Fort Worth ISD’s Meacham Middle School will stay closed for several weeks after heavy rainfall flooded the building, and starting Tuesday, students will be learning inside a campus the district had already shut down for good. The north Fort Worth school closed its doors Friday, with teachers and faculty set to report Monday to Briscoe Elementary, about eight miles south, according to Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Students will follow a day later.
A Shuttered Campus Gets a Second Life
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Superintendent Peter Licata confirmed that Meacham Middle School will be closed for the next several weeks after heavy rainfall caused flooding inside the building. Briscoe Elementary, the site chosen to absorb Meacham’s teachers and students, has sat empty since Fort Worth ISD closed that campus at the end of the 2025-26 school year, the outlet reported.
Meacham teachers and faculty are scheduled to report to Briscoe starting Monday, October 5, with students following on Tuesday, October 6, per the same account. District staff are working to prepare classrooms, transportation, technology, food services and student-support systems at Briscoe over the next several days ahead of that transition, the report notes. Meacham students will stay enrolled in their current courses and programs and will continue receiving the same support services and accommodations despite the temporary move, the Star-Telegram reported.
Superintendent Addresses Anxious Families
Licata acknowledged that the sudden campus change could unsettle students and their families, saying Meacham students and families may feel anxious about the unexpected shift, per the report. He added that the district is committed to supporting students and families throughout the transition and said officials acted quickly to minimize interruption to learning, according to the same source. Teaching and learning are expected to continue Tuesday morning once students arrive at Briscoe, as reported by Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Meacham was already undergoing renovations before the rainfall caused flooding, the Star-Telegram reported, though a district spokesperson did not confirm whether that construction work played any role in the flooding. Fort Worth ISD’s 2021 bond program lists the W.A. Meacham Middle School project, located at 7060 Camp Bowie Blvd., as under construction, combining new construction, building renovations and site improvements, according to fwisd2021bond.com. Project updates describe renovations in the existing administration wing as actively underway, with wall finishes and room build-outs nearing completion.
Days of Record Rainfall Across North Texas
The flooding at Meacham followed a stretch of unusually heavy rain across the region. Much of the Dallas-Fort Worth area received more than 4 inches of rain after months of above-average temperatures and virtually no rainfall, according to CBS News Texas, with totals across the metroplex ranging from just under 3 inches to nearly 6 inches on Thursday. CBS News Texas also reported that Thursday ranked as the ninth-wettest day ever recorded in October for the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Forecasters warned the threat wasn’t over. A slow-moving front combined with tropical moisture was expected to maintain the risk of locally considerable flash or urban flooding across much of Texas and Oklahoma through Friday, according to the National Weather Service. A flood watch was expanded and extended through Friday afternoon across parts of North and Central Texas, with isolated additional rainfall amounts as high as 2 to 4 inches possible, per the agency.
Fort Worth ISD Hopes to Return in Weeks
District leaders hope students and staff can return to the regular Meacham building in a few weeks, though no firm reopening date has been set, the Star-Telegram reported. The situation echoes a similar disruption in Austin earlier this year, when flooding and water damage during building improvements forced Travis Heights Elementary students to start the 2026-27 school year at Dawson Elementary, according to KUT News. Austin ISD officials had anticipated returning to the Travis Heights campus within a few weeks, and Superintendent Matias Segura approved an emergency repair contract while aiming to reopen the school as quickly as possible, the station reported. Families there moved entire classrooms, donated replacement materials for teachers who lost belongings in the flooding, and set up new drop-off and pickup routines, with some parents driving children to a bus stop instead of biking to the original campus.
