State-appointed Superintendent Peter Licata wants area businesses to do more than hire Fort Worth ISD graduates.<\/p>\n
He wants them in FWISD schools before students ever reach graduation.<\/p>\n
Licata pitched a deeper partnership between the district and the city\u2019s business community Thursday during a Fort Worth Chamber event. He called for companies to sponsor career academies, provide internships for students and give teachers opportunities to learn firsthand how industries are changing<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re going to go ahead and open up a new construction academy, which is something I want to do, what construction company is going to sponsor that facility?\u201d Licata said.<\/p>\n Licata joined Fort Worth Chamber President and CEO Steve Montgomery for a discussion moderated by Bobby Ahdieh, a member of the Fort Worth ISD board of managers.<\/p>\n The issue has become increasingly urgent for the chamber, Montgomery said. As it developed a new strategic plan, Montgomery said business and community leaders identified workforce development as Fort Worth\u2019s most pressing issue. They also called for greater employer involvement in schools and expanded higher education opportunities.<\/p>\n Businesses deciding whether to move, expand or remain in Fort Worth are evaluating the quality and availability of workers, Montgomery said. If graduates enter the workforce without necessary skills, employers absorb the cost of additional training.<\/p>\n \u201cA high-performing school district is truly one of the most important infrastructure pieces in our local economy,\u201d Montgomery said.<\/p>\n Building that workforce starts with something more basic, Licata said: reading and math. In Fort Worth ISD, 41% of third graders met grade level in reading during the 2025-26 school year and 38% did so in math.<\/p>\n And, while Fort Worth ISD had 17 campuses earn an A overall in the state\u2019s 2026 accountability ratings, just 12 earned an A in student achievement, which measures students\u2019 academic performance and, for high schools, college, career and military readiness and graduation.<\/p>\n Licata described what he called the \u201cSaturday dilemma\u201d \u2014 a student graduates from high school Friday night, then wakes up Saturday with a diploma that does not necessarily guarantee the student can read, do math, enter college, join the military or begin a career.\u00a0<\/p>\n College, career and military readiness, student attendance and putting a consistent teacher in every classroom are among the measures Licata said the district must watch alongside academic results. Student attendance is currently running around 86% to 87%, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Licata also defended the district\u2019s decision to begin the school year with uncertified teachers rather than leave positions vacant.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fort Worth ISD began the year with zero teaching vacancies but about 260 uncertified teachers, Licata said. He argued that keeping the same teacher with students from the first day while helping that educator earn certification is preferable to relying on a substitute for weeks or months.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a decision by me, and I\u2019ll make it every day of the week,\u201d Licata said.<\/p>\n But Licata said schools cannot prepare students for every changing industry on their own.\u00a0<\/p>\n He wants businesses to help expand opportunities beyond traditional career and technical education programs. Technology, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity education, he said, should not be limited to magnet or specialized campuses. He also wants medical programs available more broadly at high schools.<\/p>\n Students could gain experience through internships, while teachers could participate in externships inside businesses to learn how workplaces, technology and industry practices have changed.\u00a0<\/p>\n A similar model already exists locally. This summer, Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County and InterLink Inc. placed career and technical education teachers with local employers for 10-day externships in industries including construction, aerospace, manufacturing<\/a> and hospitality. The program, funded by the Texas Workforce Commission, served up to 45 educators.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re in the classroom for 15 years, things have changed,\u201d Licata said.<\/p>\n Employers are looking for graduates with more than diplomas, Montgomery said. They need workers who can communicate, collaborate, solve problems and adapt as technology changes.<\/p>\n Businesses are interested in internships, apprenticeships and teacher externships, he said, but many \u2014 particularly smaller employers \u2014 do not know how to get involved. The chamber could help create larger, established programs that businesses can easily join rather than forcing each company to build one on its own, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Licata said the district also has work to do internally.\u00a0<\/p>\n He wants Fort Worth ISD to build systems strong enough to survive changes in superintendents and boards. That includes a regimented instructional model at struggling campuses and an organization that eventually becomes thinner as those systems take hold.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reality is, if a system has enough processes, it becomes the machine,\u201d Licata said.<\/p>\n The same long-term commitment is needed outside the district, Montgomery said. Businesses cannot become engaged during a crisis and disappear once leadership changes or academic results improve, he said.<\/p>\n The business community\u2019s support, he said, must become \u201cmuch, much bigger than any one superintendent or one board.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Montgomery pointed to himself as an example of how disconnected business and civic leaders have been from the district. Despite years of involvement in Fort Worth politics, he said he could not name a Fort Worth ISD school board member before the state intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cThat means I\u2019ve been neglectful in my duties to be engaged and be a responsible citizen,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cWe all have some ownership here.\u201d<\/p>\n Licata ended with a similar request.<\/p>\n The seventh grader sitting in a Fort Worth ISD classroom today will graduate in about five years, he told business leaders. By then, local employers will need that student ready for an economy that is continuing to grow and change.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease invest in our seventh graders and our sixth graders and our first graders and our ninth graders,\u201d Licata said. \u201cBecause it will pay dividends.\u201d<\/p>\n Matthew Sgroi is an education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at matthew.sgroi@fortworthreport.org<\/a> or @matthewsgroi1<\/a>.<\/p>\n Disclosure: FWISD manager Pete Geren leads the Sid W. Richardson Foundation, a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. FWISD manager Laurie George is a member of the Report\u2019s reader advisory council. 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/20\/fwisd-superintendent-wants-businesses-in-schools-before-students-graduate\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n <img id=”republication-tracker-tool-source” src=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/?republication-pixel=true&post=740586&ga4=2820184429″ style=”width:1px;height:1px;”><script> PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: “https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/08\/20\/fwisd-superintendent-wants-businesses-in-schools-before-students-graduate\/”, urlref: window.location.href }); } } <\/script> <script id=”parsely-cfg” src=”\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/fortworthreport.org\/p.js”><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Matthew Sgroi, Fort Worth Report August 20, 2026 State-appointed Superintendent Peter Licata wants area businesses to do…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1018119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7371,14948,7372,60054,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1018118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-america","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-isd","tag-fortworth","tag-takeover","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117142109941058171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1018119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}