The FWISD council submitted an impressive portfolio for its efforts in increasing inclusion in PTAs across the district. The statewide recognition rewards councils that foster meaningful connections, remove barriers to participation, and prioritize mission-driven work.

“The Fort Worth ISD Council focused on increasing access to leadership development, particularly in communities less likely to have active or sustained PTA presence,” the Texas PTA said in the recognition. “They offered monthly coffee chats and virtual workshops that brought leaders together across the district.”

“One statement that stood out in their application read, ‘Starting new PTAs isn’t enough — we believe it’s just as important to continue supporting and nurturing parent leaders in these communities so they can thrive,’” Texas PTA went on to say about FWISD. “Their efforts led to stronger connections, greater attendance, and a noticeable rise in PTA involvement and membership.”

PTAs can only win each impact award from Texas PTA once, now FWISD has both. FWISD won the other, the Texas PTA Advocacy Impact Award, last summer. This year, the council also won the Outstanding Council Platform Award, which recognizes overall excellence in advancing and supporting local PTA chapters. Winning both impact awards was a major goal for President Marisol Herrera.

“I worked diligently to achieve these goals, and feel incredibly proud of what we achieved,” Herrera said. “I am grateful and humbled by the work of the Council executive board and all the local PTA units that made it possible. There are wonderful things happening in our district, and we are excited to bring awareness and recognition to our district and our community.”

In recent years, the FWISD Council of PTAs expanded representation across all areas of the district, and Herrera said chapters continue to strive to amplify the voices of historically underrepresented communities.

“I am thankful for all the support the FWISD has extended to our organization, and encourage everyone to continue to get involved and spread the word about the important work we do, ” Herrera said. “It’s not just parents and teachers, all community members play an important role in advancing our mission to make every child’s potential a reality.”

The post FWISD Council of PTAs Earn Prestigious Statewide Honor first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

A product of  Stop Six and the East Side, the current Fort Worth Independent School District trustee for District 3 and one of the founders of the non-profit CommUnity Frontline represents what a young person, educated in Fort Worth public schools, can become. It’s not a stretch to say that Stop Six and the East Side molded Phillips into the man he is today. 

Granted, Phillips’ path from Stop Six to the school board hasn’t been a particularly straight line. After all, going from probation officer to university professor to school board trustee, all in the space of less than 14 years, is far from “traditional.” When I mentioned this, Phillips threw his head back and roared with laughter, eliciting smiles from the other patrons of Black Coffee. (He’s a regular there.) “It has been anything BUT traditional,” he said. “But it has been completely divinely guided.” 

Phillips graduated from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in 1999 and is still a loud and proud Dunbar Wildcat, much to the dismay of his wife, who grew up in Forest Hill and graduated from O.D. Wyatt in the same year. He earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from Prairie View A&M University, a historically black university near Houston. And that’s where Phillips said God first guided him to where he needed to be.  

“We had to get internship hours to graduate,” Phillips remembered. “I had left it a little too late and was scrambling to find something, but every internship was filled. My advisor called the supervisor of Tarrant County’s Juvenile Services, who told her, once again, that everything was already filled. But I heard his voice.”  

photo credit: OMG PhotoStuff

As Phillips talked, his smile kept getting bigger and bigger. “I asked, ‘Is that Bill West? Tell him it’s Q!’ See, Bill West and I had been part of Camp Community through the Multicultural Alliance when he was an advisor, and I was a delegate. Once Bill heard it was me, he found a space for me.”  

That internship led to a job after college and a lifelong friendship with West. Coming back to Fort Worth, Phillips became an interventional specialist with the Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program at the Lena Pope Home. After five years with the program, he transitioned to being a juvenile probation officer with Tarrant County.  

When asked about the stresses that come with a job like juvenile parole officer, Phillips said, “They paid me to do the paperwork. I would have worked with those kids for free.” 

“Yes, the job was challenging. Yes, the job was hard. But it was a privilege to work every day with [children] who had been cast away or were on the path to being cast away. I never once went to sleep at night wondering if I had made a difference in someone’s life.”  

Phillips held that job for almost ten years. Toward the end of his tenure with the County, Phillips said God intervened again. One day, Bill West called his former protégée. West had become an associate professor at TCU, teaching in the Department of Criminal Justice, but he was nearing retirement. He asked if Phillips had ever considered teaching.  

So Phillips became an adjunct professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at TCU, going from probation officer to university professor. Along the way, he married Diondra (the O.D. Wyatt graduate), and they settled on the East Side to raise their two boys, Quinton II and Austin. Diondra is currently working on her Ph.D. in educational leadership.  

“She’s the most educated person I know,” Phillips said. “She has a bachelor’s from UT in electrical engineering, one master’s from SMU in mathematics, and another master’s from UTA in educational leadership. She’s incredible!” 

photo credit: OMG PhotoStuff

Of course, knowing the crosstown rivalry between O.D. Wyatt and Dunbar, I had to ask where the Phillips’ children would go. Once again, Phillips roared with laughter.  

“I’ve brainwashed them really well; they’re Dunbar Wildcats through and through.” Quinton II is an eighth grader at the Young Men’s Leadership Academy, while Austin is a second grader at Riverside Applied Learning Academy. Quinton will have to choose between switching to Dunbar or continuing at the Young Men’s Leadership Academy. “We don’t know where Quinton will go [for high school], but we want to allow him to be part of the choice.” 

It’s easy to see how important education is to Phillips. He leans his whole body into the conversation, and his face gets serious. It’s not hard to understand why he took the leap from professor to school board trustee. He described running for school board as a “weird kind of crossroad but one that God guided me to.” And, like so much in his life, running for school board has its roots in Stop Six.  

“I grew up around the corner from Christene Chadwick Moss. Her son, Frank Jr., was my brother. Growing up in her house, I was able to witness firsthand what she was able to do for education in Fort Worth.”  

Christene Chadwick Moss was the District 3 school board trustee for almost 20 years. She served as the president of the Texas Caucus of Black School Board Members, and Christene C. Moss Elementary School is named for her. When, after she decided to step down from the school board, Phillips told her he was going to run to replace her, Moss “gave me her blessing, and then told me not to put my foot in my mouth or screw up.”  

Phillips also has been lifelong friends with school board trustee Jacinto Ramos, Jr. “With those two people guiding me, I couldn’t do anything BUT run for school board!” He was elected to represent District 3 in 2019. Less than a year later, the rookie trustee was dropped in the metaphorical deep end.  

Spring Break 2020 must hold a record somewhere for being the longest spring break on record. As students left for their break, FWISD was hit with a ransomware attack that crippled the district’s computer system. While the district was frantically trying to rebuild their network, the State of Texas closed schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The school board had to figure out how to educate Fort Worth’s students, many of whom did not have access to online learning or even a solid meal every day. When the 2020-2021 school year started, the school board had to decide whether to implement online-only learning or to open the schools. The parents of Fort Worth were divided and vocal in their opinions. 

Now the debate has moved from online learning versus in-person learning to educational equity. Fort Worth is one of the most diverse cities in the country, and 89% of the student population of FWISD are people of color. When asked about the debate surrounding educational equity, Phillips said, “What it really boils down to is that we as trustees have to remember who we were elected to serve. We were elected to serve the youth of Fort Worth.”  

“All we’re really talking about is getting students what they need. That’s it. We don’t have to take away to give. There is more than enough to go around. There is enough love. There is enough expertise. There are enough resources. There’s more than enough of everything for our young people, regardless of what demographic boxes they check, to be the very best.”  

photo credit: OMG PhotoStuff

This is Phillips’ guiding passion. He wants Fort Worth’s children to be the best they can possibly be. 

“At the heart of the matter, we are ALL here for the children, regardless of where we stand on the issues,” Phillips said. It is this that guides Phillips through to listen to every person who comes to an open school board meeting. He wants to understand each constituent’s concerns. “The bottom line is that I want to hear all people and their concerns. Every person who shows up to share their feelings? Those feelings are valid, and they deserve to be heard…. That doesn’t mean we’ll always agree, but every person deserves to be heard by someone who is going to take them seriously.” 

“In those moments of passion, you see the speaker’s love for their children. You see their parenthood. You see their humanity. I give them the same rights and privileges I would want. At the end of the day, it’s all about the kids, right?”  

Phillips’ love for the children of Fort Worth is also evident in his work with CommUnity Frontline. This non-profit organization works to find solutions to community problems. When asked how CommUnity Frontline plays into his work with his decidedly non-traditional path, Phillips paused before answering. 

“I love that I grew up in Stop Six. It was the most positive peer pressure a man could ask for with brothers all pushing each other to excellence, pushing each other to rail against the stigma of our neighborhood and being young Black men. We know we’re not the Stop Six stereotype. We wanted to show who we really are.”  

Phillips explained that when he was in school, there was a “pipeline” from Stop Six, through Dunbar High School to Prairie View A&M University, to the “outside world.” People who went to college didn’t come back to Fort Worth.  

“My Stop Six brothers and I made an intentional mission to come home so another generation wouldn’t have to think you have to leave Fort Worth to make it. We have so much talent here, we shouldn’t be losing our students.”  

After college, Phillips and his friends started a Bible study as a way to keep connected as they started careers and families. The Bible study slowly morphed into doing community work.  

“It’s about the work. If we were really going to follow what’s in the Bible, we had to take it outside the cover and into the community.” Now CommUnity Frontline works to connect people in Fort Worth who need help with people in Fort Worth who want to help. The members of CommUnity Frontline engage in volunteer work, advocate for policy change, and mentor young people.  

photo credit: OMG PhotoStuff

Phillips stopped, gathering his thoughts.   

“I am so lucky to grow up on the East Side of Fort Worth.”  

He paused again. 

“When I was growing up in Stop Six, there were killings and gun violence and a lot of the stereotypical things that people think of when they think of ‘The Hood.’ Yes, it was dangerous. But at the same time as I was navigating those waters, I grew up two houses down from Dr. Gwendolyn Morrison who has been on the Tarrant County College District board since 1976. I grew up around the corner from Christene Chadwick Moss and her husband, Franklin Moss, Sr., a city councilperson. I grew up around the corner from former Mayor Pro Tem Bert Williams. I grew up around the corner from L. Clifford Davis, who helped Thurgood Marshall with Brown vs. The Board of Education and was a judge and a city councilperson [and for whom Cifford Davis Elementary School is named]. I was surrounded by education and civic pride.”  

“I’m blessed and fortunate to have grown up with both sides of Stop Six because it allowed me to see why I have to make the fight for justice real and see how to make it achievable.” 

Many Fort Worthians only associate Stop Six and the East Side with drugs, with crime statistics and school dropouts. But Stop Six is a community with a rich history that instills its residents with a sense of belonging and pride. And Quinton Phillips represents that perfectly.  

“Everything that I am – the swag, the intellect, the heart – is all a part of the people I grew up with, of my neighborhood, and my community. I am the return on their investment. I have a sense of responsibility to serve my community and my city to the best of my ability.”  

photo credit: OMG PhotoStuff

Lee Virden Geurkink is a jack of all trades, master of none. She has been a bank teller, a chef and caterer (both in restaurants and in private service), a bookkeeper, a trainer, a legal assistant, and a writer. She is a graduate of Sewanee with a degree in Early European History. (She planned to be a professor but realized in the nick of time that professors have homework, which she never did when she was a student, so what made her think that she would do it as a professor?) While she has not used her degree in her, er, varied employment history, she is fabulous at cocktail parties. Most importantly, Lee is the proud mother of two amazing children and stepmother to three incredible bonus children.

The post “It’s All About the Kids” A Conversation with Quinton “Q” Phillips first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

photo credit: OMG Photostuff

“Our teachers and staff are essentially caregivers to each student that walks through our doors,” Brookins said. “They provide them with social and emotional support. They are normally the ones who can tell when [students] aren’t feeling well and assist to get them to nurse or make sure they have breakfast and lunch. They are our [front] line advocates for their students as well as the whole child.”  

The trustee’s moral compass was shaped early in childhood by her parents — particularly her father, Slidell Harvey, Sr. The former professional baseball player would tell Brookins and her five siblings, “Legs are not forever. Even if you are an athlete, you need to be a student first.” 

Brookins’ father had a successful career playing for the Houston Astros, but his early jump into the major leagues before finishing high school left him ill-equipped for the transition to a post-baseball career. Harvey instilled values like discipline and hard work into his children, Brookins said, and he wasn’t afraid to dangle carrots when he knew his children could rise to the occasion. 

“We had a bet when I was a freshman in high school that if I won the regional championship in the shot put, he would buy me a car,” Brookins recalled with a laugh. “Not only did I end up winning the regional championship, I went to state, so he couldn’t back down from his offer.” 

Brookins, who currently serves on the board of Fort Worth ISD, had early setbacks in her efforts to earn a college degree. Like her father, she pursued athletics after college. After winning the NCAA D11 Indoor National Championship in shot put, she failed to qualify for the Olympics that year. Brookins’ mother was stricken with a serious illness around that time. 

“I was just done,” Brookins recalled of her decision to not complete her last season of college track.  

By her early 20s, Brookins had developed a passion for social service work, a service that she advocates for to this day. During the nearly decade-long stretch between her first run at college and her eventual graduation from Texas Wesleyan University in 2001, Brookins worked for Fort Worth Housing Solutions as coordinator for the I Have a Dream Foundation, a charitable trust that provides social, emotional, and academic support to young people from low-income communities. 

Whether as a foundation coordinator, nonprofit board member, or school board trustee, Brookins said she has always had a “passion to help people succeed.” 

When the foundation merged with another organization seven years into her job, Brookins was laid off. However, she used it as an opportunity to finish college. While earning a three-part degree in two years that encompassed business management, psychology, and fine arts, Brookins described catching the “political science bug” while taking a political science class under professor Ibrahim Salih. After years of being the point of contact between public policy and underserved communities, Brookins wanted to learn how to affect change from the top.   

“I was intrigued when I took that class,” she recalled. “I asked him, ‘How do I get involved in this?’ I had been in social services and was ready to take it to the next level. He said to start volunteering in the community and to start getting involved in the city council. I applied for a committee in Forest Hill and was appointed.”  

During her second year in that position, a city councilmember announced his pending retirement. Stating that he liked Brookins’ work ethic, the council member endorsed Brookins, and in 2002, she subsequently became the youngest city councilmember the city of Forest Hill had known. She then served as Mayor Pro Tem for Forest Hill from 2005 to 2007. 

Brookins was a young wife and mother at the time and worked to keep family-related issues as part of the discourse among the more senior city councilmembers. She also took her children’s education seriously. She made sure to keep her boy involved during summer breaks to keep their minds sharp. Both of her boys attended college (one is a recent graduate), so her efforts paid off.  

“They were constantly learning, even during the summertime,” she recalled. “Having a father who didn’t graduate from high school made me want to make sure that my children took advantage of those opportunities.” 

Just as her father had reminded Brookins that legs don’t last forever, the young mother told her children that she wanted them to be “forever students,” whether that meant reading, formal learning, or simply seeking new experiences.  

The years after her work in Forest Hill were full of accolades and leadership roles, including the Fort Worth Business Press’ Greatest Woman in Texas Award (2009), a governor appointment to the One Star National Service Commission, and Mayor Mike Moncrief’s Believing in Youth Award (2009), among many others. 

Last year, Brookins won a three-way race to represent Fort Worth School District 4. In doing so, she replaced Dr. T.A. Sims, the district’s longest-serving board member. Leading a district that serves more than 84,000 students has given the long-time public servant her most powerful platform for affecting change yet. Instability, poverty, access to healthcare — countless social issues are closely tied to public education, she said.  

“I believe that all that time I was working in social services — working with youth and college kids — I was being prepared for a position like this,” she said. 

It is the duty of this generation’s parents and taxpayers to support public schools because these students are future caretakers, doctors, and lawyers, she added. The ongoing pandemic is pushing the science community’s brightest minds to find a cure for COVID-19. Brookins said future generations will face similar challenges, and many of those problem-solvers may be products of this country’s public-school system.  

“The majority of children who attend public schools need support,” she said. “They need resources. Growing up, everyone on our street knew my family. We don’t have that anymore. Our kids need that extra support. They need that village back.” 

Though new at her role as a school board trustee, Brookins said her efforts are focused on ensuring that daycare providers have the resources and training to ensure that children in pre-kindergarten and Head Start (an early education program for financially struggling families) are on track to meet certain reading metrics by third grade. Parents are another part of the educational equation that the trustee is focused on. The abrupt halting of in-person classes has reinforced the importance of parental involvement in learning. 

“We need to make sure that these parents are equipped to help,” Brookins said. 

Beyond that, there is the longstanding goal of any educator: to prepare students to graduate so they can go on to higher education or to get a certification.  

Many of those goals were put on hold when a deadly pandemic spread through North Texas and caused the closing of school campuses last March.  

“We were getting a lot of calls,” the trustee recalled. “Parents were wondering how we were going to do this. We were asking ourselves if we had enough technology to make sure all the schools were covered and not just the ones who had the funds. We first had to pivot moving around 84,000 students to an online learning platform within a week. Then, we had to make sure teachers had the resource needed to teach from home. Coronavirus has presented a challenge on how to meet our student needs in all these areas. It is difficult to engage students when we don’t see them in person.” 

The dangers posed by the pandemic keep her up at night.  

“There are so many lives involved — not just our students but our staff,” she said. 

Brookins was relieved when Tarrant County public health officials made the decision to delay in-person classes for six weeks. COVID-19 cases remain at record levels in Texas, and many teachers and staff are concerned for their safety and the safety of children who would be asked to congregate in classrooms where social distancing is possible in theory but likely impossible in practice.  

While there are economic and educational considerations to be had when reopening public schools, for Brookins, safety and lives come first.  

“This virus has so many unknowns,” she said. “I would rather delay than put their lives on the line. The extension gives us more time to make sure every safety precaution is taken before we start back to in-person instruction. We can always bounce back as far as the economy worries go. Once you lose a life, that life is gone.” 

The school district does much more than teach young minds. Campuses across Fort Worth are often the only source of lunch for children, the vast majority of whom qualify for reduced or free meals. The district partnered with Tarrant Area Food Bank and other groups to provide meals to students throughout the pandemic and the following summer.  

Fellow school board trustee Ashley Paz said Brookins has taken on the recent challenges by “personally buying meals for hungry families and helping to keep people engaged during meal distributions.” 

“Daphne has a very thoughtful style of leadership that makes for a great public servant,” Paz continued. “She listens to all perspectives and stays engaged through the deliberative process in a very soft-spoken manner. That’s why when Daphne speaks up, I know it’s time to listen.”   

Brookins said a recent board meeting discussed the need to continue feeding students until campuses reopen. As of the publishing of this article, that opening date is still a moving target. Tarrant County public health officials recently postponed in-person classes until September 8, and there’s no telling if that even date will allow for a totally safe opening. 

When asked about the strengths of Fort Worth’s schools, Brookins immediately began talking about the teachers. 

“The teachers are really compassionate about their jobs,” she said. “I don’t think a lot of people see that because of everything that is going on. They miss being in the classroom with their students. They have always been tasked beyond delivering instruction.” Teachers and staff become second families to their students, celebrating successes and comforting after failures. The district’s teachers inspire their students to greater achievements in the classroom, in the arts, on the athletic fields, and in life.  

photo credit: OMG Photostuff

Like most large urban school district, Fort Worth ISD performs its work on a tight budget. Brookins said the district is making strides in important areas like parent engagement and college readiness. The community leader credits the advice of past mentors and teachers like her father and Dr. Salih for guiding the way to her current leadership position. She works daily to provide those same opportunities to others. 

“That is something that both of my parents instilled in me,” she said. “To always be that voice for the voiceless and to always help others. No matter what our financial situation was, there was always someone who was worse off, and we needed to help them.” 

The post A Legacy of Learning first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Photo courtesy of Historic Fort Worth, Inc.

Fort Worth has the greatest collection of historic buildings, schools, bridges and structures in this region of Texas; but we are losing them at an alarming rate.  As the most influential youth educator in the city, and as the owner of the largest collection of historic grade school buildings of any public or private institution in Fort Worth, we look to the trustees of the FWISD to care for their enviable collection of historic buildings.  Now is the time for the FWISD to serve as the next generation’s stewardship leader of the built environment.

Stewardship includes understanding how to care for what is irreplaceable. It respects the conservation of rare building materials, validates timeless construction methods, develops a keen understanding of scale, decreases what goes into our landfills, and ultimately, instills respect for those unique places that are associated with key architects, buildings, city founders and leaders that define Fort Worth.

Of the properties the FWISD plans to sell, Historic Fort Worth, Inc. has identified three historically-significant resources without designation protection, two of which are clearly in a development zone and one that represents three distinct buildings constructed at different time periods that were ultimately combined into one building. Collectively, they have been part of our city for 70-100 years, and they deserve a future in it.  It is up to this group of FWISD trustees to protect those historic buildings and structures that earlier trustees prioritized and had designed and built by the best architects and construction firms of the day. Below is how:

Step one in protecting what is irreplaceable is for the FWISD to complete the City of Fort Worth’s application to landmark their most iconic buildings before they are altered or sold.  Easily qualifying as City of Fort Worth Historic and Cultural Landmarks are Farrington Field, Billingsley Field House, and Boulevard Heights Transition Center, which is comprised of three historic buildings.   This designation status comes with a 10 year property valuation freeze on the city’s portion of an entity’s property tax bill, and that economic incentive “runs” with the land. https://fortworthtexas.gov/developmentservices/permits/pdf/Historic-Designation.pdf   https://fortworthtexas.gov/developmentservices/historic-preservation/tax-exemption/

Step two is to complete the application to designate these resources as Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks or place them on the National Register of Historic Places.  The state and national designations generate rehabilitation tax credits for non-profit and for-profit owners to sell at 25 cents for every dollar spent on an appropriate improvement project.  In certain deals, the National Register designation would generate another 20 cents for every restoration dollar spent. https://www.thc.texas.gov/preserve/projects-and-programs/preservation-tax-incentives

Designation-Worthy Properties Owned by the FWISD 

Photo courtesy of Historic Fort Worth, Inc.

Farrington Field:    

On HFW’s Most Endangered List 5 times

Address:    1501 University Drive

Date built:  1939

Farrington Field is a beloved and popular stadium and it is Fort Worth’s only remaining historic, Art Deco stadium. Built as a Depression-era relief project that employed about 500 workers, Preston M. Geren served as the consulting architect for this Classical-Moderne stadium with fluted piers, star capitals and bas-relief panels of athletic figures designed by Fort Worth artist Evaline Sellors.

The well-maintained Farrington Field is vulnerable without local designation protection especially with the dense, new development from Lancaster Avenue to White Settlement Road, and rising property values.  The Board of Historic Fort Worth, Inc. included it on its endangered list five times…2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The citizens of Fort Worth and the FWISD would be well-served if Farrington Field were designated as an Historic & Cultural Landmark of the City of Fort Worth and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Boulevard Heights Transition Center: (Comprised of three buildings)

Former names:  Arlington Heights Elementary School, Arlington Heights Public School, Arlington Heights Junior High School, Arlington Heights High School

Address:  5100 El Campo Avenue

Dates built:  1909, 1922, & 1954

Photo courtesy of Historic Fort Worth, Inc.

The oldest building of the three on the site is closest to Camp Bowie Boulevard and was constructed in 1909 by the Arlington Heights ISD. It was designed by Sanguinet & Staats in the shape of a “T”. The facade features two colors of brick — a yellow brick with a maroon brick used at the base — in bands, and with a decorative pattern at various locations.  A combination of arched and rectangular openings is used for the school’s windows and doors.  Many of the windows have been infilled with panels or brick.

Photo courtesy of Historic Fort Worth, Inc.

The second of the three buildings was built in 1922 as the first Arlington Heights High School.  Its address was 5100 Camp Bowie Boulevard as El Campo Avenue did not yet extend in front of the campus as it does now.   It served as a high school until 1927 when W.C. Stripling High School was constructed, then it became a junior high school, and in 1954 an elementary school.  The building has brick pilasters between the basement and the cornice, with tall windows between the pilasters.  Many of windows have been infilled either with panels or brick. This structure was designed by Clarkson and Gaines and was constructed by Harry B. Friedman.

Photo courtesy of Historic Fort Worth, Inc.

The newest Transition Center building was designed by Wyatt C. Hedrick, Sanguinet & Staats successor, and built by Charles H. Haws in 1954 to connect the two older buildings and add 6 classrooms. The entire complex became an elementary school.  In recent years, this collection of buildings has become a school for students with learning differences for grades 1 through 12 and was renamed Boulevard Heights Transition Center.  The citizens of Fort Worth and the FWISD would be well-served if Boulevard Heights Transition Center were designated as an Historic & Cultural Landmark of the City of Fort Worth and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photo courtesy of Historic Fort Worth, Inc.

Jack A. Billingsley Field House (originally, Fort Worth Field House)

Address:  1400 Foch Street

For basketball, volleyball and wrestling

Date built:  1953

Designed by Preston M. Geren, Sr. and constructed in 1953, the Field House was renamed Jack A. Billingsley Field House in the early 1980’s in tribute to the FWISD’s coach, principal, athletic director, and assistant superintendent’s impactful 39-year career.

It is a single-storied building though it has the appearance of being two.  The roof, mostly concealed by a parapet, is slightly barrel pitched, and the windows are metal. The three-sided ticket booth’s ticket counter is at the top of two concrete stairs, and metal stanchions are in front of each window.

The interior retains a great deal of its integrity with its original concrete bleachers with wood-plank seats, a phone booth with a wood door, and dressing rooms with their original wood benches and wood clothes cubby.

The interior walls are constructed of concrete block and in many areas the lower portion of the walls is are covered with glazed tiles.  The lobby floor is terrazzo.

Photo courtesy of Historic Fort Worth, Inc.

Historic Fort Worth, Inc. is dedicated to preserving Fort Worth’s unique historic identity through stewardship, education and leadership.

John T. Roberts, AIA, former board chairman and current chairman of HFW’s Public Affairs Committee, is the author. 

The post Historic Fort Worth, Inc. Fights to Save FWISD Properties first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

The importance of the teacher in the education process has prompted countless research efforts to understand “what makes a great teacher?” Is there something common about the personalities of great teachers, do they have more empathy than most? More grit? The educational experiences of students preparing to be teachers have been studied. The type, location and leadership of the schools in which great teachers thrive have been examined. Unfortunately, we do not know how to predict whether an individual will develop to be highly effective. Fortunately, we do know training and experiences that will help many teachers develop beyond their expectations.

We do know from numerous studies that certain actions by a school district will diminish the probability that an effective teacher will be hired. One of these variables is the teacher “hire date.” In fact, late hiring is so common that the Texas Education Agency has an official definition of “late-hire.” According to Mark Olofson with TEA: “The term ‘late hire’ actually has a definition in 19TAC 228.2 – ‘An individual who has not been accepted into an educator preparation program before June 15 and who is hired for a teaching assignment by a school after June 15 or after the school’s academic year has begun.’” 

There are positive outcomes from hiring new teachers early in the hiring cycle and negative consequences of late-hiring. The Washington D. C. Public schools have experienced a remarkable turnaround in the last decade. Their story is told in the publication “WE THE PEOPLE: How the D.C. Public Change Everything to GET, GROW and KEEP Great Teachers and Principals.” According to the document:

 “The earlier a district hires, the more likely it is to snap up the best talent. In fact, the average DCPS teacher hired in May is 20 percent more effective than the average teacher hired in August. That’s why DCPS now makes a concerted effort to hire earlier, helping principals map out a talent strategy months before the first applications start rolling in. The results have been impressive: Over the last four hiring seasons, DCPS has more than tripled the number of teachers it’s hired by June 30, from 252 in 2012 to 821 in 2015.” 

The DCPS process of vetting teacher applicants is detailed below because it is an excellent example of a best practice regardless of the hire date

“TeachDC has an online application system that collects background information such as applicants’ education history, employment experience, and eligibility for licensure.[vii] Following collection of this preliminary information, applicants are asked to complete up to three additional in-depth assessments.[viii] First, applicants take a subject- specific written assessment toevaluate their knowledge of subject matter content and associated instructional practices. District personnel score these written assessments and applicants who pass are then invited for a 30-minute structured interview covering areas such as their track record of success and how they respond to challenges. Interviews are also scored, and passing candidates are invited to a final “audition” stage where DCPS 

1

personnel watch them teach a lesson of approximately 30 minutes. District officials evaluate these lessons with the same classroom observation rubric used to evaluate current DCPS teachers.” Brookings, Brian A. Jacobs, Friday, March 11, 2016.

D.C. Public Schools have experienced a significant increase in their National Assessment of Education Progress scores, which are presented in Appendix A. A note of caution is appropriate when interpreting these scores. The increase is not due to early teacher hiring alone. Teacher hiring is only a part of the robust human capital management system D. C. Public Schools developed. The student enrollment in DCPS is 47,500.

Just as there are advantages to hiring teachers early in the annual cycle, there are serious negative consequences of late-hiring. In the August 8, 2019 edition of EdWeek, Sarah D. Sparks cites results of a study, “The Extent of Late Hiring and its Relationship with Teacher Turnover: Evidence from Michigan” by Jones, Grogan and Maier. The following are excerpts from the EdWeek article regarding the study:

This study used “Michigan’s state longitudinal personnel database to study 9,306 core academic teachers hired at more than 5,000 schools statewide between 2003-04 and 2007-08.”

“Teachers hired after the start of the school year are twice as likely to leave their schools—or the profession altogether—within a year, leading to higher staffing costs for districts that delay their hiring, according to a statewide study of teachers in Michigan.” 

“Among those late hires, 22.5 percent left their schools the following year, compared with 13.4 percent of teachers hired to start on time, and 14.2 percent of late-hired instructors left teaching altogether the next year, compared with 6.8 percent of on-time hires. Among first-year teachers, more than 35 percent of late hires left the school the following year, compared with 20 percent of on-time hires.” 

“The study represents the first direct look at the effect of delayed hiring on teachers’ willingness to stay in the school, but Ms. Grogan said an assumption aired in earlier studies, issued by the New Teacher Project—that late-hired teachers are of lower quality—could be a factor in teachers’ transience.” 

A working paper: “Missed Opportunities in the Labor Market or Temporary Disruption? How Late Teacher Hiring Affects Student Achievement,” by Papay, Kraft, Bloom, Buckley and Liebowitz addresses the impact of late hiring on student achievement. The abstract of the paper states:

“We examine the prevalence, distribution, and effects of late teacher hiring in a large urban school district. Nearly one in five new teachers in the district is hired after the start of the school year. Lower- performing schools serving low-income students struggle the most with staffing classrooms on time. Late hiring has serious consequences for student achievement. Students in classrooms with teachers hired after the start of the school year score substantially lower on standardized tests than their peers with other newly hired teachers (0.042 SD in math, 0.037 SD in reading). The effects of having a late- hired middle school math teacher persist beyond a teacher’s first year, evidence of negative selection in the labor market. However, the negative effect of late hiring among elementary teachers and middle school English teachers does not persist, pointing to a temporary disruption effect. Teachers who are hired late also leave their schools and the district at much greater rates than their peers who are hired on time.” 

Further evidence of the negative consequences of late hiring comes from a study by TNTP for Houston ISD of the value-added by teachers as a function of hire date. These data are presented in the graph in Appendix B. One should note the negative value added by teachers hired 45 days before the start of school, i.e. about mid- July in the hiring cycle.

The conclusions drawn from this study are that teachers hired late in the cycle are most likely to:

• Be less well-prepared,
• To leave the district in the first few years of teaching and
• Be placed in low performing schools.

What bearing does this information have on FWISD? To appreciate the current situation in the District some background information will be helpful. In late 2013, FWISD entered into a contact with TNTP to analyze the policies and practices affecting the hiring, development and retention of its teachers. The study of these policies and practices was completed and presented to the Board of Education in June 2014. This presentation was made available to the current administrative leadership of the District. Relevant slides from the Board presentation are presented in Appendix C.

Later that summer, Superintendent Walter Dansby left the District and the Board cancelled the TNTP contract.

During the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 the District employed 5816, 5770 and 5831 teachers respectively. Detailed information concerning hire date information of FWISD teachers hired in 2016, 2017 and 2018 can be found in Appendix D. A summary of the hiring information is provided below.

For the 2016-17 academic year, the District hired 777 new teachers in July-September. The District was unable to provide information about the number of new hires during the period January-June 2016. As a consequence, the total number of teachers hired for 2016-17 is not determinable.

For the 2017-18 academic year,the District hired 766 new teachers, of whom 88.5% were hired in July- September.

For the 2018-19 academic year, the District hired 841 new teachers of whom 90.2% were hired in July- September.

This information confirms that little has changed since the late-hiring problems were identified over five years ago. Why? This question has not been answered; there has been no known attempt to address this issue since 2014. Two comments arise based on the obvious:

• Decision makers in FWISD are either not aware of the problems created by late-hiring of teachers or are aware and have made a conscious decision not to address it.
• The current organizational structure exacerbates the problem. Presently the recruiting and vetting of applicants is the responsibility of the Human Capital Management Department. Although principals are involved in the hiring process they select from the applicant pool developed by HCM. However, the Chief Academic Office, Deputy Superintendents of Elementary and Secondary Schools and principals are accountable for student outcomes produced by these teachers. HCM apparently is not accountable for the effectiveness of the teachers in the pool which the department creates.

“The best means of improving a school system is to improve its teachers. One of the most effective means of improving the teacher corps is by wise selection.” 

—Ervin Eugene Lewis, Superintendent of Schools, Flint, Michigan, 1925

William H. Koehler was Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at Texas Christian University for twenty five years.  In his dual role, Dr. Koehler was directly responsible for all academic programs, admissions and financial, research institutes and centers, student academic support centers, the library, the University Press and information technology. He has served as Vice Chairman of the United Way, Fort Worth Symphony Board, Carter Blood Center Board, Medical Plaza Hospital Board, Leadership Fort Worth Board, and the Center for the Reform of School Systems.  He completed a four year term as the community-wide elected President of the Fort Worth ISD Board of Education.  Dr. Koehler was the Director of the FWISD Excellence Fund in the Community Foundation of North Texas.

The post An Effective Teacher in Every Classroom first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Wortham chose YWLA because of the unique opportunities it offers beyond classroom instruction. “I never thought an all-girls school was in the plan until a teacher told me about the hands-on learning and college bound advising at YWLA,” Wortham said in an interview. “I’m thankful for all the support and unique opportunities YWLA offered me.”

Since she was a child, Wortham has dreamed of becoming a judge. To that end, she has interned at the Tarrant County Administration Office for the past two summers and continues to work there after graduation. Now that Wortham has earned her bachelor’s degree, as well as minors in history and communication, Wortham plans to apply to law school for fall 2020. With the assistance of Foundation’s alumnae support program, Wortham will soon take the LSAT.

“We’re incredibly proud of Redmond and all she’s accomplished since graduating from YWLA just three short years ago,” said Courtney Radcliffe, Executive Director of the Foundation for YWLA. “This isn’t the end of the Foundation’s involvement in Redmond’s future; it’s a new beginning. Even now that she’s graduated college, we will be here for Redmond, supporting her in her future academic and career pursuits. We don’t just invest in the students of YWLA so they attend college; we invest in them for the women they will become.”

YWLA was made possible through a public-private partnership between Fort Worth ISD and Young Women’s Preparatory Network (YWPN) in 2010. The first and only all-girls public school in Fort Worth ISD, YWLA focuses on STEM and visual arts and provides a rigorous college-preparatory education to its 6th-12th grade students.

Beyond its educational mission, YWLA empowers young women from typically lower socioeconomic backgrounds to excel in traditionally male-dominated fields. 77% of the school’s students qualify for free-and-reduced lunch.

In 2014, the Foundation for the Young Women’s Leadership Academy of Fort Worth was formed as a 501(c)3 to financially support and secure resources for YWLA, as well as offer leadership opportunities to the school’s students, teachers and staff, to enhance academic achievement and promote the success of every student in college, career and life.

Clearly, the mission is working. Each of YWLA’s four graduating classes, 2016–2019, has achieved 100 percent acceptance to a four-year college or university. And now, blazing her own trail, Wortham has become the first of her peers to graduate from college.

The Foundation doesn’t just support YWLA’s current students. Through grants and corporate partnerships, the Foundation expanded its mission to include supporting the 133 YWLA alumnae currently in college by providing gap funding, hosting networking events and facilitating internship and job shadowing opportunities with local businesses.

The Foundation continues to provide YWLA students, teachers, staff and alumnae academic and leadership resources and opportunities — all to serve our mission of educating and empowering young women to have a voice and be leaders in their communities.

The Foundation supports the Young Women’s Leadership Academy of Fort Worth, the first and only single-gender school for girls in Fort Worth ISD. The school was founded in 2010 and made possible through a public-private partnership between FWISD and Young Women’s Preparatory Network. YWLA’s core curriculum focuses on STEM and visual arts and empowers young women typically from low socioeconomic households to excel in traditionally male-dominated fields.

In 2014, the Foundation for the Young Women’s Leadership Academy of Fort Worth was formed as a 501(c)3 to financially support and secure resources for YWLA and its students and teachers. The nonprofit provides funding for programs that enhance academic achievement and offers leadership opportunities that promote the success of every student in college, career and life. To learn more, visit our website or Facebook page.

The post Young Women’s Leadership Academy’s First College Graduate first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

Photo courtesy of Ft. Worth Vaqueros FC.

Soccer is the world’s single most popular sport and yet, for various reasons, has suffered from a lack of exposure in the American market. By making the game, at a professional level, more accessible to young people, perhaps this wildly popular sport can gain a footing in our hometown. According to Michael Hitchcock, owner of the Vaqueros, the Vaqueros want to become a community staple. While the major sports teams in the area (you know who they are) certainly bring in local and traveling fans alike, the Vaqueros really are Fort Worth’s local players. They are people you might meet in the carpool line or at the grocery store. Because the they live in Fort Worth, there is a stronger sense of community pride and involvement among the players and team management.

Dr. Lisa Langston, FWISD’s interim Athletic Director, said the partnership between the club and the school district brings several benefits, including professional development and informational programs between FWISD coaches and the Vaqueros’ coaching staff, soccer clinics for the district’s middle school student athletes, and free admission to matches for FWISD employees and students. “I look at it as a positive for the Vaqueros, as well as Fort Worth ISD,” Dr. Langston said. “It’s an opportunity that’s far reaching. With the World Cup this summer, soccer is going to be at the forefront [of people’s minds].”

In addition to the admission benefit, the Vaqueros players and staff will conduct FREE soccer clinics, participate and support the FWISD reading programs, and conduct coaching education classes for Fort Worth ISD middle school and high school coaches.

Photo courtesy of Ft. Worth Vaqueros FC.

“On behalf of the entire Fort Worth Vaqueros organization, ‘Thank you’ to Dr. Scribner, Dr. Langston and the Fort Worth ISD leadership for their vision and joining the Vaqueros in this innovative partnership,” Hitchcock said. “We’re excited to work with a great community partner in FWISD. We’re looking forward to seeing FWISD students, coaches, teachers, and administrators in their schools and at Vaqueros’ home games at Farrington Field. The Vaqueros are Fort Worth’s soccer team!”

The Vaqueros compete in the National Premier Soccer League’s Lone Star Conference where the team finished first during the regular season in 2017. In addition to the league matches, the Vaqueros are planning an international exhibition game and possibly a U.S. Open Cup match at Farrington Field.

“Our mission has always been to ‘Grow the Beautiful Game in Fort Worth,’ and we can’t imagine having a bigger impact on the youth of Fort Worth than to allow FWISD students to watch our games for free,” Vaqueros general manager Tobias Xavier Lopez said. “We have always taken pride in trying new and bold ways to promote the club, and we think this partnership will benefit the community in an unprecedented fashion.”

The Vaqueros’ home opener against Tyler FC is slated for Saturday, May 12, at 7:30 pm at Farrington Field. This is the Vaqueros’ fifth season in Fort Worth. The season includes at least 5 home games at Farrington Field, with the playoffs to be decided according to the season’s outcomes. To find a full schedule please go to their website at www.fortworthvaqueros.com.

This article originally appeared in the March/April issue of Madeworthy.

Originally from Oklahoma, David Geurkink is a recent transplant to Fort Worth. A former zookeeper with Fossil Rim and recently married to TWM’s Lee Virden Geurkink, he is enjoying learning about all that his new city has to offer.

The post Ft. Worth’s Vaqueros & FWISD Team Up for Summer first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.

We are all concerned with the health and nutrition of our families, especially our children.  That’s right, “our” children because we all know it takes a combined effort of parents, teachers, professionals, and people of all walks of life to keep our community strong.  This is a philosophy taken to heart by the Junior League of Fort Worth, a wonderful organization of women that educates, promotes voluntarism, and has been improving the quality of lives in our community for 85 years.

The JLFW would like to extend to you, a cordial invitation to this year’s annual Kids in the Kitchen Health and Wellness Fair on Saturday, May 20th.  Kids in the Kitchen is a national Junior League initiative, whose main objective is to help youngsters make healthy lifestyle choices.  For several years they have partnered with FWISD and five area schools to provide education and awareness to 2^nd-5^th graders and their families.  The initiative consists of a week-long program that provides instruction and resources to participating Fort Worth schools.  At the end of the week, students and families celebrate in a campus pep rally where prizes are raffled off.

The annual health fair is free and open to the public.  There will be a complimentary healthy lunch and snacks available for participants, wellness-related games and activities, prizes, and free groceries donated by the Tarrant Area Food Bank.   Information and resources will be available from community partners such as (but not limited to) Boys and Girls Club, the City of Fort Worth Parks and Recreation Departments, The First Tee, Fort Worth Drowning Prevention, Fort Worth Fire Department, Girls on the Run, JPS, The Reading Connection, and Tarrant County Sherriff’s Office.

Last year, Kids in the Kitchen had the honor of serving approximately 1,300 Fort Worth students and their families and they hope reach 1,500 this year.  Come by to support this fun event and this great organization helping to keep Fort Worth healthy.  It’s sure to be a good time.  See you out there!

Christy Ortiz is a Fort Worth native, and is proud to say so.   She earned her bachelor’s degree from UT Arlington in Interdisciplinary Studies.  She taught for FWISD for eight busy years before switching gears to stay home with her two small children.  Her hobbies are interior decorating for friends, photography, and flying kites with her kids.  Her South American roots and love for the Spanish language and Latin cultures add to the diverse voices of our group.

The post Cooking with Kids in the Kitchen for Health! first appeared on Tanglewood Moms.