Rivertree Academy finds a new central home after a decade serving Lake Como students
The sun set on Wednesday afternoon as over 50 people — parents, students, community members and educators — gathered to celebrate the grand opening of Rivertree Academy’s new location.
The independent Christian school’s new home will be at 5548 Kilpatrick Ave. in the Lake Como neighborhood.
The school previously was in three separate locations: 5439 Bonnell Ave. for Pre-K, Lake Como Church of Christ at 5601 Fletcher Ave. for kindergarten to second grade, and Hope Farm Como at 5532 Shiloh Drive for third to fifth grades.
The school broke ground at Kilpatrick Avenue in October 2023 and construction ended in December 2024. Students began using the school building on Monday.
Justina Jenkins, Head of School at Rivertree Academy, told the crowd about the difficulty of having three campuses scattered around Como and Fort Worth — where they would have the same event at each campus.
With the new building, she was enthusiastic at how much the school has grown, students’ academic achievement, and the expanding opportunities students are provided.
“We go into this building, standing on the prayers of everyone that’s in this space, standing on the volunteer efforts that is right here in this space, standing on the dollars that have been given to make this dream a reality,” Jenkins said.
The 32,000-square-foot building has 16 classrooms, a media center, chapel, cafeteria, library and office suite.
Rivertree Academy was founded in 2011 by Randy Brown, who has provided an after-school program and a summer camp for Lake Como children since 2006. The school was first named as BURN Ministries and changed to its current name in 2014.
Rivertree Academy opened in August 2015 with 46 students from Pre-K to second grade. Now the school has 103 students, where students are 70% Black and 30% Hispanic. With the new building capacity at 300 students the school plans to grow enrollment every year.
Jenkins said the mission of the school is to have a holistic and price-centered education for students in the Lake Como community. It includes 86% of students who live in Lake Como and the other 14% are in the surrounding Fort Worth area. The school also provides scholarships to every student from families who show a demonstrated financial need. The scholarships are funded through grants from individuals or donors from foundations.
Lake Como is a historic African American neighborhood where the median income in 2020 was $18,500 and more than 40% of the population lived below the poverty rate.
In December 2020, the neighborhood was awarded $3.2 million to improve the quality of life and safety for residents through police presence, community interaction with governmental and nongovernmental organizations, installation of security cameras, new sidewalks, new streetlights and more.
Last year, Lake Como received the best neighborhood in the country award by the Neighborhoods USA conference in Lubbock. The neighborhood highlighted its annual Juneteenth celebration, the community’s history and how the Lake Como Neighborhood Advisory Council was started.
Mayor Mattie Parker thanked Jenkins, Brown, the teachers and the Lake Como community to get the very best in not only the education but to protect their neighborhood and their children.
“You really have provided the vision that God cast on your hearts, and that’s pretty amazing,” Parker said. “It’s humbling to stand here having been in the dirt a year ago, and seeing it come to fruition.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2025 at 9:29 PM.
