More than 180 people crowded into Arlington Heights High School for what became the loudest of four listening sessions Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Dr. Peter Licata has held with parents and community members, as attendees pressed him and district leaders over a rigid new curriculum, teacher turnover and what many described as poor communication from the state-appointed administration. One parent was ejected from the meeting before it ended, and a veteran teacher told the crowd she is considering leaving the district entirely.
Parent Christina Jones, who wants a genuine partnership with the district's new state-appointed leadership, summed up the mood in blunt terms. Jones said parents feel it is “us vs. them” with the district, according to Fort Worth Report. She had also spoken directly with Licata on August 26 at a separate meeting at South Hills High School, and later attended that South Hills session as well, per the same report.
The frustration follows a chain of state intervention that reshaped Fort Worth ISD's governance entirely. The Texas Education Agency initiated takeover proceedings in October 2025 and formally replaced the elected school board with a nine-member Board of Managers and Licata as superintendent on March 24, after a district campus racked up five consecutive failing academic accountability grades, as detailed by WFAA. Texas law mandates such takeovers when a single campus fails academic standards for five straight years.
A Superintendent With a Complicated Résumé
Before landing in Fort Worth, Licata had no prior ties to the district. He previously served as superintendent of Broward County Public Schools in Florida — the nation's sixth-largest district — for 10 months before stepping down in April 2024, citing health reasons, according to The Texas Tribune. During that brief tenure, he led Broward County to its first A state grade in 14 years, the outlet reported. Under his current contract, Licata receives $1,384.62 per day plus a $25,000 relocation stipend, per CBS News Texas.
At the Arlington Heights session, Licata did not shy away from the district's academic crisis. He told the crowd that three out of five students cannot read proficiently, and said plainly, “I'm here because we did not do well,” according to Fort Worth Report. He called teachers the most important educators in a student's life even as he defended tighter expectations placed on them.
Complaints About Slides, Language Mix-Ups and Drop-Off Chaos
Much of the anger centered on Fort Worth ISD's requirement that teachers use district-provided instructional slides under the Elevate Schools Network. Parent Alexander Nguyen, who attended all four listening sessions, reported that district-provided French lessons drifted between French and Spanish, and said English assignments were difficult to parse. He suggested letting the district's strongest teachers standardize materials themselves rather than relying on centrally produced slides.
Licata acknowledged the lessons have mistakes and said teachers sometimes edit them incorrectly. Curriculum staff reviewed and corrected the slides Nguyen flagged, according to district official Louis Kushner, who said the Elevate model begins instruction the moment students enter the building. District leaders separately confirmed they corrected the curriculum slides Nguyen had raised concerns about, per Fort Worth Report.
Drop-off logistics generated their own frustration. Daniel Trejo Jr., whose son started pre-K at Diamond Hill Elementary, described how the campus prevented parents from walking children inside on the first day — a policy affecting families like that of 8-year-old Juliette Figueroa. Licata conceded the district had not adequately communicated the drop-off change, and district leaders acknowledged inconsistency in campus procedures across schools.
Veteran Teachers Say They're Worn Down
Lucynda Nicholson, who has taught more than 30 years in Fort Worth ISD, told the room, “I feel like nobody's listening to us,” and said she is considering leaving the district in December or May. Jones said educators are worn down by micromanagement and mistrust, a sentiment that parents connected directly to lesson rigidity and fears about retaining experienced teachers.
The Elevate Network itself launched in April with a $25.1 million price tag, requiring staff across 19 low-performing campuses rated D or F to reapply for their jobs as part of an effort to accelerate academic recovery for nearly 25,000 struggling students, Fort Worth's Elevate overhaul showed, per Hoodline. Teachers hired into those campuses are now offered base salaries between $88,000 and $100,000 for a 212-day contract year that includes 25 additional instruction days, according to district hiring materials. Fort Worth ISD is also hiring more teachers whose job is to review instructional work before it reaches classrooms.
A District Already Under Scrutiny
Distrust of district messaging predates the Arlington Heights session. In July, audience members shouted “Liar” at Licata during a board meeting when he claimed only 20 teacher vacancies remained districtwide, prompting managers to grant emergency hiring delegation for specialized roles — an episode Hoodline covered in a report on the confrontation. That same month, Fort Worth ISD finalized a separation agreement paying former superintendent Dr. Karen Molinar at least $360,000, representing a full year of salary and benefits, following her replacement by the state-appointed leadership.
Trenace Dorsey-Hollins, executive director of Parent Shield, said clear, proactive and transparent communication can repair broken trust, but added that FWISD tends to tell parents what happened only after problems occur. Mario Alcalá, who has two children attending Lily B. Clayton Elementary, was among the parents who turned out at Arlington Heights alongside the district's declared plan to have leaders share listening-session takeaways through the superintendent's weekly newsletter. District leaders removed open questions from the meeting format for this round of sessions, and Licata promised his cabinet would review feedback from all four sessions to determine what needs to change.
The Financial and Research Backdrop
The district's Board of Managers approved a $1.1 billion budget for the 2026–27 school year that carries a $49.8 million shortfall, driven by declining enrollment, a $13.5 million teacher raise package and the $25.1 million in Elevate Network spending, according to KERA News. That financial strain adds pressure to a governance experiment whose long-term payoff remains uncertain: research from the Brookings Institution, cited by the Fort Worth Report, found that state takeovers of public school districts generally do not produce sustainable long-term improvements in reading or math scores, though initial gains tend to run higher in majority-Latino districts like Fort Worth ISD.
District leaders point to tools like FWISD Forward, an in-house daily video newscast published on district social media in English and Spanish, as one avenue for rebuilding communication. Whether that effort, or the promised newsletter follow-up, can close the gap Jones described will likely shape how the next round of listening sessions unfolds.
