School districts headed back to class Monday in Tarrant County include Everman ISD, Lake Worth ISD, and Fort Worth ISD.
Fort Worth, the largest district in the county, has around 75,000 students.
Mayor Mattie Parker and Superintendent Dr. Angelica Ramsey paid a special visit to some schools on the first day, as teachers and principals welcomed students back to class with a colorful start to the school year.
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NBC 5 was there as families at TA Sims Elementary School in East Fort Worth walked through hallways decked out in balloons and banners, thoughtfully put together by their teachers.
“It’s always full of excitement, joy, energy and just enthusiasm for a great first day,” said school principal Andrea Harper.
This school was one of the lucky ones to get special greetings from superintendent Ramsey. It’s also her first “first day of school” after being hired last year.
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“I woke up at 3a.m. because I’m so excited about the first day,” she said.
She added one of the many key issues the school district plans to focus on this year is pandemic learning loss.
“We tend to think that because the pandemic happened three years ago, that it’s over, but that isn’t the case,” she said.“we still have a lot of work to do to get our students back where they need to be.”
She said her team also plans to stay on top of the teacher shortage, which is looking a lot better this year.
“In the past, we’ve had up to 300 to 400 vacancies, and [currently] our vacancies are around 95 give or take - that’s a huge difference,”
Mayor Mattie Parker also addressed the new state law requiring armed security guards on every campus.
“The city of Fort Worth is committed to paying for essentially half of the SRO costs for school districts, mind you we have 12 school districts across Fort Worth and every model is different across districts,” she said.
This school year, Ramsey added the district has created programs that support students' academic, social and mental health – which they know is still recovering in many ways post-COVID.
"If our students don't feel safe, connected, and like they belong in school, and we're not meeting those first needs – we're never going to get to that instructional piece,” she said.
For students who need extra help in improving their grades, the district is really pushing free after school programming that parents should consider asking their child’s school about.
