The top official at Fort Worth ISD addressed declining student enrollment figures and more at a recent meeting with the Fort Worth City Council.
Superintendent Angélica M. Ramsey outlined the ways the district was grappling with a shrinking student body at a briefing with council members on February 20. As previously covered by The Dallas Express, the district has been facing a paradoxical situation in which its student population dropped from 87,233 in 2016 to 72,783 in 2023 despite Fort Worth seeing considerable population growth.
However, Ramsey pointed out during her presentation that even with this drop in students, the district has a growing share of students considered to be at risk.
“We continue to have an uptick in students who have the most needs,” she said, according to Fox 4 KDFW. “So fewer students, but students who are higher in free/reduced lunch and inching up. Pretty soon, we’ll be at the place of serving 9 out of every 10 students free and reduced lunch.”
An estimated 84.5% of students are coming from lower-income households. Ramsey asked city officials to further their efforts to ensure that “affordable housing” options are made available. She also suggested they encourage local businesses to pay their employees more in wages.
There has also been a rise in students with particular needs, with an estimated 11.7% of the student population requiring special education and 39.1% being considered “emergent bilingual” or in the process of learning English.
To cope with the budget constraints of having fewer students but more expenses — such as the new state law requiring armed peace officers stationed at each campus of public school districts — Ramsey explained that 133 non-teaching positions had been cut. As previously covered by The Dallas Express, the cuts were announced alongside a $43.6 million deficit.
Despite these challenges, as Ramsey told city officials, the district is looking to hire qualified teachers and will not be closing any campuses — at least for the time being.
“Even if a school has low enrollment today, in four to five years, it may be much higher. It may double,” she reasoned, per Fox 4. “We’re not going to make quick decisions with short-sided data, not just for today but for the long run.”
On the other hand, around four dozen campuses reported occupancy levels below 70% last year, as previously covered by The Dallas Express. The district even approved spending $2 million in taxpayer money for a facility capacity study in order to identify areas where potential adjustments could be made in light of declining student enrollment.
Yet amid these difficulties, district officials have pointed to the challenges presenting unique opportunities to turn things around. In terms of students’ academic success, Ramsey assured the city council that reading and math levels were improving.
“Reading levels in the school district are improving. That’s where we meet achievement,” she said.
Still, the district was one of the worst performing in the state during the 2021-2022 school year. Only 32% of students scored at grade level on their STAAR exams that year, and only around 85.7% of graduating seniors earned a diploma in four years despite the hard work of the district’s dedicated teachers.
Dallas ISD also fared poorly, with only 41% of students scoring at grade level and 81.1% of graduating seniors graduating on time.
