The Fort Worth ISD superintendent told the school board that it breached her contract subsequent to her evaluation in January, according to an email obtained by the Fort Worth Report.
Educational leadership experts say the message from Superintendent Angélica Ramsey reflects a complex relationship between the district’s top administrator and the school board. Trustees hire, fire and evaluate the performance of the superintendent, the only district employee who directly reports to them.
In a Feb. 9 email, Ramsey wrote that school board members did not plan to evaluate her on stated goals as they had agreed. Instead, the superintendent wrote, trustees looked to grade her on 2023-24 school year academic data.
“In addition, the board informed me that I would be evaluated again in five to six months (June or July) and that I would have new goals to meet. I have tried to be agreeable and moved forward based on the board’s request even though the board breached my contract in doing so,” Ramsey wrote.
The school board evaluated Ramsey during a Jan. 23 closed-door special meeting. Ramsey’s contract states the school board evaluates and assesses her performance no later than Jan. 31 every year.
Ramsey did not respond to requests for comment via email and phone on the conflict with the school board.
Trustee Michael Ryan said he did not know whether the school board was in breach of contract earlier this year. However, he said, the school board examined different parameters to evaluate Ramsey and decide how to allocate her bonuses.
When contacted last week by the Report about Ramsey’s email, Ryan recalled the school board agreed to turn over the situation to its attorney, Benjamin Castillo.
“My presumption is that as he looked at it, they determined there wasn’t a problem because we went on to do another evaluation in July,” Ryan said.
During a July 16 special meeting, trustees determined Ramsey met her goals and awarded her a $15,000 retirement bonus, the lowest contractually obligated amount. Trustees did not extend her contract, which ends July 26, 2026. Ramsey’s salary is $335,000.
Ramsey’s goals were not public before her July evaluation. Documents received in answer to a July 17 Report records request revealed for the first time how trustees graded the superintendent.
A best practice for a school board is to approve the goals in a public vote, so a district and superintendent have a record of clear expectations, said Paul Cruz, a former Austin ISD superintendent who teaches educational leadership at the University of Texas at Austin College of Education.
“It really is important that goals be approved at a school board meeting,” he said.
Board President Camille Rodriguez said she did not recall Ramsey’s email referencing a breach of contract and could not locate it.
The Report filed an open records request for emails between the superintendent and school board members Feb. 13. Fort Worth ISD appealed the request to the Texas attorney general’s office March 21.
Trustees Quinton Phillips, Kevin Lynch, Anael Luebanos, Anne Darr and Roxanne Martinez did not respond to Report requests for comment about Ramsey’s break of contract claim.
School board members Wallace Bridges and Tobi Jackson declined to comment on Ramsey’s email.
Jackson wants Fort Worth ISD’s focus shifted back to where it matters the most.
“I would like for our board to spend the majority of our time focused upon our students, the youth of Fort Worth and our community with their families and our taxpayers,” Jackson said, emphasizing doing that will accelerate student achievement.
A healthy superintendent-school board relationship would see both sides comfortable with honestly discussing hard topics, said Jo Beth Jimerson, an education professor at Texas Christian University. Additionally, they should not be afraid those conversations would derail efforts focused on students.
“In the ideal, they would also recognize that while they come from different places, they do want to help kids, even if they’re trying to approach it in different ways and also recognize that they are all human beings juggling a number of pressures. That is really important,” Jimerson said.
When a superintendent states her contract was breached, the administrator and school board need to come together and discuss the concerns, Cruz said.
“There has to be a discussion about that individual or the group’s perspective, especially on something like that, and look at the contract to say, ‘What are the facts surrounding this situation?’ Cruz said.
The contract is crucial in a situation like this, Cruz said. If a parting of ways is necessary, the contract should detail the process.
“The superintendent’s contract will typically spell out how the board and the superintendent are going to go about it because superintendents do move on,” Cruz said. “All that is stipulated in the superintendent’s contract on what those next steps are going to be.”
Ramsey’s contract features a section detailing the termination of her employment, but not a buyout clause. Reasons for ending the contract include:
Ramsey’s predecessor, Kent Scribner, exited the Fort Worth ISD superintendency after the school board agreed to use his contract’s buyout clause and pay him $573,077.
Superintendents have to navigate politics, personalities and different expectations as they work with a school board, Jimerson said.
“At some point, that dance gets really challenging, and it’s hard sometimes to say whether it’s because of the board or the superintendent or the situation. It sounds like a situation that’s really complicated,” Jimerson said.
The school board hired Ramsey, who previously led Midland ISD in West Texas, Sept. 20, 2022. She was brought to Fort Worth ISD as a way to move the needle on the district’s stagnant academic performance, Ryan said. Since 2022, student performance has not changed much, according to 2024 state standardized test results.
“My greatest hope is that we’ll see the improvements that we expect that she can make and those will be rewarded the way they should be,” Ryan said.
Education reporter Matthew Sgroi contributed.
Jacob Sanchez is a senior education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org or @_jacob_sanchez. At 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 license.
