Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Peter Licata speaks to a crowd of people at a strategic action listening session at Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School on Aug. 27.
Samuel O’Neal
soneal@star-telegram.com
As Fort Worth ISD leaders continue to work toward mending the district’s relationship with a largely disgruntled community, Superintendent Peter Licata is holding a number of strategic action sessions.
A session Thursday at Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School was the second of several planned sessions. Licata, joined by Chief of Staff Louis Kushner and Deputy Superintendent and Chief of Schools Daniel Soliz, listened to dozens of Fort Worth ISD parents and community members voice their concerns about how the district is being operated.
Also in attendance was Isaac Williams, who has been promoted from a regional chief to the district’s deputy chief of schools, Kushner shared Thursday.
The listening session was structured in question-and-answer style, giving attendees a sheet where they could write down answers to a series of questions, including: What are you seeing, experiencing and hearing; what could we do differently; and what is one concrete action that we can do to act on your concerns?
Licata began the session showing attendees a graph that displayed Fort Worth ISD as the worst-performing urban district in Texas when it comes to the number of students reading on grade level.
“This is why I came out of retirement,” Licata said. “This is the work I have done my entire career. And it’s not about blaming people. We can’t change the past, but we can move forward and figure out how we got here.”
The most common qualms shared with Licata and other district leaders Thursday were a collection of topics they have heard a lot about since the beginning of the school year. That includes concerns about the district’s new Elevate instructional model for its struggling campuses, scripted curriculum, students having less free time during the day, campuses that are not fully staffed, and issues surrounding transparency and communication from the district to campuses and to parents.
One attendee who was concerned about the rigor of the district’s Elevate model said her first-grade student was no longer receiving carpet time — where students gather on the floor for storytelling and other group activities — and was spending the entire day sitting at a desk.
Fort Worth ISD leaders pushed back on the idea that carpet time has been taken away from elementary school students.
“You can say that there’s carpet time allowed, but I think the way in which you’re requiring teachers to teach doesn’t allow an opportunity to do that,” the attendee said. “So many of you are allowing carpet time, but the communication dripping down to teachers is it’s implied that they don’t have it.”
Licata and Fort Worth ISD’s Board of Managers implemented the Elevate model for the district’s most struggling campuses shortly after they were appointed to their jobs by the Texas Education Agency as part of its takeover of the district. The intervention was sparked by years of stagnant academic performance, including a now-closed campus receiving a fifth straight F in TEA’s annual A-F Accountability grading system.
The Elevate model includes more strictly scripted curriculum and more focus on rigorous instruction in an effort to accelerate academic outcomes. A third-grade classroom observed by the Star-Telegram at Rufino Mendoza Elementary, which is included in the Elevate Network, had desks in pairs with lightly decorated walls and no carpet or other reading sections of the classroom.
Caddies of pens, pencils, note cards and other supplies sit on desks in a third-grade classroom at Rufino Mendoza Elementary School. Principal Katy Myers Allis said all classrooms will have students sit in pairs with supplies at the ready. Amanda McCoy FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Several other attendees raised similar concerns about scripted and structured curriculum. Ale Checka, a former Fort Worth ISD teacher, told Licata and his team that even though they say they don’t blame teachers for the district’s underperformance, their words suggest otherwise.
“I’m so surprised to hear several of your responses because several things are just simply not true,” Checka said. “It’s a lot for somebody to look at a parent in the face and say we’re not blaming teachers, and then in the next sentence say we are taking accountability. We really need you to stop saying you aren’t blaming teachers when you patently have and just did it.”
Licata’s strategic action sessions are also being held alongside the state-appointed Board of Managers’ listening sessions, which started last month and have continued throughout August, with more planned. Community members have clashed with Fort Worth ISD’s state-appointed leadership since they were brought in by TEA Commissioner Mike Morath in March.
Licata and Board of Managers Chair Pete Geren have promised better communication and “radical” transparency with the community, but numerous parents and community members feel like they have not held up their end of the bargain.
Continuing to hold listening sessions at campuses all across the district is one way to rebuild the relationship with the community, Licata said.
To close Thursday’s session, Licata and Kushner asked those in attendance to write down ways they could “collectively come together as a community and work toward a common goal.”
One attendee told district leaders she feels like the community has already come together, but it’s now on the district to hear their concerns and make changes accordingly.
“I think regardless of the school you’re at, we feel like we are at a place where we’re seeing a lot of the same problems occur across the district,” the attendee said. “I think where we can come together is with you all. We can reference our principals and administration as much as we want, but I think we really want to work toward finding a common goal for effective communication and having trust in what you are doing.”
Licata told attendees that all their responses, both written and spoken, would be relayed to the Board of Managers, which was not present for the session.
Editor’s note: Fort Worth ISD Board of Managers chair Pete Geren is the president and chief executive officer of the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, which is a funder of the Star-Telegram’s Crossroads Lab. The Star-Telegram retains independence in all coverage decisions.
This story was originally published August 27, 2026 at 10:03 PM.
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Samuel O’Neal is the K-12 Education Reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, covering public schools and policy that impacts them. He previously worked as a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer and is a graduate of Temple University.