Fort Worth ISD shuts two schools and slashes jobs amid state takeover backlash
The Fort Worth ISD board of managers unanimously voted to reduce staff, shut down International Newcomer Academy, and speed up the closure of De Zavala Elementary at a board meeting Tuesday night.
These decisions are all connected to the state's takeover of Fort Worth ISD, and the new leadership plans to overhaul district operations to increase campus ratings.
During a nearly eight-hour meeting, dozens of speakers took to the podium to try to save International Newcomer Academy. This specialized campus focuses on teaching English as a second language to emerging bilingual students.
According to the Texas Education Agency, this campus is currently rated a "D" and has been rated "F" for the past three school years.
"You can have 140 parents and community members show up and speak for hours into the middle of the night, and there's no accountability there," said Monica Bharadwaj, a community member and parent liaison. "People were just asking for that transparency, and in the absence of that, if they could delay the decision. It was just very clear last night that the community's input is not a factor in these decisions."
Bharadwaj said the district hasn't shared much about its plan for students who need specialized support.
"This is a very specialized population of students that are not only emerging English learners, but they're also refugees, and many of them have come from refugee camps," she said. "They've experienced significant trauma. Their families have a lot of social barriers to thriving in an educational setting."
International Newcomer Academy will close in June 2026, along with De Zavala Elementary School, which was originally slated to close next summer. The board agenda cited this as a result of continued falling enrollment.
The board of managers also unanimously voted to cut roughly 32 roles districtwide. That includes emergent bilingual roles, speech therapy assistants, special ed roles, part-time physical and occupational therapists, and more.
Opponents in the audience said these are vital positions in the district.
"We are now firing teachers at 20-plus campuses, who have followed and are still forced to follow this man's toxic, hostile leadership," said Amanda Inay, who took the podium Tuesday night. Inay previously ran to be a member of the school board in 2025.
Parent Zach Leonard said those positions are essential for student success.
"Our question is, what is the plan to backfill those positions?" Leonard said. "When you remove the administrative side of it, there's less training and resources and overall support for our dual language teachers and our ESL teachers."
Leonard and Bharadwaj said they understand the need for improvement but believe the district is moving too quickly without enough transparency or data-driven planning.
"We want Fort Worth ISD to be successful, but they have to listen to the community and slow down a little bit, because they're trying to change too much too fast," Leonard said.
After public comments, Superintendent Dr. Pete Licata said he was disappointed with the reactions.
"Some things that were said were very offensive," Dr. Licata said. "Some people are being very rude in the audience as we speak, and that's on them. That's not on me, that's not on any of us, but we're going to get through this because we're working for kids."
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