By Rick Mauch

One of the worst things that can happen to a school district has happened to two local districts. Fort Worth and Lake Worth have been taken over by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) in an effort to bring each district up to state standards.

Fort Worth has been working under new leadership since late October of 2025, while Lake Worth was taken over during April of this year.

TEA took over the FWISD for chronically low academic performance at the now-closed Leadership Academy of Fort Worth, which had a score of F five consecutive years. Lake Worth’s takeover stemmed from consistently poor performance at Marilyn Miller Language Academy.

In both cases, the leadership of the local school boards was replaced by a TEA-appointed board of managers. The elected board members remain in office in both districts, but their power has been removed.

New superintendents were appointed in both districts. Dr. Peter Licata was brought in to lead Fort Worth and replace Karen Molinar; Dr. Ena Meyers replaced Mark Ramirez, who resigned in March from LWISD.

Licata had been superintendent and chief executive officer of Broward County Public Schools in Florida, the sixth largest school district in the United States, with more than 250,000 students and 32,000 staff members. He led the district to its first state A rating in more than 14 years and eliminated all D and F schools.

Meyers most recently served as Deputy Chief of Strategic Initiatives at Houston ISD. She is also a former principal and district leader in the Dallas ISD.

Each takeover is for a minimum of two years, or until all campuses consistently achieve acceptable accountability ratings.

These takeovers make FWISD and LWISD part of a small group; during the past three decades, the state had taken control of only 14 districts. The largest was Houston, with more than 180,000 students, in 2023.

As evidence that the TEA means business, Houston’s takeover was scheduled to end in 2025, pending improvements required by the state. However, it was extended to June 2027 after it was deemed these were not met.

Worth noting: Despite the state takeover, teachers in the FWISD were given a 5% raise for the 2025-26 school year.

Fort Worth ISD has new leaders at more than 30 campuses as the Texas Education Agency-run district re-shapes campus leadership.