Fort Worth ISD school board OKs $15K bonus for superintendent after closed-door evaluation

The Fort Worth Independent School District’s Board of Education took vague action on the superintendent’s contract on Tuesday night after discussing her performance in a closed session. On Wednesday morning, the board released a statement revealing that she had received a $15,000 performance bonus.

The board, in a close vote of 5-4, approved the action but did not elaborate on what the vote entailed regarding Superintendent Angélica Ramsey’s contract and evaluation. Board President Camille Rodriguez and other trustees declined to comment on the vote when approached by reporters after the meeting adjourned.

On Wednesday morning, a district spokesperson told the Star-Telegram that the board approved a deposit of $15,000 to be made into Ramsey’s retirement account, which is the lowest amount Ramsey can receive for a performance bonus, according to her contract. Each year, she is eligible to earn between $15,000 to $25,000 at the discretion of the board, “payable only in the event that the superintendent meets the goals established by the superintendent and board.”

Rodriguez and Trustees Anne Darr, Michael Ryan and Wallace Bridges voted in dissent of this action, which happened after a five-hour closed session that also included discussion on security implementation and real property topics.

“I move to approve the superintendent’s evaluation and contract as discussed in closed session,” said Trustee Tobi Jackson, who made the motion.

The Star-Telegram has filed a public information request to the district for the newest version of the contract.

“This deposit is based on the Superintendent meeting her Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as outlined in her contract,” the Board of Education said in a statement. “This decision underscores our commitment to supporting Dr. Ramsey’s leadership and her ongoing efforts to guide the district towards achieving its goals. We believe this contract modification aligns with our strategic priorities and serves the best interests of the Fort Worth ISD community.”

The phrase “key performance indicators” does not appear in Ramsey’s latest available contract. She is required to submit a preliminary list of goals and targets for the district “on a date mutually agreeable by the board and the superintendent” annually for the board to consider and adopt. These goals and targets are among the criteria used during Ramsey’s performance reviews. District officials have not released what these specific goals and targets are.

She is required to develop progress and constraint measures for these goals “for use in monthly progress monitoring sessions with the Board.”

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Ramsey, who is approaching two years of employment with the district, was hired in September 2022 and earns $335,000 a year, according to her previous contract. She previously served as superintendent of Midland ISD in western Texas and as superintendent of the Pleasant Valley School District in California for five years. She did not publicly comment on the vote Tuesday.

During public comment, most speakers criticized Ramsey’s leadership with some accusing her of creating a toxic environment within the district. Estella Williams, president of the NAACP of Fort Worth-Tarrant County, and Amanda Inay, a former Fort Worth ISD teacher who was recognized as district teacher of the year for 2022-2023, were among Ramsey’s critics who underscored these concerns. Williams said Ramsey “failed the district… especially the African-American students,” and Inay urged trustees to “stop the bleed, and end this contract.”

“You’ve failed the district, the community and 75,000 students, and especially the African-American students who you neglected through a lack of proper funding, lack of adequate programs and appropriate focus,” Williams said. “Just not long ago, you said there would be the focus on African-American students. We’re still looking for it. It’s too late for us to wait.”

Janie Ginn, a Fort Worth ISD taxpayer whose three children graduated from the district, was the one voice who defended Ramsey during public comment. Ginn argued that Ramsey has only had one full school year to pave her own path as superintendent after gathering insights from staff, families and community members. Ginn said the strategic planning process under Ramsey has yielded more opportunities for public input than she’s seen in more than 20 years. Other public commenters complained about the delayed release of the district’s new strategic plan that was originally scheduled to be complete in April.

“This district is a large ship, and it was run aground. And Dr. Ramsey has come in, and she’s trying to turn this ship around and get it sailing back,” Ginn said. “The other thing is, she’s not the only person responsible for what happens with our students’ scores. She’s tried to bring in more parents because we need more parents involved with their own children, supporting them in their education.”

After Ramsey’s last evaluation in July 2023, she received a one-year extension to her contract that was set to expire in 2026. Trustees in January had also tweaked her contract to allow her to disburse certain benefits into a retirement account but made no other changes. The board at the time also made a vague vote that was similar to Tuesday’s when approving this.

According to district officials in January, the July 2024 evaluation would “align with the District’s strategic goals and the Superintendent’s performance metrics.” Officials did not respond to the Star-Telegram on Tuesday when asked to specify what these strategic goals and performance metrics were.

The contract changes come amid stagnant state test scores released last month, which showed that about a quarter of Fort Worth ISD students across all grades and subject areas had scored on grade level — about the same result as last year. Additionally, the percentage of third-graders who met grade level in reading this year — 33% — was the same percentage of students who met that threshold in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic thwarted the education landscape into a whirlwind. Third grade has been identified by education experts as a pivotal time in a child’s education career where their ability to read proficiently is crucial, as it is the time where students stop learning to read and start reading to learn.

But local and state test scores have been complicated by changes in the grading system and test format in recent years. The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, exams now include the use of a computer-based grading system to grade the majority of essay questions. The number of Texas students in grades 3-8 who received a zero on constructed response questions this year jumped almost 20% from last year, TEA data shows. About 54% of Fort Worth ISD students in these same grades received a zero on these types of questions this year — a 12% uptick from 2023. Although, a national testing expert previously told the Star-Telegram that the uptick in zeros has appeared in both human-graded and computer-graded tests.

In addition to the new computer-based grading system, the Texas Education Agency redesigned STAAR last year to include more constructed response prompts and fewer multiple choice questions. Chris Rozunick, director of the assessment development division at TEA, had told the Star-Telegram she suspects the new format is more connected to the uptick in zeroes, rather than the computer-based grading system, because the question types are unfamiliar compared with what students have previously seen on the STAAR test.

Another district metric, annual accountability ratings issued by TEA, are in limbo for the 2022-23 school year amid a pending lawsuit that Fort Worth ISD joined in September alongside several other districts statewide. The districts are challenging proposed changes to the A-F accountability ratings that they say “change the goalposts” retroactively on measures that districts and schools are evaluated on. The STAAR test weighs heavily on accountability ratings.

“The 2023 accountability reports are not yet publicly available. The release of these reports is pending judicial ruling and decisions from the 88th Legislature during a special called session,” according to the TEA website.

Fort Worth ISD received a “B” rating for the 2021-2022 school year.