The head of Midland’s school district is lone finalist for Fort Worth superintendent

Angelica Ramsey, the superintendent of Midland school district, is the lone finalist to lead the Fort Worth school district as Kent Scribner officially resigns from the role. The announcement was made Tuesday night at a special board meeting.

State law requires a 21-day waiting period before she can officially begin as leader. An interim superintendent, Karen Molinar, will serve in the role in the meantime.

“I am extremely honored to join the Fort Worth ISD team,” Ramsey said Tuesday in a statement released by the school district. “I look forward to meeting with our stakeholders, visiting classrooms, and working together to provide a world-class education for all students.”

Ramsey previously served as a principal and assistant principal in the Socorro school district in El Paso, before moving to California where she worked in the Santa Clara County Office of Education and served as superintendent for Pleasant Valley Schools.

In 2021, she joined the struggling Midland school district as superintendent after it ousted the former leader for failing to meet academic goals. During a recent review, Ramsey was celebrated for meeting all academic goals, with the state rating the district a B, up from a C in 2019.

“We are excited to name Dr. Angelica Ramsey as the lone finalist for superintendent of the Fort Worth ISD,” board president Tobi Jackson said in a statement. “She will bring her many amazing leadership qualities to our district and to the benefit of our greater community.”

In July, Ramsey received a raise, from $275,000 to $310,000, according to the Midland Reporter-Telegram.

Scribner made $330,000 when he joined the district in 2015 after leaving an Arizona school district.

The Midland school board has a special board meeting scheduled later this week to discuss “legal counsel regarding employment of Superintendent.”

Midland board members declined to comment for this story.

‘Seismic shift’ in teaching reading

Ramsey is entering the 72,000-student Fort Worth district in a phase of change punctuated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A “seismic shift” in teaching reading brought on by Chief Academic Officer Marcey Sorensen and other leaders who joined the district in 2019 has increased reading scores, with the district celebrating growth in standardized tests and state ratings this last year.

Sustaining that growth and focusing on student groups that continue to perform poorly will be a challenge for the next leader, district staff told the Star-Telegram. Leaders are also focusing on rethinking how math is taught, with a new curriculum and professional development for teachers.

Ramsey told the Star-Telegram that she came up as a reading teacher and embraced the district’s approach of using the science of teaching reading.

Another issue the leader will have to contend with includes high teacher vacancy rates, which she said she would address by regularly visiting teachers and hearing what issues they shared directly.

Parents, activists protest

A group of parents and community members who have regularly attended board meetings to question members about the district’s focus on equity and inclusion were quick to cast doubt on the selection of Ramsey on Tuesday night, pointing to her focus on equity throughout her career.

In February, 2016 the Fort Worth school board approved the creation of the Racial Equity Committee “for the purpose of fighting against systemic racism directly.”

The committee developed a policy that declares “the responsibility of addressing these disparities among students rests with the adults, not with the students,” according to a press release.

Actions by the committee have led to reduced disparities in suspension rates and more hiring and retention of racially and ethnically diverse staff members, according to Star-Telegram archives.

At the end of July a group of demonstrators called for the elimination of the district’s racial equity initiatives and some spoke out during school board meetings, calling for the disbandment of the district’s Racial Equity Committee and the Division of Equity and Excellence.

Ramsey’s history aligns with the district’s goals.

On a podcast in 2016, Ramsey said equity in schools goes beyond “providing for those students that have been historically disadvantaged.”

“That is a large part of it, but equity for us means that every child receives what they need,” she said. “So at our campuses, we have clustered our gifted students together so that our gifted students receive additional supports, not more work, but work in a different way, or assignments in a different way.”

Other examples of equity include providing time for English language development for emergent bilinguals and providing access to clubs for students to feel connected to a school, she said.

“So making sure again, that every child has what they need,” she said in the podcast.

Ramsey wrote a dissertation in 2013 titled “Nuestra Voz: A Critical Ethnographic Study Of Latina School Leaders” that explored “the experiences of Latina principals in both established and burgeoning Latina/o communities in raising Latina/o achievement.”

She found that the voices of Latina principals were underrepresented in literature, but could have real impacts on student achievement.

“This study has shown that Latina leaders have a skill set to mitigate the achievement gap and ensure that tomorrow’s workforce will be prepared,” she says in the conclusion.

In a press conference held after the meeting, Ramsey described her findings and the process she went through for her dissertation.

“I had a lot of conversations with my chair and also with my methods professor there,” she said. “And because I studied the changing demographics in the U.S. ... I studied 10 Latina principals in two states and really spent time with them to learn what their obstacles were.”

On social media and in public comments, parents chastised the paper and Ramsey for using Critical Race Theory, a theoretical framework that helps researchers look at how racial inequity has been built into American social systems over time, and how that inequity affects those social systems today.

One speaker, Jennifer Treger, said parents wanted to eliminate “diversity, equity and inclusion.”

“CRT is very divisive and I really thought we could keep the focus on reading, writing and arithmetic,” she said during public comment.

In comments made after she was announced, Ramsey said critical race theory was never taught in the classroom.

“There is no CRT in the classroom,” she said. “CRT is not taught in K-12 schools and in the state of Texas, we actually in the last legislative session had a law so it is illegal. It wasn’t taught anyway but it is illegal.”

Meredith Bowman, a teacher and parent, cast doubt on the board’s selection given the smaller size of the Midland school district and low levels of distinction in recent ratings. The Midland district has an enrollment of 26,393.

Several speakers criticized the district’s lone finalist process, which kept the candidate secret until Tuesday night and didn’t reveal other options.

Jackson, the board president, confirmed after the meeting that 38 candidates were whittled six with three alternates before the lone finalist was selected.

Jackson said Ramsey’s ability to “bring detractors to the table and find common ground” would serve the district well.

Other speakers, including Fort Worth teacher Ernie Moran, said the equity work of the district must continue and was “long overdue.”

“The notion that ... equity work somehow distracts from the mission of this district is belied by the facts,” he said. “The most recent rating shows district growth.”

Trustee Quinton Phillips said that he appreciated everyone who spoke out at the board meeting, but added that he had heard from many other parents and students via phone, email and in-person visits. The input of all the stakeholders combined is what led to the unanimous decision, Philips and other trustees said.

Fort Worth leaders hope for continued growth

SaJade Miller, the superintendent of the charter school Rocketship who recently spoke on a panel with outgoing superintendent Kent Scribner, said that he looks forward to collaborating with the new leader.

“I am excited to connect with the next superintendent and establish a partnership built on collaboration to support all students in Fort Worth,” he told the Star-Telegram. “Rocketship Texas is committed to partnership and I stand ready to provide any support that I can give to the new superintendent.”

Miller, who helped launch the first Rocketship elementary campus in Fort Worth this year, hopes to work with the district in strengthening middle schools so children can transition back into the district after finishing early grades at the charter school.

“When our Rocketship elementary students return to the FWISD performing on or above grade level with parents who have harnessed their power as partners in their children’s education, they will demand and be prepared for great public school options,” he said. “On a structural or systemic level, the partnership could include everything from piloting and preparation for middle school programs offered in the FWISD to middle school fairs.”

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, who has been outspoken about the historically low scores in Fort Worth schools, said the district needs “transformative leadership.”

“Now is a critical time for transformative leadership at FWISD,” she said in a statement. “Our entire community needs to rally behind the district while also demanding excellence, as well as providing support for our teachers and students to have the tools they need for an excellent education and a strong pathway to success in life after the classroom.”

While the mayor and City Council have no direct role in school district matters, the mayor recently convened a committee on education and workforce development that includes several top Fort Worth school administrators.

“We all have to care about student outcomes, because their academic success is our success,” she added. “Our parents, educators, and leaders of business and community must come together and support our students, because they are the future of this city.”

Scribner, who did not attend the meeting Tuesday, put out a video message on social media before the board meeting.

“Before our time together ends, I want to personally thank our teachers,” he said. “You have been the foundation of our improvement. You saw our community through a global pandemic and still improved student outcomes.”

The outgoing leader hasn’t said what he is doing next, but hinted in the video that it would have something to do with education.

“Supporting you and our students will continue to be at the center of my work moving forward,” he said in the video.