The Texas Education Agency has selected a new state-appointed board and superintendent for the Lake Worth school district.
The Dallas Morning News reports that Lake Worth is the second Tarrant County school district to be placed under the control of an appointed board of managers in recent months. TEA appointed a state takeover board and superintendent in March for the Fort Worth district.
Lake Worth's new superintendent is Ena Meyers, who comes from the Houston district, another school system placed under state control. Meyers has served as Houston's deputy chief of strategic initiatives since 2023. She previously served as an administrator in the Dallas and Arlington districts.
Meyers takes over for acting Superintendent Trent Dowd, who led Lake Worth for a little over a month. Superintendent Mark Ramirez resigned in mid-March after Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced that he was going to appoint a new superintendent as part of a state takeover.
Meyers says her main focus will be boosting the Lake Worth's performance in literacy and math.
The Texas Education Agency received 19 applications for appointments to the five-member Lake Worth board. The appointees:
- Tom Harris, an executive vice president at Hillwood and chairman of the Fort Worth Mayor’s Council on Education and Workforce Development
- Amy Morgan, public school educator
- Kenneth Nichols, a retired U.S. Navy officer and adjunct professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Abraham Lincoln University
- Mason Sneed, an investor at a private equity firm
- Judy Starnes, a retired Lake Worth educator
Morath announced the takeover of the Lake Worth district in December after one campus, Marilyn Miller Language Academy, received five consecutive F ratings. That threshold triggers a state law that requires the commissioner to intervene, either by closing the struggling campus or by taking over the entire district.
