The State of Texas’s latest takeovers of four school districts, including Fort Worth, Beaumont, Lake Worth, and Connally Independent School Districts (ISDs) have already had a direct cost to local taxpayers. All four districts were forced to negotiate settlements with superintendents ousted by the Texas Education Agency (TEA), in packages totalling more than $1 million.
Texas is at the forefront of public school takeovers nationwide, assuming control of districts even when just one school repeatedly fails to meet state standards. Since 2020, the TEA has installed its own leaders at eight school districts, including Houston ISD, the state’s largest. In addition to the four takeovers initiated this year, 10 more districts are potentially at risk, including Austin ISD. Multiple districts now undergoing takeovers already have projected budget shortfalls and have been forced to close schools.
But the state does not provide any additional funding for struggling districts under takeovers—nor does it cover costs to install the state’s chosen administrators or to remove leaders whose contracts contained penalties for early termination. As part of negotiations to terminate superintendents’ contracts, districts are often forced to pay as much as a year’s salary to leaders forced out by the state, generally paying double salaries—for both the outgoing and incoming superintendents.
In the case of Beaumont ISD, the state ousted a seasoned superintendent and replaced her with one who had no prior experience in that role.
Beaumont has faced two state takeovers in the past decade and has had to buy out the contracts of two different superintendents who were replaced by TEA. The district of 15,800 students ended up with more failing schools after its first state takeover, which was prompted by financial issues, as the Texas Observer previously reported.
The superintendent who was recently replaced, Shannon Allen, took over seven years ago during the prior state takeover. TEA negotiated a voluntary retirement agreement with Allen on behalf of the Texas school district that was approved by the state-selected board of managers in July. The agreement, an unsigned copy of which the Observer obtained through an open records request, states that Allen “shall be paid her full salary and benefits pursuant to the terms of [her superintendent] Contract” through January 31, 2027, as an “advisor emeritus” and states that she will receive a $245,195 settlement payment, along with payment for dozens of days of unused leave. Allen confirmed via email that the agreement provides both her prior salary through January and the lump sum payment.
The state-chosen replacement, Sandi Massey, is making a higher salary—$299,250, according to a four-year contract the district provided the Observer. Massey has no prior experience as a superintendent; she previously worked at Houston ISD as a leader under its ongoing state takeover.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Thomas P. Sigee, the former president of the elected Beaumont board of trustees that was replaced as part of the second takeover. “Now we have a new superintendent who is not certified [as a superintendent]. She does not have the qualifications that our former superintendent had.”
Sigee argues that if the state is going to force leadership change, it should at least cover the upfront administrative costs. “Since they are making this decision, and not anyone else … I think they should be prepared to put money in it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Fort Worth ISD, Texas’ 10th largest district with more than 67,000 students, will pay ex-superintendent Karen Molinar a full year’s salary and benefits, including 20 unused vacation days and 15 personal leave days, according to a separation agreement negotiated between the state-appointed board of managers and Molinar. That’s worth more than $430,000, according to TEA salary data. The unexpected bill arrives at a time when the district plans to close 19 schools through 2029 to address a growing budget deficit and declining enrollment. Molinar declined to comment.
“This money is coming out of money that could be used on students in instructional matters,” said Steven Nelson, an associate professor of education policy and leadership at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “Four-hundred thousand could be used to hire more teachers. It could be used to hire additional support staff in the classroom or instructional programming.”
The new state-imposed Fort Worth superintendent, Peter Licata, a former superintendent in Florida will receive a base salary of $360,000 plus other benefits and the potential for incentive pay, according to a four-year contract the district provided to the Observer.
Parent organizer Zach Leonard told the Observer he worries about other costs to students: The district already has had four different superintendents in the past decade (counting the state’s latest pick). “That kind of turnover and the cost that comes with it falls on students and teachers,” Leonard said.
In the separation agreement that TEA negotiated for Connally ISD, which serves 2,000 students in Central Texas, the district will continue to pay a salary to its former superintendent, Jill Bottelberghe, as “superintendent emeritus” until the end of January 2027 and then make another payment of $82,000. Bottelberghe, who was superintendent in Connally for three years, made an annual base salary of $187,000. Bottelberghe did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The TEA’s pick for Connally, Josie Gutierrez, who also has no previous experience as a superintendent though she had different administrative roles at nearby Waco ISD, is making a higher salary: $195,000 a year as superintendent. The takeover has already led to turnover in about 100 positions, including teachers and principals.
Finally, Lake Worth ISD, a North Texas district with 3,100 students, has paid its former superintendent Mark Ramirez $264,665 in severance due to its state takeover, according to data provided by the district and a separation agreement approved by the state-appointed board of managers. The negotiations were based on terms in Ramirez’s contract. According to TEA records as of October 2025, Ramirez’s total annual salary was nearly $242,000. Ramirez, who was recruited less than a year prior to the takeover from a district in Florida to help leaders turn around the district, did not respond to a request for comment.
The new Lake Worth superintendent, Ena Meyers, initially appointed in April, also has no prior experience as a superintendent, but she previously worked at Houston ISD as part of the administration chosen during its ongoing state takeover. Lake Worth’s state-imposed board of managers recently projected a $1.4 million budget shortfall for the 2026-27 school year and ordered a reduction in force. A Lake Worth ISD spokesperson did not respond to a request to confirm Meyers’ salary.
Meyers, like Massey, TEA’s appointee for Beaumont ISD, previously worked for a Colorado-based charter network Third Future Schools, which was founded and led until 2023 by state-imposed Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles.
At a recent community meeting, Mary Wilson Coker, an elected Lake Worth ISD trustee, asked TEA officials whether the district would be responsible for paying the costs of the takeover, including the ex-superintendent’s separation agreement and other expenses. TEA affirmed that the district would foot those bills. “If the state’s going to take over, it would be nice if they could help offset some of the costs of them taking over,” Coker said, according to the Fort Worth Report.
TEA also has appointed and required districts to pay conservators who monitor district operations for the state. Beaumont, Fort Worth, and other districts subject to recent takeovers have been required to pay $250 an hour plus $50 an hour for travel for the TEA-appointed conservators. Fort Worth attempted to fend off its takeover but was overruled by an administrative law judge—so that district also had to cover legal fees.
Past takeovers have further resulted in other costs that districts must absorb, said Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation for Teachers union. “The buyout of the superintendent is a big number … But it [is] almost dwarf[ed] in comparison [by] the cost of onboarding and bringing on so many new people. During the Houston takeover, we’ve seen close to 25,000 employees that have left the school district.” Capo said that recruiting and training each new employee costs thousands more.
Yet in each case, TEA defends the costly changes as required under state law, and claims it has always “conducted a national search and interviewed [superintendent] candidates with a strong track record of improving outcomes for students in prior school system leadership roles.”
TEA Commissioner Mike Morath has repeatedly defended leadership changes as needed to help students improve their test scores. “Today’s appointments reflect our commitment to ensuring that every student in Connally ISD has access to the education they deserve,” said Morath, when announcing changes that took effect there in May.
Under prior takeovers, some state-selected superintendents, like Mike Miles in Houston ISD, have argued that they can save districts money by rooting out “inefficiencies” in operations, which could offset some costs, though critics say such savings have come at the expense of experienced teachers and quality education.
A TEA spokesperson did not respond to the Observer’s questions for this story.
Domingo Morel, an associate professor of political science and public service at New York University who has studied state takeovers for more than a decade, said administrative churn is just the first of multiple ways state takeovers divert local taxpayers’ money in all states—not just Texas. “When the state comes in, it’s not coming in to provide more resources,” he said. Instead, state leaders are distributing resources “the way they want to see [them] distributed,” often in opposition to what the local community wants.
Tiffany Perkinz, a former Beaumont ISD employee who is now running for the District 7 State Board of Education seat, told the Observer that she’s concerned that the new Beaumont superintendent, Massey, and the state-appointed board of managers there aren’t listening to community input as they make changes to the district. “Taxpayers are not receiving any elected representation, but they’re having to pay more in tax dollars, and so I think that’s an injustice.”
Lise Olsen contributed reporting.
