{"id":377023,"date":"2026-07-17T17:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/377023\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T17:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T17:24:11","slug":"former-fort-worth-isd-superintendent-karen-molinar-gets-a-years-salary-in-exit-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/377023\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Fort Worth ISD superintendent Karen Molinar gets a year&#8217;s salary in exit deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Karen\u00a0Molinar, the former Fort Worth ISD superintendent, will receive at least $412,700 as part of her <a data-ylk=\"slk:resignation;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/education\/article\/fwisd-takeover-teacher-resign-22347961.php\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">resignation<\/a> agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Last year, the <a data-ylk=\"slk:Texas Education Agency took over;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/education\/2025\/10\/22\/will-texas-announce-state-takeover-of-fort-worth-schools-thursday\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Texas Education Agency took over<\/a> the district, after a campus earned a failing grade for five consecutive years. Though Molinar pushed to preserve her job, the state hired a new superintendent and replaced locally elected trustees with appointed managers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As part of her exit, Molinar received a year&#8217;s worth of base salary \u2014 $360,000 \u2014 and benefits, according to the June 23 agreement. The district will also compensate her for 20 vacation and 15 personal leave days, adding at least $52,700.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Related:\u00a0<a data-ylk=\"slk:Track Texas&#039; school takeover, see who&#039;s under TEA control and who&#039;s at risk;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/projects\/2026\/texas-school-takeover-tracker\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Track Texas&#8217; school takeover, see who&#8217;s under TEA control and who&#8217;s at risk<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">To ease the leadership transition, she will continue to serve in an advisory role with no administrative duties. <a data-ylk=\"slk:Her successor, Peter Licata;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/education\/2026\/03\/24\/tea-announces-new-leadership-for-fort-worth-isd\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Her successor, Peter Licata<\/a>, previously served as superintendent of Broward County Public Schools in Florida.\u00a0He earns a base salary of $360,000 as head of Fort Worth ISD, according to his contract.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Molinar&#8217;s resignation goes into effect at the end of July. Her term was originally set to end in June 2028.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Related: <a data-ylk=\"slk:Nearly 800 Fort Worth ISD teachers resigned after state takeover;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/education\/article\/fwisd-takeover-teacher-resign-22347961.php\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Nearly 800 Fort Worth ISD teachers resigned after state takeover<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Molinar spent nearly three decades in the district, starting as a teacher at Washington Heights Elementary. She also served as an assistant principal and principal before stepping into district leadership. During her tenure as superintendent, she sought to turnaround a struggling district, raising reading and math scores and improving campus accountability ratings.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Earlier this month, Molinar was tapped to be CEO of Rev Partnership, an education nonprofit in Tarrant County.\u00a0In her new role, she will oversee its organizational strategy, partnerships, community engagement efforts and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Related: <a data-ylk=\"slk:Parents pushed for less screen time in schools. This North Texas school district listened;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/education\/article\/texas-schools-screen-time-22339516.php\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Parents pushed for less screen time in schools. This North Texas school district listened<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Rev Partnership did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I have spent my career focused on creating opportunities for students to thrive,&#8221; Molinar said in a <a data-ylk=\"slk:Rev Partnership news release;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.revpartnership.org\/post\/rev-partnership-announces-dr-karen-molinar-as-chief-executive-officer\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Rev Partnership news release<\/a>. &#8220;I believe deeply in the power of partnership to drive meaningful change.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Judy and Jim Gibbs, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Ron and Phyllis Steinhart, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks, and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab&#8217;s journalism.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:Sign up for the Morning Roundup, a free newsletter delivering the latest North Texas news each morning.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/newsletters\/morning-roundup\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=cta&amp;utm_campaign=textlink\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for the Morning Roundup, a free newsletter delivering the latest North Texas news each morning.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karen\u00a0Molinar, the former Fort Worth ISD superintendent, will receive at least $412,700 as part of her resignation agreement.\u00a0&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[85192,116,118,8257,117,133284,22933,16529,11457,2810],"class_list":["post-377023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-broward-county-public-schools","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-isd","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-mary-louise-phillips-elementary","tag-molinar","tag-state-takeover","tag-superintendent","tag-texas-education-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377023","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=377023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}