Superintendent’s departure leaves Fort Worth ISD without a chief. What happens next?

As former Fort Worth Independent School District Superintendent Angélica Ramsey leaves her post, school board members have yet to say what they’re looking for in a replacement, how they’ll conduct a search for one, or who’s running the district in the meantime.

Monday was Ramsey’s last day as superintendent after the board approved a resignation agreement last week. Under the agreement, Ramsey remains on the district’s payroll until August, but district leaders haven’t explained what capacity she’ll be working in.

The Star-Telegram reached out to all nine Fort Worth ISD school board members about their priorities for the upcoming search for a superintendent. Only one of the nine offered comment — District 6 Trustee Anne Darr, who said it was too early in the process to discuss priorities.

“The process of finding a new superintendent for FWISD must include the community, and the process to solicit the community’s feedback has not begun,” she said. “It hasn’t even had time to begin.”

But although the board doesn’t yet have a defined set of priorities, Fort Worth leaders and education advocates say they want a new superintendent who has experience turning other troubled districts around.

Fort Worth ISD is leaderless after Ramsey’s departure

Ramsey’s departure leaves Fort Worth ISD without a top administrator in place. The school board is expected to appoint an interim superintendent, but the board isn’t scheduled to meet until Oct. 8. In a statement, a Fort Worth ISD spokesperson said the district is “finalizing next steps for the district’s leadership transition.”

“In the meantime, the district’s leadership team will continue to manage day-to-day operations in accordance with established procedures,” the statement said.

Even if the search process isn’t officially under way, parents and community leaders are making their priorities known. Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, director of the advocacy group Parent Shield Fort Worth, said she wants to see the board select a new superintendent who has a track record of making change and listening to parent voices.

Parents and other community members need to be heavily involved in the search process, Dorsey-Hollins said — something she didn’t see enough of during the last search process. The board needs to take the issue of community trust seriously, she said, since many parents have found it hard to have faith in a board that’s almost entirely made up of the same people who hired Ramsey two years ago

Dorsey-Hollins said she’d like to see school board members organize community listening sessions in neighborhoods around the city. Those meetings need to happen multiple times in each part of the city to make sure as many parents as possible get a chance to offer input, she said. Online surveys can also help for parents and others whose schedules don’t allow them to attend the listening sessions, she said, but she wants to see the biggest emphasis placed on in-person conversations.

Advocates, leaders want academic progress to take top priority

Brent Beasley, CEO of the nonprofit Fort Worth Education Partnership, said he hopes to see the board find a candidate who has experience moving school systems forward academically, high expectations for students and teachers, and a belief that all students should be able to learn.

The district’s academic performance isn’t the only issue its new leader will have to contend with — enrollment declines and possible school closures are also a major area of concern — but Beasley said he hopes the new superintendent will keep academic achievement at the center of every decision.

Beasley said he wants to see the board involve the broader community in the search process. The selection of a new superintendent is an important step for the city at large, so city leaders need to be involved in the decision, he said.

“We have to get this right,” he said.

Ramsey’s resignation came almost exactly a month after Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker spoke at a Fort Worth ISD school board meeting, calling for the board and district leaders to do more to improve academic progress. Although she stopped short of calling for Ramsey to be replaced, Parker said leadership is missing in the district after more than a decade of stagnant student growth.

On the day after the board approved Ramsey’s resignation agreement, Parker acknowledged that the move was a difficult one for the district. Once the search process begins in earnest, she said, she’d like to see the board select a new superintendent who has a track record of turning low-performing districts around elsewhere.

In the weeks since she spoke to the board, Parker has talked to several experienced teachers who have told her that bureaucratic requirements from the district keep them from giving students the help they need, or from showing less experienced educators how to do the job. She wants to see district administrators do better at getting teachers the support they need and letting them do their jobs.

Although mayors in Texas have no formal role in their cities’ education systems, Parker said she hopes to continue to partner with Fort Worth ISD leaders to help students in the district grow academically.

“This is a long-term commitment to help Fort Worth ISD be one of the highest-performing urban districts not just in the state of Texas, but, really, in the country,” Parker said. “I believe our students deserve that.”