Lake Worth ISD voters will soon elect two trustees, even as the district faces possible state intervention.
The Nov. 4 election comes as Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath weighs whether to appoint a state board of managers to replace elected trustees or close Marilyn Miller Language Academy, which has posted five consecutive F grades on the state’s academic accountability system.
Three at-large seats with three-year terms are on the ballot, with one seat uncontested:
- Place 1: Incumbent Tammy Thomas faces challenger Donald Bivens.
- Place 2: Incumbent Bret Tooke faces challenger Mary Wilson Coker.
- Place 3: Incumbent Armando Velazquez, currently the board president, is unopposed. He was first elected in 2008. Velazquez did not respond to a request for comment.
Early voting ends Oct. 31.
In nearby Fort Worth ISD, the state ordered a takeover and plans to replace elected trustees with a board of managers in the coming months.
During a recent visit to Lucyle Collins Middle School, Morath questioned Lake Worth trustees’ track record, while emphasizing he’s reviewing whether recent changes are taking hold in classrooms.
The board is not “brand-spanking new,” he said.
“The question is, where was the urgency four, five, six years ago?” Morath said.
Here’s what the candidates say
Thomas said she wasn’t planning to run again for the Place 1 seat until the district received a June warning letter from the Texas Education Agency about potential state intervention.
“Considering the position that we are in and that I have served on this board for so long, I felt obligated to serve another term and to try to help us recover from this,” said Thomas, a lifelong Lake Worth resident who was first elected in 2013.
Thomas said she is proud of several district successes over her tenure, including growth in fine arts and career-and technical-education programs. She also credited Superintendent Mark Ramirez, who she voted to hire in May, with facing the district’s problems directly.
“He has taken full responsibility for a situation that he inherited. He was no part of the failure that we have gone through,” Thomas said. “What we were doing here was not working. We hired him to do the job and I’m going to listen to him … I’m going to support him 100%.”
Responding to Morath’s criticism about past urgency, Thomas accepted responsibility. Still, she cast the only vote against extending former Superintendent Rose Mary Neshyba’s contract in August 2024.
“He is 100% correct,” Thomas said. “The school board should have acted a lot sooner.”
If reelected, Thomas said she would focus on restoring trust and transparency, supporting teachers and strengthening parent engagement.
Thomas said the district must cooperate closely with TEA officials if they want what’s best for students.
“It’s time for this board to sit back and listen and follow directions,” she said.
Her challenger, Bivens, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Bivens is a local business owner who has lived in Lake Worth for 30 years, according to his ballot application.
Retired school counselor and substitute teacher Mary Wilson Coker said she’s challenging Tooke for the Place 2 seat because “there’s nowhere to go but up.” Coker is also the sister-in-law of Thomas.
Tooke, a mechanic and maintenance worker for Lockheed Martin, did not respond to requests for comment. Tooke was first elected in 2018.
While Coker supports maintaining local control, she’s prepared to serve regardless of the state’s decision — and in any role she can, she said.
A board of managers is appointed by the education commissioner and has full governing authority over the district. They approve the budget, adopt policies and evaluate the superintendent — responsibilities currently held by the locally elected board. Trustees would remain in office, but without any power.
“If a board of managers happens, it happens and we’ll still roll with it,” Coker said.
She pointed to early signs of improvement since Ramirez arrived, specifically citing recent early test results showing better student performance than in previous years.
“It’s a process,” Coker said. “I feel like we’re moving in the right direction.”
Coker wants to assume good intentions in answering why current trustees did not act sooner to remedy the district’s struggles, she said.
“I want to give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they didn’t truly understand the road they were headed down and the potential consequences,” she said.
If elected, her priorities are to provide teachers the resources they need to succeed, support Ramirez and to dig in and embrace data, she said.
Trustees should keep student outcomes central in the superintendent’s evaluation and meet parents where they are, Coker said.
Success in three years, she said, would mean meeting district goals, deeper parent engagement, and — if the state does intervene — ultimately restoring local control.
While Thomas reported a single $100 contribution from Lake Worth city council member Sherrie Watkins, Coker reported no fundraising, according to campaign finance reports. Both reported about $1,300 in expenditures in October.
Neither Tooke, Bivens nor Velazquez filed campaign finance reports.
Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org or @matthewsgroi1.
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