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Fort Wayne Community Schools, 4501 Vance Avenue, Fort Wayne; kindergarten through fifth grade; the Panther Cubs; no prekindergarten in its federal record, and no documented founding year
The Undated Start: Glenwood Park's entry on the Allen County Genealogical Society's elementary schools page is a bare website link. No date, no photograph, no discussion: of the schools in this wave it is the one the local record simply points at and passes. The one founding number in circulation comes from Public School Review's "Year Founded" field, which gives 1965. That field is an aggregator value with no district source behind it, and this project has caught it returning building years and unverified years for other Fort Wayne schools, so it is printed here as a claim and nothing more. No district history, dedication record or building record for Glenwood Park has been found. The founding year is unknown. The earliest documented evidence of the school is its federal record, which opens in 1987 with two hundred ninety students and fifteen teachers. The date in this article's sorting key, 1987, is that evidence year, a sort key and nothing more.
The Sudden Growth: Whatever Glenwood Park was doing in the late nineteen eighties, it changed size fast. The National Center for Education Statistics counted two hundred ninety students in 1987 and two hundred ninety two in 1988, then three hundred eighty eight in 1989 and four hundred twenty one in 1990: growth of about forty five percent in two years, after a year of no growth at all. No source consulted for this page explains the jump. A redrawn boundary or a changed grade span would account for it, but neither is documented, and the numbers are printed here without a cause. The school kept growing in steps to a peak of six hundred twenty two students in 2018, and it holds five hundred thirty two in 2024 to 2025, taught by thirty three teachers, about sixteen students to a teacher, in an attendance area of about three square miles on the northeast side.
Enrollment: The 1988 student body, by the federal counts, was two hundred twenty two White students, fifty eight Black students, eight Asian students and three Hispanic students out of two hundred ninety two. By 2025 the school of five hundred thirty two is thirty eight percent White, twenty two percent Black, fourteen percent Hispanic, thirteen percent Asian and thirteen percent of two or more races. The Asian count is the sharpest single line in the school's record: eight students in 1988, ninety one in 2020, sixty eight in 2025. Lunch eligibility moved with the neighborhood's economics, from twenty one percent of students qualifying for free or discounted lunch in 1988 to sixty seven percent in 2025.
ROAR: Glenwood Park's students are Panther Cubs, and the school's site explains the letters its awards run on: the Panther Cubs ROAR by showing Respect, Ownership, Attitude and Responsibility. The recognition machinery is specific. Distinguished Panther Cub Awards go out each quarter. A Golden Ticket goes to two students each quarter for outstanding character. A Kiwanis Award goes yearly to one student per class. Fifth graders sit on a Student Council that meets monthly with the principal, older students work the Safety Patrol at arrival and dismissal, and students in grades three to five perform in Glenwood's Got Talent.
Feeders: SchoolDigger's feeder record for Glenwood Park names one destination and stops: its students usually go on to R. Nelson Snider High School, with no middle school step listed. The tie to Snider is documented on the school's own site in working detail. Snider cadet teachers intern with Glenwood teachers for a full year. Snider students visit as Snider Buddies to mentor the younger children. And on the last day of school, Snider's graduating seniors parade through Glenwood's halls in what the school calls its Senior Parade, walking past the elementary students whose building they once filled.
The Principal's Mile: In August 2024 Glenwood Park's principal was Derek Leininger, in his third year in the job. For his fortieth birthday he and the school's PTA set up a GoFundMe that gave the money to the school instead of to him, and he marked the day, August 30, 2024, by attempting to run a mile in under six minutes in front of the whole school, WPTA reported. The school site in 2026 names a different principal, Nick Kirby. Both names are printed here with their dates, because the record holds both and the second does not erase the first.
Sources:
- Allen County Genealogical Society, Elementary Schools in Allen County, Indiana, Allen INGenWeb, 2026: the Glenwood Park entry consists of a website link only.
- National Center for Education Statistics, Glenwood Park Elementary School (180363000529), directory entry and school record as republished by Public School Review and SchoolDigger: enrollment of 290 in 1987, 292 in 1988, 388 in 1989, 421 in 1990, peak 622 in 2018, 532 students in 2024 to 2025, thirty three teachers, the attendance area of about 3.0 square miles, enrollment by race in 1988 and 2025, the Asian count of 91 in 2020, and free and discounted lunch eligibility of 21.2 percent in 1988 and 66.9 percent in 2025. Public School Review's "Year Founded 1965" is printed here as an unverified aggregator value only.
- SchoolDigger, Glenwood Park Elementary School, 2026: R. Nelson Snider High School as the school's destination, with no middle school listed.
- Glenwood Park Elementary School, school site and About Us page, glenwoodpark.fortwayneschools.org, 2026: Home of the Panther Cubs; Principal Nick Kirby; ROAR as Respect, Ownership, Attitude and Responsibility; Distinguished Panther Cub Awards; the Golden Ticket; the Kiwanis Award; Safety Patrol; Student Council; Glenwood's Got Talent; the Snider cadet teaching program, Snider Buddies and the Senior Parade.
- WPTA, August 13, 2024: Principal Derek Leininger, in his third year at the school, marking his 40th birthday with a PTA GoFundMe for the school and a sub six minute mile attempt on August 30, 2024.