When was the last time you glanced in the MSON room when walking through the science building? If you can’t remember, chances are you don’t know that it is no longer the MSON room, but the office of our new Assistant Head of School, Amy Witten. (The MSON classes will still take place in this room, Witten will just step out when they are taking place.)
When speaking with Witten, it immediately becomes evident that she loves working with students. This being said, it might come as a surprise that she hasn’t always worked in an educational environment.
Witten has an undergraduate degree in English linguistics and a Doctorate in public health. Her first job was in safety education at the Methodist Hospital in Houston. This job took place in the sub-basement of the hospital, right next to the morgue.
“It was just a really strange place to work,” Witten said.
She soon knew that this was not the occupation for her.
Witten is fluent in Spanish, so naturally she started her journey in education as a bilingual first grade teacher at Duchesne Academy in Houston. She then worked as a middle and upper school learning specialist, soon rising to Director of Curriculum and Learning Support, then the Middle School Head and finally as the Head of Academics, Innovation, and Student Services.
When the Head of School at Duchesne Academy retired, she started looking around for other job opportunities. Eric Lombardi, FWCD’s Head of School, was the Head of Middle School at St. John’s in Houston, where Witten’s children attended.
“Ms. Witten will be the first person ever at our school to have responsibility for all of those staff members at the school that provide support for kids beyond the classroom,” Lombardi said.
Witten will oversee the learning specialists, health and wellness counseling, and the nursing department. . She wants to ensure that, if a certain student has difficulties in lower or middle school, their support is productively passed along once they change divisions.
“[Witten’s] job is to codify and connect across the divisions,” Lombardi said.
Witten is also the Assistant Head of School for Academics. This means that she will continue to connect Junior Kindergarten through 12th grade and ensure institutional consistency throughout the pedagogy and curriculum.
Being that both of Witten’s children went to school at St. John’s, when the opportunity presented itself to come to Country Day, it was hardly an offer she could refuse.
“It was obvious that [Country Day students were] living your core values, which is what I always look for,” Witten said.
In the few short weeks that school has been in session, Witten’s addition to the FWCD community has had a large impact on the school.
“I want us to be a school that is really a gold standard for taking care of our students, faculty and staff, and I thought [Witten] had a really unique experience having done those kinds of things,” Lombardi said.
Witten believes that, while of course all three “As” and core values are important, she particularly values academics and tries to implement the core values of courage and kindness in her everyday life.
“If you are a kind person and you have courage to stand up for your beliefs and values, then everything else kind of falls into place,” Witten said.
Witten has fit perfectly into the FWCD community, but if she didn’t pursue education, she would like to be an OB-GYN or a nurse midwife, because she is very interested in the ethics of informed consent in pregnancy and childbirth.
“I hope to be able to be a positive part of the community and hopefully contribute to the school and take something that’s already so great and help make it even better […] I think my mantra this year is to form strong relationships, become a strong part of the community and just to see where I can add value and to learn while I’m doing that,” Witten said.
Despite having quite the interesting life and many qualifications, if our new Assistant Head of School could tell everyone at Fort Worth Country one thing about herself it would be that work ethic and family are her two personal core values.
If you learn one thing from this, I hope it is that if you want someone to talk to about your time at Country Day, you now know who to see. (Or if you need help with your Spanish homework, of course.)
