Parents and teachers across Fort Worth ISD are reacting to news that the Texas Education Agency will take control of the district — a move that’s leaving many educators uneasy but giving some parents hope for change.

Longtime Fort Worth ISD teacher Kelsey De La Torre said the announcement immediately brought her to tears.

“Honestly, I read it today. I got the notification on my phone, and I glanced at it, and I got tears in my eyes,” De La Torre said. “Because it delivers a sense of insecurity and a sense of uncertainty in an environment where you need to be secure and certain.”

State plans leadership overhaul

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said the state will appoint a new board of trustees and begin a nationwide search for a new superintendent.

De La Torre worries that leadership changes at the top will trickle down to classrooms.

“The people who are basically giving us our materials, our instruction, our strategies, our resources — that will inevitably impact each and every one of us,” she said.

Parents see opportunity for change

While some teachers fear the change, others in the community see it as a much-needed reset.

Fort Worth parent Adrienne Alexander Haynes said she felt relieved when the news broke.

“I feel like we’ve been stuck in this position of asking for a bare minimum,” Haynes said. “With the state takeover, it’s almost as though we’re finally being rescued out of this hamster wheel that we’ve been in, in our education system.”

Other parents echoed that optimism.

“I’m excited for the future,” said Kathy Kessler, another Fort Worth ISD parent. “I’m excited that there are opportunities to try and make things better, where our kids are being more productive in school.”

Concerns about deeper systemic issues

Still, De La Torre — who also has three children in the district — said the state’s intervention doesn’t address the real barriers students face.

“We’re still going to have an issue with poverty. We’re still going to have an issue with students who are homeless. We’re still going to have an issue with kids who go home and don’t have any food,” she said. “When are we going to fix those issues? Because that’s what’s keeping kids from growing.”

Support for current superintendent

Both parents and teachers agreed on one thing — they want Superintendent Dr. Karen Molinar to stay in her role. Many believe she’s made significant progress in the short time she’s led the district.

A joy-riding Houston housewife was showing off her new $150,000 Porsche when she drunkenly mowed down a man on a date, one of her passengers revealed.

Arllette Reyes told jurors at the manslaughter trial against Kristina Chambers that she met up with Chambers at a bar before getting in the car with her for a terrifying ride that ended with the death of Joe McMullen on April 20, 2023.

Chambers blames her Christian Louboutin heels for the crash, claiming they slipped and caused her to accelerate into McMullen, who was leaving a donut shop on a first date.

At Lola’s Depot, a dive bar, Chambers told Reyes about about how she was an influencer and that her hedge fund manager husband purchased a Porsche 911 Carrera for her for $149,000 just two months earlier, Reyes recounted.

“I was hoping I could get a ride in it,” Reyes told jurors, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Chambers flaunted her wealth to her pals, living in a $1.6 million, modernist McMansion with husband Xuan Si. He filed for divorce after her arrest.

So Reyes, Chambers and a third friend got in the sports car and Chambers floored it for a short ride to her home.

But the alleged drunken driver — who had gone restaurant and bar hopping that night — was going so fast she missed a turn and careened into oncoming traffic, Reyes testified.

“I was praying or wondering why I was there,” the witness said.

Reyes recalled seeing a man and a woman standing on the sidewalk as the car was headed toward them.

“It all happened so fast,” she said. “One second we were on the wrong side of the road and then we were going to the right and I saw them. I think I put my hands out. I think I closed my eyes. I felt like there was nothing I could do.”

Reyes said she now knows the man and woman they hit were McMullin, 33, and Briana Iturrino.

The pair had gone to karaoke for a first date, and Iturrino narrowly avoided injury in the crash.

Reyes was the last witness called by prosecutors Tuesday. Chambers’ team began calling toxicology and intoxication experts, according to a report by Fox 26.

Prosecutor Andrew Figliuzzi told jurors during opening statements Friday that Chambers was “itching to show off her sports car,” despite allegedly being blind drunk.

Her blood alcohol was allegedly .301% — or almost four times the legal limit — an hour after the wreck. She also had traces of cocaine in her system, prosecutors said.

But Chambers’ lawyer Mark Thiessen told jurors the heel of her pricey pumps got stuck on the gas pedal at the same moment she started driving down “one of Houston’s most dangerous curves.”

An earlier witness, Officer Joseph Little, told jurors about how Chambers blew hundreds of dollars that night so her and her friend could feast on delicacies and drink cocktails and wine.

She spent $800, including $669 on a meal at high-end joint Bludom, where she splurged on caviar, oysters, martinis, wine, risotto and potato wedges, Little testified, citing bank records.

She and her pal went to at least four bars where, prosecutors estimate Chambers consumed at least six alcoholic drinks.

Chambers and Reyes were hospitalized after the crash.

She faces between up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.