Nearly 70,000 students are heading back to school in Fort Worth ISD, marking the district’s first day of school since the state took over.
The second-largest school district in North Texas is also starting the year with a major staffing milestone: zero teacher vacancies.
Fort Worth ISD announced over the weekend that every classroom will be staffed on the first day of school. The district said it has historically started the school year with more than 200 teacher vacancies.
The milestone follows months of upheaval for the district.
In October, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath said he was ordering the appointment of a conservator and a board of managers to govern the Fort Worth ISD after the school board “failed the students” and failed to implement changes that would have improved their performance for several consecutive years.
When a school in a district fails to meet accountability standards for five consecutive years, the TEA is required by state law to intervene in what is commonly called a “state takeover,” where the commissioner must either close the failing school or replace the district’s elected school board with a state-appointed board of managers.
In March, the TEA announced Peter Licata as the new superintendent along with an appointed board of managers.
Licata addressed the district on Monday morning as students returned to the classroom.
“This is a momentous day,” Licata said. “Not only do we have all the bus routes covered, and we’ve done them for four days as a trial, just to make sure every bus driver knows where they’re going and who they’re picking up. We have 16 drivers also waiting in case someone called in sick or something happens. The remarkable piece about this is I was told nobody has called in yet today, so we have a lot of folks ready to take kids today.”
New Fort Worth ISD superintendent Dr. Peter Licata addressed the district on the first day of school, marking the district’s first school year under new leadership after a state takeover last year.
“It is an important day,” Licata continued. “We’ve got about 3,000 students in kindergarten, pre-K, and it’s their very first day of going to school. What better day is it for them? This is a big day for them, and we all remember our first days of school. We are in a great place right now because when the teachers, when the students get to their campuses, everyone’s getting a hot lunch, cafeterias are ready.”
Licata replaced outgoing superintendent Karen Molinar, who hoped to be selected to continue leading the district while it was under TEA control but learned she would not be retained.
According to the TEA, Licata has more than 30 years of experience improving students’ educational outcomes. He served as the superintendent of Broward County Public Schools in Florida, the nation’s sixth-largest district, where he led the district to its first state “A” rating in more than 14 years. Licata has served as a teacher, coach, principal, regional superintendent, assistant superintendent, and university professor, the TEA said. He is known for aligning instructional priorities with students’ needs while strengthening accountability and transparency.
Licata required every Fort Worth ISD teacher to be interviewed again and specifically selected to remain with the district. Nearly 900 decided not to stay and resigned.
Last week, 11,000 teachers and staff members packed Dickies Arena for the district’s convocation, where they celebrated the district and heard about its future.
Licata used part of his remarks to recognize the employees who work directly with students and to acknowledge the challenges they face.
“So many folks focus in on the educational process and how it can be better that have never stepped into a classroom, that have never driven a bus, that never served a child a meal,” Licata said. “But they are able to tell us how we should do it better, yet they’ve never done it. And they don’t know how hard this is. And the folks in this room know how hard it is, and we have to turn that off. Because those folks in front of those students, those folks driving those students and serving them. They are on the front line making the difference.”
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.