Fort Worth ISD parents establish group in effort to stop state takeover
A potential state takeover is looming for Fort Worth ISD and a group of parents are doing all they can to stop it.
Fort Worth FORT, which stands for Families Organized Resisting Takeover, is contacting state representatives, city council, Texas Education Administration and Gov. Greg Abbott to advocate for the district.
Two members of the group spoke with CBS News Texas about their mission.
Kristin Klade: This idea that the state would take over a district based on one failing school, that they would take over the whole district, seemed completely illogical to me.
Zach Leonard: One of our main slogans is to preserve local control. Stop the takeover. We are improving.
Klade: The idea that the state would take over a democratically elected school board is alarming to me.
Lacey Beasley: These ratings are from 2023. Do you think a state takeover should still be considered two years later?
Leonard: It feels a bit late in the game. We went from 31 'F' rated campuses to 11. That's a 65% improvement. That's huge. We've seen more 'A' and 'B' rated schools, so that's an improvement. But whenever the STAAR testing and the TEA move the goalpost every couple of years, you have to adjust. What's alarming is that they would disregard that and say we still need to take over.
Beasley: What would you have to say to people who think, well, the takeover is needed? You know, kids aren't reading at grade level. This school has been rated 'F' for five years in a row. We need to take over.
Klade: I would say to them that I'm not sure that there's any reason to believe that a takeover would improve those or those scores authentically.
Leonard: We know that there's a literacy crisis.
Klade: We obviously want to improve reading and scores, and we want to think about creative ways that we can do that.
Leonard: We've seen school districts that had similar scores, such as Dallas ISD, and over the last three to five years under some strategic planning and board measures and their superintendent, they've improved some scores without a state takeover.
Whether your kid is in an 'A'-rated school or an 'F' or 'D'-rated school, we need people who are well-rounded and not just know how to take a STAAR test.
Beasley: Do you guys want to see [superintendent] Karen Molinar stay?
Leonard: I personally do. I think that she's the right choice for us at this moment.
We have a democratically elected school board, and if that school board doesn't do the best that they can and do, then we have the right to elect a new school board.
Beasley: Say a takeover does happen and an appointed board comes in for the next two years? Will you guys be around for the next two years?
Klade: Yes, we are planning to. Yeah.