FWCD: A School of Significance

STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE
April 2020
Over the last four years, the Fort Worth Country Day community has been engaged in a wide-ranging planning effort. Through surveys, conversations with alumni and parents, and through the focused effort of Country Day’s faculty, staff and Board of Trustees, we have examined the independent school landscape, assessed our strengths as an institution, and sought to identify and capitalize on opportunities to enhance the quality of the education we offer to our students and their families. The results of those efforts are represented in a comprehensive strategic plan that will guide Fort Worth Country Day for the next decade and beyond.
Head of School Eric Lombardi frequently describes FWCD as a family. He recognizes that from the School’s earliest days, when Founding Headmaster Peter Schwartz H’98 spoke to each student each day, the relationships among students and faculty members have been at the heart of Country Day’s ethos. This defining quality of our school has endured. 
Our responsibility, like that of successive generations before us, is to address the challenges and opportunities of the present and the future while remaining true to this and other qualities that distinguish Fort Worth Country Day. In that tradition, this strategic plan focuses the time-honored purpose of the School community for the next decade. 
We hope that you will share our excitement about the possibilities for Fort Worth Country Day’s future. The time is now to work together to ensure that FWCD’s future is as bright as its past. I hope you will take the time to consider the progress we have made. Though our tasks are not complete, they are well underway!
With warm regards,
Bill Arnold
Bill Arnold ’86
Director of Strategic Projects
 

Strategic Goal One

Inspire Innovation and Excellence throughout the FWCD Experience

List of 5 items.

  • Review and enhance our educational philosophy through an analysis of current best practices.

    • Curriculum Committee conducted review of educational philosophy and reaffirmed existing Philosophy.

  • Implement innovations in education that strengthen the student experience.

    • Lower School high-end mathematics redesign
    • Lower School reading instruction redesign
    • Upper School Senior Capstone program established
    • Upper School Engineering Design Laboratory and TEAM Room renovations
    • Middle School Awesomeness Initiative (AI) enhancement
    • Athletics Department HUDL video and review and performance analysis system established

  • Continue and reinforce our commitment to excellence in the arts and athletics.

    • Lower School playground redesign
    • Performing Arts Green Room renovation
    • Musical theater elective established for advanced acting students
    • Fueling Your Team from Sage Dining Services
    • Havran Track dedication

  • Nurture a culture of innovation among faculty and staff.

    • Lower School Curriculum Leaders established
    • Creating Cultures of Thinking teacher cohort

  • Attract and retain the strongest administrators, faculty and staff through recruitment, retention, and professional development.

    • Strategic Goal One Achievements

Strategic Goal Two

PLAY A MORE INTEGRAL ROLE IN FORT WORTH AND THE GREATER COMMUNITY

List of 4 items.

  • Commit to graduating “World Ready” students, knowledgeable about and prepared to make important contributions to society, using Fort Worth as a living laboratory.

    • Center for International Studies established
    • Germany and France school partnerships established
    • FWCD joins Students Shoulder to Shoulder collaboration
    • FWCD formally joins Global Schools Coalition
    • FWCD establishes language immersion programs in Avila, Spain and Annecy, France
    • FWCD recognized by Fort Worth Sister Cities as local leader

  • Create ongoing opportunities in our local community that expand our learning experiences beyond the classroom walls.

  • Expand existing and establish new opportunities through formalized interactions of our students with community leaders both on campus and throughout the Fort Worth area.

  • Commit to a substantive service learning model based on long-term relationships in the greater community and beyond the berms of FWCD, combining classroom service in ways that can enhance both student growth and the common good.

    • Como Community Center partnership established
    • 4th Grade Service Learning Project at Fort Worth Zoo
    • Strategic Goals 2

Strategic Goal Three

EXPAND OUR ACCESS AND DIVERSITY

List of 4 items.

  • Commit to sustaining and growing an intentionally inclusive community.

    • Inclusivity Statement approved by Board of Trustees
    • Falcon Inclusivity Team (FIT) established
    • Alumni Speakers series established focusing on students of color

  • Leverage FWCD’s human, physical and financial resources to expand access to our school throughout the Fort Worth area.

    • Fort Wonder brand and marketing campaign non-school specific
    • FWCD Ropes Course hosts East Fort Worth Montessori and Fort Worth Academy

  • Communicate with excellence, both internally and externally, defining and refining our identity and enhancing our strategic communication.

    • Red Productions videos
    • Pavlov From Here Anywhere ad campaign 
    • Social media use to reach all constituents, local media, and colleges

  • Improve accessibility and affordability by growing financial aid and reducing tuition dependence.

    • Strategic Goals 3

Strategic Goal Four

ASSURE SUSTAINABILITY

List of 5 items.

  • Advance our master planning and facilities enhancements, taking into account our existing needs as well as needs created by an expended portfolio of curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular programs.

    • Campus Master Plan updated by Lake Flato
    • Campus Master Plan a priority of Campaign Steering Committee

  • Develop and maintain a strategic enrollment management plan and multiyear financial model that emphasizes strength, fiscal responsibility and multiple revenue sources.

  • Increase endowment significantly during the next decade.

  • When creating new learning programs, develop an ongoing strategic posture that will simultaneously increase our accessibility, provide for new revenue, and enhance our connection to the local community.

  • Integrate environmental sustainability into the School’s operations.

    • Composting program established
    • Strategic Goals Plan 4
4200 Country Day Lane, Fort Worth, TX 76109
Phone: 817.732.7718
Fort Worth Country Day (FWCD) is a JK-12 private, independent, coeducational, nondenominational college-preparatory school located on approximately 100 acres in Fort Worth, Texas. The mission of Fort Worth Country Day School is to foster the intellectual, physical, emotional, and ethical development of capable students through an academically rigorous college preparatory program that integrates the arts and athletics.

List of 1 items.

  • Website Accessibility Statement

    Fort Worth Country Day is committed to understanding and respecting differences. To further support that initiative, FWCD is focused on making the information on our website accessible to all students, parents, and other members of the community. Achieving our goal of making the FWCD website fully accessible requires auditing numerous sections and correcting elements with minimal disruption for daily users.

    We appreciate your patience as we transition our content to a format that more closely adheres to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Additionally, some pages of the FWCD website may contain links to third-party sites that do not comply with accessibility standards and not within the range of the School’s control.

    For questions about the FWCD website, please contact Digital Media and Content Manager, Reggie Johnson at reggie.johnson@fwcd.com.

    Learn more about Fort Worth Country Day’s Mission, Philosophy, Core Values and Commitment to Inclusivity at fwcd.org/mission.