Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare brought up concerns about Fort Worth Independent School District working with students in the Juvenile Justice Alternative Program due to the district’s problems with student achievement.
During the Tarrant County Commissioner meeting on Tuesday, members voted to approve a contract between Fort Worth ISD and JJAEP to provide teachers and instructional support to students in the system for the 2024-2025 school year.
While discussing the contract, O’Hare asked if the county has opened up the opportunity for other school districts to provide teachers and instructional materials to the JJAEP students, noting that there have been problems within Fort Worth ISD.
“I’m not here to bag on Fort Worth ISD, I know what I’ve seen, heard people talk about it and the scores are failing. Why they are I don’t know. I’m not an educator. I don’t pretend to know. But shouldn’t the question be asked? Are we doing a disservice to these kids if we don’t look at other options?” questioned O’Hare.
The county has contracted with Fort Worth ISD to teach JJAEP students for over 33 years. However, O’Hare begged the question of whether the district is a good fit for the juvenile program.
“I wanted to bring up the subject, so to get it on people’s minds and to potentially look at the next time it rolls around, maybe they [Fort Worth ISD] do a wonderful job at this. And teaching is difficult by itself anyway, and I’m sure this one is even more challenging,” said O’Hare. “Do we owe it to these kids in the school to go look at other options and see if there’s a better way to do it? We may look at this over the next six months and determine the answer is no, but there seems to be so much turmoil out of there all the time, I want to make sure we’re giving the best education we can.”
Commissioner Manny Ramirez chimed into the discussion by stating that while he’s unsure if the statutory requirements require the program to be within a certain school district, he has been looking at other alternatives.
“I’ve already spoken to our Juvenile Probation Chief Riley Shaw about creative programs, you know, out in the community, home-based programs, etc, that Tarrant County can apply for specifically so that we are reducing recidivism, providing a better education, all the rest,” said Ramirez.
While the contract passed unanimously, commissioners asked for metrics for how the program has operated and its successes and failures.
Fort Worth ISD has not responded to a request for comment.