Years of warning signs, little urgency: How Lake Worth ISD ended up under state control

By Matthew Sgroi, Fort Worth Report
August 8, 2026

The pre-K students barely looked up when Lake Worth ISD’s superintendent entered their classroom in late February.

One child traced over letters already written on a board. Another sat on the floor fitting together pieces of plastic pipe. Across the room, teacher Karey Bennett worked with a small group while the other children moved independently between stations.

All while the superintendent watched.

“Having a superintendent in the classroom is new,” Principal Robbin Church said.

Now, the newness is districtwide: new superintendent, new board of managers, new teachers, new principals and new strategies. All of it will be on full display Aug. 11 when Lake Worth ISD’s first full year under state control begins. The takeover followed years of academic decline and slow leadership decisions — and, parents said, a district that never gave families a real way to understand the scale of the crisis or press for action.

The superintendent who watched the class was Mark Ramirez, who wanted to turn around Lake Worth ISD, a roughly 3,200-student district northwest of Fort Worth where nearly 90% of students are economically disadvantaged and many are learning English. He was superintendent for 10 months until he resigned after Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath passed him over for the position of takeover superintendent.

The intervention didn’t deter Ramirez from seeking progress. The state had already announced its takeover by the time Ramirez visited the classroom Feb. 25, but he remained superintendent while the district awaited its new state-appointed leadership. He continued spending Wednesdays in schools and bringing teams of administrators through classrooms so often that students no longer stopped to watch.

The routine visits reflected the challenge Ramirez inherited. By then, however, the state-imposed timeline had nearly run out for Lake Worth.

Morath replaced Lake Worth’s elected trustees on April 23 with a five-member board of managers and appointed a new superintendent. The new leaders must now show whether they can turn around the district academically while rebuilding trust and engagement with families and the broader community.

Ramirez knew his time was running short. But he stood and smiled at the back of the Effie Morris S.T.E.A.M. Academy classroom that February morning.

“This is exactly what you want to see,” he said. Students were working independently, practicing early literacy skills and moving between activities while Bennett focused on a small group — the kind of student engagement Ramirez had been pushing across the district.

Years of warning signs

Marilyn Miller Language Academy triggered the district takeover after receiving five straight F’s, but it was hardly Lake Worth ISD’s only struggling school.

In 2025, four of the district’s five campuses received D or F ratings from the state. Texas ordered Lake Worth leaders to revise or submit turnaround plans for multiple schools in addition to Miller, an elementary campus.

The decline was visible years earlier: The share of Lake Worth students meeting grade level expectations across all subjects continued to fall from 28% in 2018 to 22% in 2025.

But district leadership moved slowly.

Trustees voted 6-1 in August 2024 to extend then-Superintendent Rose Mary Neshyba’s contract by another year. Neshyba, who led the district from 2018 to 2025, oversaw the continued academic decline. Tammy Thomas, president of the elected board, cast the only opposing vote.

Neshyba announced her retirement five months later, and trustees hired Ramirez in May 2025.

Neither Neshyba nor any of the six trustees who voted to extend her contract responded to requests for comment.

Thomas said Neshyba’s administration never clearly warned trustees that a fifth consecutive failing grade at Miller elementary could force the education commissioner to close the campus or replace district leadership. She also has said the board should have acted sooner.

Thomas said in January that the board bore responsibility for the district’s situation because trustees waited too long to change leadership.

The ratings and intervention requirements were public, and trustees are responsible for monitoring the district.

“We were slow, very slow, in appointing a new superintendent,” Thomas said in January.

Trustees hired Ramirez on May 28, 2025.

Ramirez, a longtime Dallas ISD administrator before his hiring, described Lake Worth as having a “small-town feel” but “urban inner-city challenges.”

His administration pushed consistent lesson frameworks, classroom coaching and student discussion.

Lake Worth’s 2026 results suggest some of that work was beginning to pay off. Students improved in all five high school subjects tested on the spring STAAR exams.

But those gains came too late. Takeover was all but certain.

Families saw support — but not the districtwide crisis

The state’s ratings told one story. Several parents said their experiences inside individual schools told another.

Rachael Sayas said Miller elementary staff helped her 6-year-old son, Jordan Garcia, who has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, make progress during kindergarten.

Sayas knew Lake Worth performed below some neighboring districts. She did not understand how serious the problems had become until the takeover approached.

She pinned the disconnect on one factor: “The lack of communication,” she said.

Robrianna Emerson had a similar experience after moving from Dallas. At Lake Worth’s Morris S.T.E.A.M. Academy, employees helped her son manage learning disabilities and ADHD while his reading and math improved. Her daughter began sounding out words and practicing addition.

“This is really the best school district that we’ve been in,” Emerson said.

Her kids’ progress made reconciling the state’s assessment difficult. She didn’t know most Lake Worth students were not proficient in reading, math or any other subject. The district had not explained the broader data, she said.

Temi Oyelami, whose two children attend Marine Creek Leadership Academy, said they received the academic help they needed. Between raising three children and working at FedEx, she had little time for district affairs. Her main concern: the repeated bullying of her son and daughter.

Parents’ experiences help explain why years of low ratings did not produce public outrage, said Gabriel Huddleston, a Texas Christian University professor who studies education and community engagement. Families could see their children receiving support without seeing the systemwide problems reflected in state data.

“I have yet to meet a parent in my life that doesn’t care about their child’s education,” Huddleston said.

Parents working multiple jobs may not attend evening meetings, Huddleston said. Others may face language barriers or unfamiliarity with district governance.

Hector Bojorquez, director of operations and educational practice at the Intercultural Development Research Association, said low engagement should not be treated as proof that families do not care.

“It’s never the community’s fault,” Bojorquez said. “It’s that they’re not being engaged in a certain way.”

Empty microphones

Lake Worth’s lack of visible civic engagement stretched beyond parents.

Before the takeover, public-comment periods at school board meetings routinely passed without speakers. Board elections drew limited attention, and far fewer people applied to serve on Lake Worth’s board of managers than in neighboring Fort Worth ISD.

The silence has continued under state control. Since the takeover, no one has spoken during public-comment periods.

Stephen Timberlake, a carpenter with five children in Lake Worth schools, said he had considered attending a school board meeting but never followed through.

“I just thought that there would already be people there doing stuff,” he said.

The Fort Worth Report contacted dozens of parents, residents and community organizations. Most, including the Lake Worth Education Foundation, did not respond.

The separation also extended to city government.

Walter Bowen, Lake Worth’s mayor since 1995, attended his first school board meeting in November as the takeover gained attention. The city and school district largely operated separately, Bowen said, despite serving many of the same families.

“I’m here to learn,” Bowen told the Report.

That distance between the district and its broader community is now part of the challenge facing the state-appointed leaders. Board President Tom Harris said managers would publish their goals, report the district’s progress and be transparent about whether students were improving.

Results, he said, would be essential to winning over residents who did not elect them.

“You have to earn people’s trust, and you don’t earn people’s trust overnight,” Harris said.

Families wanted a way in

For nearly 20 years, Julie Rosato Ford watched children in her family move through Lake Worth schools. She wanted parents to have a voice but said the district often scheduled events before working parents could arrive and did not livestream board meetings for those unable to attend.

“By the time we get off work and the traffic and all that kind of stuff, it was over,” Rosato Ford said. “Why go?”

Emerson wanted to get more involved in her children’s schools. She tried joining Morris S.T.E.A.M. Academy’s parent-teacher organization but found that positions appeared to have been filled before newcomers had a meaningful chance to participate, she said.

“It wasn’t welcoming,” Emerson said.

Yet the turnout at Lake Worth High School’s Aug. 1 back-to-school event offered a stark contrast to the empty boardrooms.

More than 1,000 people attended, including over 300 families, according to district officials. Organizers distributed more than 550 backpacks, helped about 140 families register returning students and enrolled nearly 40 new students.

Lake Worth families showed up when participation was accessible, useful and directly tied to their children, parents said.

New leaders inherit old questions

Superintendent Ena Meyers and the managers have begun reshaping the district. Both Meyers and the managers were appointed April 23.

Four of Lake Worth’s five campuses will begin the school year with new principals.

Managers have drafted goals focused on early literacy and math, middle-school readiness and preparing graduates for college, careers or the military.

The district also restructured Miller Language Academy, the school whose struggles triggered the takeover.

Meyers said she is a partner with families. She encouraged parents to ask what their students are learning, monitor achievement and ensure daily attendance.

Stronger connections will come as students become more successful and enjoy school, Meyers said.

“We’re not forcing engagement,” she said. “I think you’ll see a natural connection and a natural communication that happens because we’re helping focus on students achieving.”

The district must invite families into decisions and remove barriers to participation, according to parents.

Meyers’ priorities — aligned lessons, teacher training, coaching and accountability — overlap with parts of Ramirez’s approach. Harris said managers hoped to build on work that was already producing results.

Parents said the new leaders still have to prove themselves.

Sayas said she has received more information since the transition but is still determining whether it will last.

“Just let us be more informed,” she said.

Timberlake wants stable campus leadership and simpler communication. Oyelami wants earlier notice and stronger responses to bullying. Emerson wants families invited into the work before decisions are made.

Their priorities differ, but the demand is similar: Families want to understand what is happening and be convinced that their involvement matters.

“Community engagement has to be deep and authentic, not just based on emergencies,” said Bojorquez of the Intercultural Development Research Association.

Huddleston cautioned that higher test scores alone will not determine whether state intervention succeeds. Improvements are less likely to endure if families and residents are not meaningfully involved.

“Is it sustainable?” the TCU professor said.

Rosato Ford said outreach should move beyond Lake Worth’s most visible traditions. Athletics, especially football, draw civic attention while academic achievements receive less, she said.

State appointments can replace trustees, superintendents and principals. They cannot, by themselves, create lasting community ownership, Huddleston and Bojorquez said.

The students who barely noticed Ramirez entering their classroom in February will return Aug. 11 under a new superintendent, a new governing board and a new principal.

They may not notice who governs the district. They will notice whether their teachers are supported, whether lessons help them grow and whether the adults responsible for their schools remain present.

The systems inside their classrooms will matter. So will the answer to whether the adults outside those rooms finally begin paying closer attention.

Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1. 

Disclosure: Lake Worth ISD manager Tom Harris is an executive vice president at Hillwood, a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. News decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.

This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.