As Elected Trustees Sit on the Sidelines, Fort Worth ISD Parents Call for Transparency

Elected Fort Worth ISD trustees are now sidelined as a state-appointed board of directors assumes control.

In October, Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath announced the appointment of a conservator for the district and the planned replacement of trustees with TEA-appointed directors as part of a state takeover following sustained poor performance at individual campuses. The now-shuttered Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Middle School’s sixth-grade campus received F ratings from the agency for five consecutive years, prompting the takeover as mandated by state law.

On March 24, Morath officially replaced the nine-member board with an equal number of state-appointed board members, definitively suspending their authority as trustees. The new directors, who serve in various leadership roles in Tarrant County and most of whom live in affluent ZIP codes, as noted by The Fort Worth Report, include a former congressman and the COO of Texas A&M Fort Worth.

March 24 was also the day now-powerless board members lost access to their FWISD email account, said Roxeanne Martinez, the elected FWISD Board of Trustees president.

“To be able to not be able to share information that they need, right now, is frustrating,” Martinez said. “It’s also just deeply concerning to me that this information is not being shared with elected trustees. Even if we are sidelined, even if there is a takeover, we are still the elected trustees that should be able to provide parents and the community with information. We’re not getting any of that information.”

Martinez said she hasn’t received any information from officials, including Morath, on the details of the takeover process. She and other elected trustees, who are still in office, even if only in name, have pressed for more information about the transition to a state-appointed board in recent months.

At a March 28 board meeting, the state-appointed board’s first as directors, the Rev. Kristin Clade, a FWISD parent and secretary of Families Organized Resisting Takeover, appealed to the unelected officials to facilitate community engagement

“One of our big priorities is transparency and accountability,” Clade said. “We urge you to intentionally create a culture of open communication and trust among the board of managers, superintendent, staff, parents, students and the wider community. Please welcome our input by creating both formal and informal opportunities for stakeholders to voice concerns, ask questions and provide feedback, demonstrating that our perspectives are heard and valued.”

Clade also asked that Licata let families “know what the goal posts are” and set clearly defined exit criteria for a return to local control, adding that she hopes “the goal posts won’t move.” Houston ISD has been under state control since 2023, with the TEA extending the takeover to at least 2027 in June as officials called for more progress before returning the district to elected leadership.

The superintendent has alluded to loose exit requirements. After his appointment on March 24, he cited the need for zero multiyear-failing campuses, test scores reaching state averages and governance changes.

In a statement, the district said Licata and the board of directors would be committed to open dialogue with the community.

“Transparency and clear communication remain central priorities for Dr. Licata and the Board of Managers,” the statement reads. “Dr. Licata is conducting daily visits to campuses, engaging with staff and the community, and developing a comprehensive plan for the district that will be shared at upcoming board meetings.”

Martinez, who said she decided to run in 2021 after a student asked her to serve on the board, described her initial reaction to the takeover as “disappointed and concerned.” Still, she conceded changes were necessary in FWISD’s case.

“I absolutely agree that something needed to change,” Martinez said. “One of the things as a trustee, with our governance model and what we’ve been trained, is that we need to be looking at data. We need to look at evidence-based processes and systems to benefit student outcomes.”

When the state announced a conservatorship in October, 77 campuses had received a failing grade in 2023-2024 accountability reports, with the district itself receiving an overall D rating, which jumped to a C rating in 2024-2025 as the number of failing campuses decreased by 65%. In February, it was announced that 41% of students in grades three through early high school were reading at grade level.

Still, Martinez said she is concerned about the district’s trajectory under state control.

“My concern is in the whole process of the state takeover and what I’ve seen in Houston, and also just what I’ve seen so far,” Martinez said. “They’ve only had one meeting, but what we’ve seen so far is a continued lack of transparency.”

Houston ISD was placed under state conservatorship in June 2025 after years of failing to meet academic standards and allegations of official misconduct. While some metrics have suggested short-term academic improvement, enrollment declines have accelerated and teachers are leaving HISD at high rates, according to a report from the University of Houston Education Research Center.

Although enrollment has declined statewide, Toni Templeton, a University of Houston research scientist, said the district normally sees growth between the eighth and ninth grades as private school students enter the system. That hasn’t happened under state leadership, she said.

“One of the interesting patterns that we saw was that you typically think about families making school choice decisions at major cut points, right? So, kindergarten, fifth grade, seventh grade, ninth grade, where you would normally kind of transition from elementary school to middle school, from middle school, high school, so on and so forth,” Templeton said. “We saw a lot of students leaving in those middle years, and that was different than statewide trends and different than historical trends of HSD.”

She also said there have been more state interventions since legislators amended state law to codify requirements for district takeovers.

In 2015, lawmakers amended the Texas Education Code to require the TEA to replace elected boards with state-appointed ones after five years of failing campus-level performance, down from seven years previously. State officials have taken action to install such boards in Lake Worth ISD, Beaumont ISD and Shepard ISD since the law was passed. FWISD is currently the second-largest district under state control, trailing only Houston.

Where the Houston plan has differed from other takeovers in states like Mississippi and Louisiana, Templeton said, is in the controversial strategy of TEA-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles for improving academic performance.

“You’ll see that when the state intervenes, or takeover happens, or school turnaround happens, one of the priorities is to put the highest quality teachers into the classroom of the students impacted most by their taking over of the school board,” Templeton said.

“Mike Miles has a different approach, where he’s bringing in uncertified, inexperienced teachers and then providing a scripted curriculum and a really hands on approach to ensuring that the curriculum is delivered in a very particular way,” she said “So that and a lot of the programmatic decisions that Mike Miles has made in HISD has set it apart from what we’ve seen in other areas.”

While Miles has touted academic gains under his New Education System (NES), critics have argued that the approach has created a military environment in which teachers’ classroom autonomy is limited, leading to turnover. 

Templeton said it’s too soon to accurately assess whether there has been actual academic improvement or decline in HISD under state leadership, adding that the university expects to publish a report on the subject by early summer. Research on district takeovers nationwide has suggested test scores typically do not improve substantially under state control. 

Miles and the appointed directors have also been criticized for failing to involve the community transparently in decision-making. In 2024, the state-appointed board gave itself a 1 out of 10 for community engagement in an annual review.

And for a district trying to turn around under state control, community involvement is critical, Templeton said.

“One thing that we know about school turnover is that when you involve the community meaningfully, a lot of that buy-in aspect is crucial in the success of some of these programs. And Mike Miles took more of a top-down approach, where he put out the approach that he was going to follow.”

On the agenda, those policies were abbreviated without explanation, leading to questions from public speakers.

“You said you don’t want to be Houston 2.0, that you value transparency and that you want to retain excellent teachers and focus on students with the highest needs,” Sabrina Ball, a FWISD parent and advocate, told directors. “Based on this agenda and recent action, you’ve already broken those commitments; this agenda is the opposite of transparency.”

Appointed board president Mike Geren told residents that the suspensions would be temporary and were necessary to review existing policies.

He also took responsibility for the confusion on the agenda.

“I’m the final approval on the agenda, and if we made a mistake, it’s on me, and it won’t happen again,” Geren said. “This administration is committed to full transparency.”

At the meeting, FWISD parent Keith Annis said he and other residents were equally committed to transparency.

“We need to hold you accountable. You are unaccountable to voters. That’s something you have nothing to do with, and we have nothing to do with, but you can be accountable to your actions,” Annis said. “So we intend to hold you accountable through transparency, by watching what you do and letting the people know what you are doing, when you are doing it and how you’re doing it.”