Eagle Mountain-Saginaw school district will begin construction soon on its newest elementary school after filing initial grading documents with the city on Tuesday, records show.
The school, Clete Welch Elementary, will be at 2492 Shoshoni Drive, off North Saginaw Boulevard just south of Bonds Ranch Road. It will include pre-kindergarten through fifth grade students and be similar in size and design to the district’s most recent school, Hatley Elementary School.
Construction is set to begin on Clete Welch this spring, and it has an expected open date of some time in 2027, according to the district.
In November, the district worked with VLK, a Fort Worth-based architecture firm, to finalize design plans for the school. Design and site overview plans are expected to be presented sometime this month.
Last week, the district added to the campus master plan two additional special education classes, student and parent drop-off lanes, and a geothermal mechanical system.
Filings show the plot of land that will house the Clete Welch campus is 16 acres.
Clete Welch was first announced in 2023 as part of Eagle Mountain-Saginaw’s $659.1 million bond package, which was approved by voters after the district said it experienced rapid growth of almost 700 students per year. The bond is expected to accommodate the growth for seven years in total, according to the district.
Tuesday’s paperwork filed to the city marks the first step toward the district breaking ground on the school.
Completed additions and replacements in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw’s 2023 bond include renovating Wayside Middle School, which began in spring 2024 and ended in August 2025, and building an agriculture sciences building.
The bond will eventually help build a new middle school later this year with an open date of August 2027, adding on to Watson High School this year with a completion date of 2027, and the new elementary school. In 2028, work will also begin on replacing Saginaw Elementary School.
The bond also provided locations for future elementary school sites in the northern portion of the district as well as future facilities as needed to support projected growth, according to the district.
Samuel O’Neal is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram covering higher education and local news in Fort Worth. He joined the team in December 2025 after previously working as a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He graduated from Temple University, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the school’s student paper, The Temple News.
The Fort Worth Independent School District chairs of teaching excellence for the 2025-26 school year are pictured with Superintendent Karen Molinar during a luncheon on Jan. 9, 2026. From left to right: Matthew Rose of Arlington Heights High, Kenneth Amos of Polytechnic High, Jerrett Lyday of I.M. Terrell Academy, Christa Martien Chanthavongsy of McLean Middle, Monique Gillaspy of Ridglea Hills Elementary, Briana Welch of Seminary Hills Park Elementary, Marie Vinson of Seminary Hills Park Elementary, Erica Del Rio of Glen Park Elementary, Joe Gonzales III of Rufino Mendoza Elementary and Superintendent Karen Molinar. Another honoree, KaCee Dobbins of Diamond Hill-Jarvis High, is not pictured.
Courtesy of Fort Worth ISD
The Fort Worth Independent School District has recognized 10 educators for their excellence in the classroom.
The educators at elementary, middle and high schools across the district received honorary titles as chairs of teaching excellence for one year in their respective subjects. They were selected after submitting an application, letters of recommendation and a recorded lesson in addition to undergoing a panel interview. The teachers, honored during a luncheon on Friday, Jan. 9, are also recipients of a $5,000 reward sponsored by community donors such as Central Market, Cook Children’s Health Care System and Tarleton State University.
Fort Worth ISD parents may recognize these teachers or their campuses located in several corners of the district, spanning from Diamond Hill to Seminary Hill and Ridglea Hills to Glen Park.
Lina Ruiz covers early childhood education in Tarrant County and North Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A University of Florida graduate, she previously wrote about local government in South Florida for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers.
Amelia Cortes-Rangel, the principal of Alice Contreras Elementary, speaks to kindergarten students opening their Christmas presents in Sandra Keefe’s classroom in Fort Worth on Dec. 19, 2024.
Chris Torres
ctorres@star-telegram.com
Although Fort Worth leaders have expressed concern about the direction of the city’s school system, there are a number of campuses that outperform expectations, according to a new report from the Fort Worth Education Partnership.
The report, titled “Cultivating Hope: Fort Worth Bright Spot Schools,” was released Monday. In it, the nonprofit highlights four campuses that perform well academically despite having large numbers of economically disadvantaged students.
Across all public and charter school campuses in the Fort Worth city limits, students met grade level standards 37% of the time on last spring’s STAAR exam, according to a separate report by the nonprofit. Monday’s report compares state test scores among campuses with similar racial and ethnic makeups, rates of economic disadvantage and percentages of students who are in special education or English language acquisition programs to determine which schools are outperforming their peers.
Here are the four campuses highlighted in the report:
Alice Contreras Elementary School (Fort Worth ISD)
Located in south Fort Worth’s Rosemont neighborhood, Alice Contreras serves 441 students in grades pre-K-5. On last spring’s STAAR exam, 55% of the school’s students scored on grade level in reading and 51% were on grade level in math.
Principal Amelia Cortes-Rangel said the school’s strategy includes three key elements: offering students the highest-quality instruction possible, improving campus climate so that students, teachers and community members all feel welcome and focusing on student data so teachers can see where each individual student is succeeding and where they need extra support.
Community partnerships are also critical, Cortes-Rangel said. During her first year as principal, she worked with other campus leaders to build more relationships with outside groups. Now, the school partners with the Optimist Club of Fort Worth to offer after-school sports programs and participates in Battle of the Books, a reading incentive program, and a number of University Interscholastic League activities, she said.
Those partnerships offer students opportunities they might not otherwise have, Cortes-Rangel said, but they can also be motivators for teachers. When teachers see outside volunteers and organizations come to school to help out, she said, it’s a reminder that they aren’t doing the work of educating students alone.
Located in south Fort Worth’s Edgecliff Village neighborhood, IDEA Edgecliff College Prep serves 604 students in grades 6-11. On last spring’s STAAR exam, 61% of students scored on grade level in reading and 48% were on grade level in math.
Senior Principal Kenieka Francis said the campus sets high expectations for student achievement and then follows those expectations up with the support teachers and students need to reach that threshold. The campus’ instructional team spends most of their time in classrooms working with teachers to improve their instructional skills, she said. There’s also a heavy emphasis on data analysis, she said — teachers analyze students’ work to see how they’re performing and develop strategies for closing gaps.
Principal Monica Ordaz said Cesar Chavez places a strong emphasis on teacher collaboration. The district’s curriculum is too heavy for any single person to know all of it, she said. So by working together, teachers can build on each other’s areas of expertise and raise the quality of the instruction in the building overall, she said.
Leaders at Cesar Chavez have tried to map out the school’s instructional plans by looking at what students are expected to know by the end of fifth grade, and working backwards from there, Ordaz said. It’s an idea called vertical alignment. It isn’t a new idea, she said, but it’s tricky to pull it off because campus leaders have to carve out time for teachers across every grade level to come together for planning. But those planning sessions are important, she said, because they allow teachers to look at the curriculum across grade levels and figure out what’s missing and how they can supplement it.
That alignment across grade levels is important, Ordaz said, because without it, a student might find themselves lost when they make the transition from one grade level to the next. She compared the experience to that of going to a new grocery store — shoppers who are used to shopping in one store expect items to be in a certain spot on a certain aisle. But if they go to another store, they’ll be somewhere else. Teachers and school administrators are trying to make sure students don’t experience that same kind of disorientation anytime they move to a new grade level, she said.
Leadership Academy at Maude I. Logan Elementary School (Fort Worth ISD)
Located in the Historic Stop Six neighborhood, Maude I. Logan serves 319 students in grades pre-K-5. On last year’s STAAR, 53% of students scored on grade level in reading and 31% did so in math.
Principal Michael Connor wasn’t available for an interview for this story. But in the report, authors wrote that a focus on student data, an emphasis on enrichment programs and support from the Leadership Academy Network were key factors in the school’s success.
Silas Allen is an education reporter focusing on challenges and possible solutions in Fort Worth’s school system. Allen is a graduate of the University of Missouri. Before coming to the Star-Telegram, he covered education and other topics at newspapers in Stillwater and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He also served as the news editor of the Dallas Observer, where he wrote about K-12 and higher education. He was born and raised in southeast Missouri.
Retired teacher Martha Farr, center, tutors second graders Malachi Murkledove, left, and Gabriela Ringnald in reading at Westpark Elementary School on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2025.
Amanda McCoy
amccoy@star-telegram.com
Reading is the buzzword of 2025 in the Fort Worth school district, with good reason. After years of students struggling to read at grade level, district, city and county officials have doubled down on improving literacy, with Tarrant County commissioners even calling it a critical piece of the puzzle in reducing crime and poverty.
Most would agree that helping students improve reading and comprehension skills is a good thing, but what exactly does it look like?
At Westpark Elementary School, at 10202 Jerry Dunn Parkway in Benbrook, it looks like a petite retired teacher named Martha Farr.
On a Thursday morning in September, Farr sat in a tiny chair at a small table with two second-graders. In front of her was a set of laminated flash cards with letters of the alphabet and corresponding pictures — the “Action Alphabet” — one of Farr’s own creations that she used for 40 years in her kindergarten classrooms in the Birdville school district.
The letter A is accompanied by a hand-drawn depiction of a person sneezing — Ah-choo! — and also the picture of an angel, to remind students that those powerhouse vowels are capable of more than one sound.
With an encouraging tone and saintly patience, Farr led her students through the Action Alphabet, the idea being to help them break down unfamiliar words into parts and sound them out.
Retired teacher Martha Farr, left, tutors second graders Gabriela Ringnald, center, Malachi Murkledove in reading at Westpark Elementary School on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2025. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
Second grader Malachi Murkledove works on writing words through sounding them out while tutoring with retired teacher Martha Farr at Westpark Elementary School on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2025. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
It’s a remarkably simple yet effective method for strengthening reading skills. Over her decades as a kindergarten teacher, Farr learned that the best literacy improvement strategies were the ones that focused on the basics, things like phonemic awareness, and relied on repetition.
While teaching early childhood education courses at Dallas Baptist University, Farr instilled that in her college students to carry into their own classrooms. Focusing on simplicity is particularly important with struggling readers, Farr said.
“You don’t want to let that spirit of failure start. Kids know if they’re not getting it, and everyone else in class is.”
At Westpark, Farr works with kindergarten through second grade students who aren’t yet reading at grade level, as determined by beginning-of-the-year diagnostic exams. Farr sees her students twice a week in small groups throughout the day, with each student receiving about 20 minutes of intervention per session.
It keeps Farr busy, but she clearly enjoys it. For a while, Farr said, she was happily retired. But after her husband unexpectedly passed, she found the life of leisure monotonous. She needed a reason to get up in the morning, and service through teaching has always come naturally to her.
“God gives each of us gifts,” said Farr. “When you are using your gifts and making sure you’re serving the people in your sphere of influence, it’s not a job.”
Now, two days a week, Farr leaves the comfort of the Stevenson Oaks retirement community in southwest Fort Worth and heads back to school.
Second graders Gabriela Ringnald, left, and Malachi Murkledove, look through a book during a tutoring session at Westpark Elementary School on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2025. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
Glorianne Mason, the principal at Westpark, said Farr “checked off all the boxes” when they were looking for a reading interventionist. A lot of that came down to Farr’s extensive experience, of course, but Mason said it also came down to Farr’s energy and passion for what she does.
“She’s the perfect person to come in and step up the foundation for our littles,” said Mason.
About the only thing Farr would change about her new job, if she could, is the amount of time she gets with her students. Forty minutes a week isn’t much, but Farr said the students’ schedules don’t allow for more beyond that. Still, she said, every little bit counts, and every minute of additional reading support will benefit her kids down the road.
That’s something Farr wants parents to understand, too. She realizes their schedules are just as jam packed as their students’ are, but even spending 15 to 20 minutes a day reading to your children can have a huge impact.
Larger efforts across Fort Worth schools to improve literacy
When asked if all Fort Worth schools have a Martha Farr on staff to support struggling readers, a school district spokesperson said it looks different at each campus.
A report from last November showed that nearly three quarters of Fort Worth students in grades 3-8 struggled to read at grade level.
The school district also recently adopted a new training program to help teachers support students with dyslexia.
Beginning this school year, Fort Worth students in grades 3-8 are using a Bluebonnet Learning phonics program that school district officials said will offer “a cohesive, efficient model that supports earlier student application of phonics skills aligned to the science of reading.”
While she didn’t weigh in specifically on these initiatives, Farr spoke highly of phonic-based curriculum in general, and she said diagnosing learning differences, like dyslexia, is critical in teaching students to read and keeping them motivated.
Along with simplicity, Farr’s teaching philosophy leans heavily on adaptability to meet kids where they are when it comes to literacy. While not every student will have a challenge like dyslexia, said Farr, every student learns differently, and educators must keep that in mind when developing teaching strategies.
Mason said the goal at Westpark is for each student to show progress. They arrive in August for a new school year, and nine months later, if all goes right, they’ll have taken a step forward.
The potential size of that step is different for each child, but Farr is determined that none of hers will stand still or, worse, go backward. She believes she was put on this earth to guide youngsters, and if you ever observed her in the classroom, you’d likely believe that, too.
Retired teacher Martha Farr, right, walks second graders Malachi Murkledove, left, and Gabriela Ringnald back to class after a tutoring session in reading at Westpark Elementary School on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2025. Amanda McCoy amccoy@star-telegram.com
As she walked her second-graders through the Action Alphabet, Farr regularly paused to shower the students with praise.
“You’re so smart!” she exclaimed after one correctly read what was on the flash card. “Give your brain a kiss,” she told the other after a right answer.
When they finished memorizing phonetic sounds, Farr led the children in a song. All three seemed proud of the progress they’d made on that particular Thursday.
Farr could just as easily be home at Stevenson Oaks, where meals are prepared for her and she has a full social calendar. She clocked 40 years in a kindergarten classroom, after all, so who would blame her for kicking back?
But Farr doubts she’d be content. These days she works not to pay the bills or prove herself; these days, Farr works because there’s work to be done.
Star-Telegram staff writers Kamal Morgan, Silas Allen and Lina Ruiz contributed to this report.
Matt Adams is a news reporter covering Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding areas. He previously wrote about aviation and travel and enjoys a good weekend road trip. Matt joined the Star-Telegram in January 2025.
