Fort Worth ISD held its first board meeting since the completion of the Texas Education Agency takeover and the appointment of a new superintendent and an entirely new board.
The leadership change came after persistent academic failure within the district.
New state-appointed superintendent Pete Licata said he has visited 15 schools over the past six days, most of which held D and F accountability ratings, and will continue to visit classrooms.
Parents and community members packed into the meeting on Tuesday night. It was their first time to officially meet the men and women the state put in place to right the ship.
The common theme from the community was that they will be watching. Trust from the community is not yet entirely present, but they will allow the new leadership to earn it.
Significant votes were taken at Tuesday’s meeting, including the approval of the acting superintendent agreement, making his role official for now.
There was also a vote on the board-approved superintendent certification waiver. Licata does not hold a state certification, so the waiver gives him time to obtain that.
Another vote concerned the temporary suspension of local board policies, which allows the board to evaluate meeting dates and hiring practices.
Licata addressed the room, focusing largely on proficiency versus growth.
“Three percent growth is wonderful, but it doesn’t mean they’re ever going to get to proficiency,” Licata said. “We have to work toward proficiency and get rid of the gap… It’s gotta be everybody, including parents, buses, nurses, custodians, teachers, and administration. We have an opportunity here, and we have to take advantage of it.”
Newly elected Board President Pete Green discussed a brief but effective relationship with the new superintendent.
“It’s an arranged marriage that the TEA chose the super and the TEA chose the board, but the first thing he said to me was transparency, and I said radical transparency,” Green said.
With that theme of transparency, Licata said he plans to implement a superintendent message every Friday to keep the community up to date, whether the news is good or bad.
Why is the TEA changing the superintendent and board of trustees?
The change in leadership comes after Morath said in October 2025 that the elected school board “failed the students” and failed to implement improvements that would have improved their performance for several consecutive years.
The Leadership Academy at Forest Oaks 6th-grade campus, formerly known as Glencrest 6th School, earned its fifth consecutive unacceptable accountability rating for the 2022-23 school year. The district closed the campus after the 2022-23 school year.
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.
Morath said the district’s closing of the campus did not relieve the TEA of its obligation under state law to intervene and “did not address the district’s underlying systemic deficiencies that caused the chronic underperformance.”
Morath said last year the academic problems in Fort Worth extended beyond one troubled campus. The commissioner said that districtwide, only 34% of students in the Fort Worth ISD are meeting grade-level requirements, which is 16 percentage points below the state average.
“Ultimately, these changes are necessitated because of chronic academic problems in Fort Worth. Even with some marginal improvement in the most recent year, we actually saw an increase in the number of chronically academically unacceptable campuses,” Morath told NBC 5. “Twenty campuses in the Fort Worth ISD have been D or F rated for multiple years, and this is just not acceptable for our children. To put it in perspective, at an F campus, less than one-third of kids are on grade level, and less than half are making a year’s worth of progress in a year.”
Morath previously told NBC 5 the board of managers would consist of Fort Worth community members “who are committed to governing effectively to support positive change for the students of the district.”
“Fort Worth wants the best possible academic outcomes for every student, as evidenced by the hundreds of community members who showed their willingness to serve,” Morath said. “Possessing a diverse range of experiences and expertise, the governance and leadership team appointed today is comprised of individuals with an aligned vision and collective belief that all students, when properly supported, can achieve at high levels. I look forward to seeing this belief in action and their leadership of Fort Worth ISD’s next chapter.”
