Francis M. Price Elementary School

Fort Wayne Community Schools, 1901 West State Boulevard, Fort Wayne; prekindergarten through fifth grade; the Pandas, in black and white; built in 1953 and named for Francis M. Price, a school supervisor who also presided over the Fort Wayne City Council

The Namesake: Francis M. Price came to Fort Wayne Community Schools in 1907 to become principal of Hoagland School. Before Fort Wayne he had been a teacher and principal in Sullivan. In 1917 he became a member of the Fort Wayne City Council, and in time the council's president, a schoolman sitting at the head of the city's government. In 1919 the district made him assistant superintendent and supervisor of geography and science, the post he held until 1930. A generation after he left the central office, the district put his name on a new elementary school on West State Boulevard. Few Fort Wayne schools carry the name of a man who governed both the schools and the city.

The Building: The school was built in 1953, and Helen Blackledge was its first principal. A compiled list of Fort Wayne school openings gives the same 1953 start, so the year rests on two sources that agree. The building stands at 1901 West State Boulevard, on the city's northwest side, where it has anchored its neighborhoods ever since, through the whole postwar growth of that part of Fort Wayne and into the present century.

Enrollment: Price is the steadiest school in this wave. The National Center for Education Statistics counted four hundred eighty five students in 1988, and for three decades the count barely moved, running between roughly four hundred thirty and five hundred thirty students, with a peak of five hundred thirty three in 2016 and four hundred ninety six as late as 2024. The plateau had a rhythm: a dip to four hundred thirty four in 1994, a return above five hundred in the 2000s, five hundred seventeen students in 2002 and five hundred twenty five in 2008, and another long run near five hundred through the 2010s. Then it dropped by ninety one students in a single year, to four hundred five in 2025. No source consulted explains the drop, and this page prints the number without inventing a reason for it. Thirty three teachers keep the ratio near twelve students to a teacher, against about twenty one to a teacher in the late 1980s. The school's makeup shifted inside the steady totals: Hispanic students were one percent of Price in 2000 and are twenty four percent in 2025, and minority enrollment stands at forty two percent. In 2023 to 2024 the school counted fifty nine percent White students, twenty one percent Hispanic, nine percent Black and nine percent students of two or more races. About sixty seven percent of students qualified for free or discounted lunch that year.

Today: Price's test scores run ahead of its district's. In 2023 to 2024, about thirty three percent of its students were proficient in English language arts against about twenty nine percent for Fort Wayne Community Schools as a whole, and about thirty two percent in math against about twenty five percent districtwide. SchoolDigger ranks the school 686th of 1,010 Indiana elementary schools for that year and has rated it two stars for several years running, and its chronic absenteeism, about twenty one percent, runs lower than at several neighboring schools. In 2026 Price is an elementary school of about four hundred students with an English language learner program, in Board of School Trustees District 1. The Pandas wear black and white. Its students feed into Northwood Middle School and, in the school history page's own wording, North Side or Northrop High School.

Sources:

1. Price Elementary School, History page, price.fortwayneschools.org, 2026: named for Francis M. Price, assistant superintendent and supervisor of geography and science from 1919 to 1930, who came to the district in 1907 as principal of Hoagland School after service as a teacher and principal in Sullivan, and who joined the Fort Wayne City Council in 1917 and later became its president; the school built in 1953 with Helen Blackledge as first principal; the English language learner program; feeders Northwood Middle School and North Side or Northrop High School; Board District 1.
2. History of Public Schools in Fort Wayne, compiled openings list, fortwaynesouthside.com, 2026: Francis M. Price beginning in 1953.
3. National Center for Education Statistics, Francis M Price Elementary School (180363000524), as republished by Public School Review: enrollment of 485 in 1988, the long plateau with 434 in 1994, 517 in 2002, 525 in 2008, a peak of 533 in 2016, 496 in 2024 and 405 in 2025; the Hispanic share of 1 percent in 2000 and 24 percent in 2025; minority enrollment of 42 percent; thirty three teachers and a ratio of about twelve students to a teacher, against about twenty one to one in the late 1980s.
4. SchoolDigger, Francis M Price Elementary School, 2026, from Indiana Department of Education data: the 2023 to 2024 composition of 59 percent White, 21 percent Hispanic, 9 percent Black and 9 percent two or more races; free or discounted lunch eligibility of 66.95 percent; proficiency of 32.79 percent in English language arts and 32.11 percent in math against district figures of 28.81 and 25.36 percent; a rank of 686th of 1,010 Indiana elementary schools; a two star rating held for several years; and chronic absenteeism of 20.8 percent.
5. Prep Sportswear, Price Elementary School Pandas store, 2026: the Pandas, in black and white.