Parents, teachers and community members in Fort Worth ISD got their first chance to address the district\u2019s newly appointed board and superintendent Tuesday night. Many came with the same message: \u201cWe want to see you succeed in helping students do better academically, and we\u2019ll hold you accountable for whatever happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fort Worth ISD\u2019s state-appointed board of managers, who hold decision-making authority during the Texas Education Agency\u2019s takeover <\/a>of the district, held its first meeting Tuesday evening. During the session, board members and Superintendent Peter\u00a0Licata pledged to make transparency and student success their top priorities.<\/p>\n Licata, who was appointed to his post last week, acknowledged he comes to Fort Worth ISD at a time when the district was making progress academically. But Licata said progress that doesn\u2019t lead to proficiency isn\u2019t enough. If students are constantly making minimal progress but never reach grade level standards, they\u2019re still behind, he said. When school leaders are willing to accept inadequate progress, it leads to achievement gaps between groups of students, he said.<\/p>\n More than two dozen parents and community members spoke to the board during the meeting.<\/p>\n Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, the mother of two Fort Worth ISD students and leader of the education advocacy group Parent Shield, said the district needs to prioritize Black students, students who are learning English and students in special education services \u2014 three groups that have historically lagged behind the rest of the district in terms of academic achievement. Those students will need specialized attention and support, she said.<\/p>\n Dorsey-Hollins, who has expressed optimism that the takeover could provide the reset the district needs, told Licata and the board that parents need information about how students are progressing under the takeover. Parents plan to hold the district\u2019s new leaders to their promises of transparency, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe support change, but please know that we will also be holding you accountable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Zach Leonard, president of the organization Families Organized Resisting Takeover, or FORT, said parents in the district deserve to be a part of any decisions that affect their children and the schools they attend. Although the organization opposed state intervention, Leonard said members don\u2019t oppose good-faith efforts to make Fort Worth ISD schools better. But he wants those efforts to happen with an eye toward holistic education that focuses on turning students into creative, well-rounded people \u2014 \u201cbalanced learners prepared for life’s challenges, not just for standardized tests,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The Rev. Kristin Klade, a parent of two Fort Worth ISD students and the secretary of FORT, asked the board to make formal and informal opportunities for parents and other community members to talk with them about decisions, voice their concerns and ask questions. She also asked them to clearly articulate the criteria the district needs to meet before it returns to the control of a locally elected school board. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, who appointed Licata and the board,<\/a> has said he wants to see the district have no campuses with consecutive years of F ratings before he begins the process of ending the takeover. The community wants the takeover to be successful, Klade said, but they also want it to be temporary.<\/p>\n \u201cOur community deserves to know what the goal posts are, and we trust that they won’t move,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Roxanne Martinez, president of Fort Worth ISD\u2019s elected board, said she\u2019s received almost no communication from Morath\u2019s office during the takeover process. She and other elected trustees have asked for transition plans, timelines and clarity about their roles during the intervention, she said, but they\u2019ve received no information.<\/p>\n That lack of clarity leaves families confused about where they\u2019re supposed to turn, she said. Although the elected board holds no authority during the takeover, its members are technically still in office. Even after the takeover board was announced, parents have continued to call her with questions, she said. At this point, she isn\u2019t sure where to direct them, she said.<\/p>\n As frustrated as she is about the takeover, Martinez said she wants to see the district make academic progress under state intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should see significant improvement in student outcomes with the resources that they have,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then in two years, I hope that we’re assessed and we can meet all the exit criteria and be transitioned back to local control.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parents, teachers and community members in Fort Worth ISD got their first chance to address the district\u2019s newly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[17015,116,118,8257,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-229849","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-community-members","9":"tag-fort-worth","10":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","11":"tag-fort-worth-isd","12":"tag-fort-worth-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}