neufeldt told elementary students to use “walking feet” as they spread across the floor, getting ready for their next exercise. A few jumped up out of the “criss cross, applesauce” position and began jogging and shuffling instead.
Lake Worth ISD Superintendent Ena Meyers noticed and hurried across the gymnasium toward Principal Pharah Hogan.
The small moment captured much of what Meyers was looking for as Lake Worth ISD opened its first full school year following a state takeover: instruction from the first hour, students actively engaged in it and administrators willing to correct problems while they are happening.
Meyers urged Hogan to coach the teacher. Within seconds, Hogan whispered in Neufeldt’s ear. He stopped the class.
“All eyes are on me,” Neufeldt told students. “And we are quiet and ready to listen.”
The students settled. Neufeldt continued.
The correction wasn’t really about walking, or the pedagogy of P.E., Meyers said. Students need the same expectations in physical education that they receive in reading or math, she said, because listening and following directions build habits that carry into classrooms.
“Hold 100% to your expectation,” Meyers told Hogan afterward.
The interaction was one of dozens Meyers had Tuesday as she walked classrooms at Marilyn Miller Language Academy, Lucyle Collins Middle School and Marine Creek, often with principals beside her. She praised teachers, questioned lesson pacing, crouched beside students working through math problems and repeatedly debriefed with administrators.
Some classrooms looked much like the system Meyers spent the summer building. Others exposed the kinds of breakdowns she said the district still needs to fix.
“Every minute of instruction matters to us,” Meyers said on the drive to Miller, the campus that triggered state intervention. “We have kids to catch up.”
‘We can always be better’
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, left, Marilyn Miller Language Academy Principal Francis Anderson and Lake Worth ISD Superintendent Ena Meyers observe a fourth-grade classroom on the first day of school Aug. 11, 2026. Anderson made notes as she moved between classrooms with Meyers and debriefed with her after lessons. (Matthew Sgroi | Fort Worth Report)
Immediately after Miller’s 8 a.m. bell, fourth graders were multiplying and dividing. In another classroom, students discussed fiction and nonfiction.
Principal Francis Anderson followed Meyers from room to room with a clipboard, jotting observations.
When one reading lesson began relying heavily on students answering questions one at a time, Anderson quietly suggested the teacher have students turn and talk with one another. The teacher immediately changed course.
“That is what we’re big on, is coaching in the moment,” Anderson said afterward. “I get coached too. We can always be better.”
Meyers said teachers knew before school began that administrators might whisper feedback, briefly pull them aside or even step in to model part of a lesson.
In one fifth-grade reading classroom, a teacher used a personal narrative she had written about her own “spirit shoe disaster” to teach the lesson. She even held up the bright green shoe from the story for students to see.
Later, she used a “mind blown” call-and-response — a familiar cue meant to bring students’ attention back to the teacher — before continuing the lesson.
“From day one, we are promoting the art of teaching,” Anderson said. “Curriculum does not drive instruction. Instruction drives the curriculum.”
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker joined Meyers at Miller. Parker said she was struck by how clearly the superintendent defined her expectations.
“She knows exactly where she’s headed,” Parker said, “and I think she’s communicated that clearly to the leadership and teachers here.”
Inside the school’s lobby, Diana Tovar, whose daughter Abigail began first grade at Miller, said the hope for a new year was simple: “Lots of learning.”
Abigail Tovar, a first grader at Marilyn Miller Language Academy, was excited for the first day of school Aug. 11, 2026. Her mother, Diana Tovar, said she hopes Abigail continues learning and becomes more comfortable moving between English and Spanish. (Matthew Sgroi | Fort Worth Report)
Abigail is bilingual, and Tovar said she hopes another year helps her become more comfortable moving between English and Spanish. As for the state intervention and new leadership, Tovar said her family is keeping an open mind.
“We’re just going to kind of see,” she said.
‘This isn’t a teacher issue’
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, left, listens as Lake Worth ISD Superintendent Ena Meyers discusses the district’s instructional priorities during a first-day visit to Marilyn Miller Language Academy on Aug. 11, 2026. Parker joined Meyers for part of her morning tour of Lake Worth ISD campuses. (Matthew Sgroi | Fort Worth Report)
At Collins Middle School, the morning provided a sharper test of Meyers’ systems.
Sixth grade enrollment was higher than administrators had anticipated following the closure of Fort Worth ISD’s Kirkpatrick Elementary, 3 miles west of the Lake Worth middle school. One reading classroom held 35 students; one student initially had no desk and two students shared another one.
Administrators were already working behind the scenes to add another teacher position. Collins leaders interviewed one teacher Tuesday afternoon, Assistant Principal Bryar Ferguson said.
Then another problem surfaced.
A sixth grade reading teacher began a lesson on personal narratives, without enough copies of the story for the class.
Meyers called it a small emergency.
Administrators moved through the halls checking nearby classrooms, locating alternate materials and arranging for additional packets to be printed. The teacher improvised by having students partner up to tell each other their own personal stories.
Meyers took the blame.
“This isn’t a teacher issue,” she told Principal Jarred Taylor. “This is us failing our teachers.”
The district printed the lesson materials, Meyers said. They just didn’t reach the correct classrooms.
Across the hall, a teacher began class by explaining procedures and setting up notebooks rather than moving into academic instruction. Meyers again pushed administrators to intervene — but cautioned them against simply telling the teacher to fix it.
Leaders first needed to give the teacher something instructional he could use immediately, she said.
On the ride to Marine Creek, Meyers returned to what Collins illustrated.
“School districts aren’t failing because of people,” she said. “They’re failing because the systems are failing.”
She said the first week gives administrators time to identify where those systems are not working and adjust them.
“I would have liked it to have been a little bit stronger day one,” Meyers said. “But I’m still proud that the efforts were there, and we’re going to learn from the lesson.”
‘The start’
Lake Worth ISD Superintendent Ena Meyers, left, talks with Collins Middle School Principal Jarred Taylor following a classroom walk-through on the first day of school Aug. 11, 2026. Meyers worked with campus leaders throughout the morning to identify instructional problems and make adjustments in real time. (Matthew Sgroi | Fort Worth Report)
At Marine Creek, Meyers shifted easily between evaluating instruction and joining it.
She leaned over fourth graders’ desks as they worked through place value and multiplication problems.
“How did you know that?” she asked a student pointing at a previous problem.
He went silent and whispered his response to Meyers.
“That’s right,” she said.
On the drive back to the administration building, Meyers said the district’s biggest challenge is maintaining its instructional focus as thousands of daily demands compete for educators’ attention.
“Students should learn,” Meyers said. “That’s what we’re in school for.”
Earlier that morning, she compared the first day to a toddler learning to walk: Educators know the motions, but after months away, there will be some wobbling.
By lunchtime, she had seen both the walk and the wobble.
“This is the start of our story,” Meyers said. “This is the beginning of our work.”
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1.
Disclosure: Lake Worth ISD manager Tom Harris is an executive vice president at Hillwood, a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. News decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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