The Texas education commissioner is now officially weighing his options for Fort Worth ISD after a now-closed school triggered the state’s school intervention law.
In a May 5 letter to Superintendent Karen Molinar and board President Roxanne Martinez, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said the district’s accountability ratings triggered a state law that requires him to intervene.
The issue: The Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade failed to meet state standards for five straight years — a threshold that mandates either a campus closure or the appointment of a board of managers to govern the entire district.
Although the failing campus no longer exists, its closure does not absolve the district from consequences, Morath said.
“Since the campus earned its fifth consecutive unacceptable academic rating in that year, the school’s subsequent closure has no bearing on, and does not abrogate, the compulsory action the statute requires the commissioner to take,” he wrote in the letter.
District leaders closed the sixth grade campus — formerly known as Glencrest Sixth Grade — at the end of the 2023-24 school year. It was absorbed into Forest Oak Middle School as part of a consolidation plan TEA approved. The school is now marked “obsolete” in the state’s directory.
Still, the delayed release of 2023 academic accountability ratings due to a lawsuit showed the campus earned an F that year. Because the campus had also failed to meet standards in 2022, 2019, 2018 and 2017, the five-year mark was reached.
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District officials previously told the Fort Worth Report they believe Fort Worth ISD is not at risk of a takeover. They said the Forest Oak Sixth Grade closure and campus consolidation already addressed the issue — and that academic performance has improved.
“We are proud of the growth that we have seen in Forest Oak Middle School since the expansion and consolidation to one 6-8 grade campus,” Molinar wrote in an April 24 community letter.
In his letter, Morath emphasized that his hands are tied by law.
“Commissioner action under this section of the (Texas Education Code) is compulsory,” he wrote. “The commissioner does not have discretion whether to act under this provision.”
Morath will not make a final decision until after the ratings are finalized later this summer. Fort Worth ISD has the right to appeal the preliminary rating for the now-closed campus. That process will conclude in August.
The district plans to appeal the rating, a spokesperson told the Fort Worth Report. Fort Worth ISD remains focused on improving student outcomes, the statement said.
A copy of Morath’s letter is embedded in the story. It may be that FWISD officials are right and they’re not at risk of a takeover, but Morath used that same language about him not having discretion in these matters right before HISD got invaded. Make of that what you will. The TEA took over South San Antonio ISD in February, so they’ve got their hands even more full. We’ll see what happens here.