Eric Lombardi, Head of School, Fort Worth Country Day

As the head of school at Fort Worth Country Day, Eric Lombardi is implementing a strategic plan at this JK-12 institution. The school also broke ground on a $24 million building to better address the needs of students, faculty and staff, Lombardi told Invest: 

What is the importance of the school’s new $24 million building under construction, and how will it change the educational experience of your students?

The new building, replacing our original 1963 Lower School, gives us a building for the next 60 years. Thanks to the fantastic work of San Antonio architectural firm Lake|Flato, the new space is fabulously designed to make everyone in the building aware of the outdoors as we do schoolwork in beautiful classrooms. While beautiful, the new building also allows us to put in place significant safety elements, from controlled access to the building to a tornado-safe common area that fits the entire Lower School, students and staff. 

I think there’s another statement the building makes: It is about the same 33,000-plus square feet as the original building. The new space is not about growing our enrollment; it’s about providing the best for our learners and teachers in the same amount of space. I would say that the focal point of the building will be the library, which reflects the school’s commitment to and celebration of the learning experience as you read. The building comprises four classrooms for each grade: first, second, third and fourth. Our junior kindergarten and kindergarten remain in their own building.

The building showcases dedicated science classrooms and a dedicated makerspace that we call a “collaboratory.” Those rooms were not in the original building; instead, they were “retrofitted” there. These new rooms reflect the recognition of the need to prioritize those learning opportunities.

While we are beyond excited about the new Lower School building, the learning experience for future generations of FWCD Lower School students will remain, most importantly, based on the teachers, not the classroom. This building will inspire our already wonderful faculty and students to take their work to another level.

What new initiatives has the school implemented in the last year? 

Perhaps the most notable thing this past year is that we’ve added a new position to the school: Assistant Head of School for Student Services and Academics. Dr. Amy Witten holds this role and oversees the entire JK-12 curricular experience and faculty professional development. In the first part of last year, she worked on the student support aspect of her job. Professional development was really about improving our work to support students with learning differences. We have brought in experts from the Shelton School to help us identify students at an early age who may have learning needs. So, probably the most important enhancements we’ve made are at the level of supporting our learners where they are and of having someone in charge who wakes up every day thinking about how we can improve the experience for those learners.

Beyond Dr. Witten’s role, our new initiatives are more enhancements of what we’ve always done. We are a classic “3A’s” school, requiring participation in the arts and athletics and the biggest A, “Academics.” We’re always going to honor the more traditional approach to education; however, we are always incorporating important tools for JK-12 learners. Recently, that has meant helping faculty make sure that AI is a part of the toolset. We are always making sure that our teachers are getting the best professional development opportunities, whether for AI, learning differences or another topic.

We’ve always done an excellent job preparing kids for college. The word we hear regularly from our alumni is that they are the ones in their freshman dorm being asked for writing advice because those other students didn’t have as much experience at their school as they did at FWCD. So, there are some things we do not ever want to change, even while there are places we always want to tweak or even dramatically evolve.

Talking about the staff and the faculty, how are you attracting and retaining educators?

Fort Worth Country Day’s sense of community is incredibly powerful. We love being in Fort Worth. In many ways, the city sells itself as a pretty vibrant place. Fort Worth is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, with one of the largest metropolitan areas and all of the energy that comes with that.

In the past five years, we have realized that all educators have been challenged in entirely unanticipated ways when it comes to retaining faculty. If we are going to hire and retain the highest-caliber people and educators, we need to support them through 2020-era challenges. There have been physical and logistical challenges with political and health tensions, but the mental element of those tensions is often excruciating. As a school, we needed to give faculty and staff the opportunity and the platform to share their feelings and realities. We took advantage of Authentic Connections, a survey provider we have used for several years that follows our students’ mental health and well-being. I believe in the value of anonymous feedback for the faculty and staff so that they can let us know what experiences they are having. You hope that they come in and talk to you directly. Still, you always know that there are folks who might not feel comfortable sharing some of their experiences, so I hope that what we are doing is gathering the information from various resources – regular conversation with the faculty and staff, but also these anonymous surveys – to find out what their experiences have been. This way, we can see the areas that need improvement. Retention and hiring have a lot to do with being in touch with your faculty and staff and giving them the chance to provide you with feedback. 

Given the growth in Fort Worth, what are the challenges you are assessing? How are you navigating those?

Again, in the recruiting realm, a challenge we’re facing these days is that, compared to when I joined the school 10 years ago, we were more affordable as a city. Housing and the like have gotten more expensive. It’s not as easy to come here and find a house of your liking, an affordable buy for you within easy distance of the school. I think teachers and staff are living a little further away than they might want. But that’s one of the prices we pay for being a fast-growing, popular place to live.