Tim Fails, a geography teacher at Flower Mound 9th Grade Campus, earned the 2026 Texas Secondary Teacher of the Year award from the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA).

Fails received the honor at a state ceremony on Oct. 17, 2025, after advancing through district, regional and state rounds of competition, the Flower Mound Bee reported. He first won the Lewisville ISD Secondary Teacher of the Year title, then represented the district among 76 schools across Region 11. A statewide panel of judges from education, business and community sectors narrowed the field to three secondary finalists before selecting Fails.

An 18-year classroom veteran, Fails was part of the inaugural staff that moved from Flower Mound High School to the 9th Grade Campus when it opened in 2014, the Cross Timbers Gazette reported. He has served as the school's social studies department chair since.

Fails graduated from Krum High School. He was the first in his family to earn a college degree, completing a bachelor's in social sciences at the University of North Texas.

"If I'm not invested in them, they'll never be invested in me," Fails told the Cross Timbers Gazette in October 2025, describing his approach to building student relationships. "I have to get to know them on a deeper level so they know I care about them and how they do in class."

In that same interview, Fails described his classroom as a space to "shrink the world" for 90 minutes a day, where students explore the relationship between people and the planet. Beyond teaching, Fails has served as an assistant tennis coach and sponsored student council, the school's cricket club and briefly its ping pong club.

FM9 Principal Jeff Brown praised Fails in a TASA video produced at the time of the award, calling him "excited about life" and saying Fails "really enjoys what he does day in and day out here at FM9."

The TASA program has recognized classroom excellence since 1969. Fails is the latest Lewisville ISD teacher to bring home the statewide honor, which drew candidates from districts across Texas.