Homestead High School

Southwest Allen County Schools, 4310 Homestead Road, Fort Wayne; grades nine through twelve; built 1970, rebuilt and dedicated 2026

Origins: Homestead is the only high school in Aboite Township, a four year comprehensive public high school in the southwest corner of Allen County. The district dates it plainly: the school was constructed in 1970 to serve 600 students, and its seal carries the year 1970 as its founding. One point in the school's own record does not line up with the district's. The student newspaper, The Spartana, described itself in 2010 as Homestead's news source since 1969, a year before the building opened. Whether a student body or publication existed in 1969 was not resolved from district or newspaper sources, and the district's 1970 date is the one carried here.

The District: Homestead belongs to Southwest Allen County Schools, formed when Aboite Township and Lafayette Township came together in the state mandated consolidations of the 1960s. The district keeps a piece of that older world in its identity: the Center School, a one room schoolhouse built in 1893 at the center of Aboite Township, is described as the foundation of the district, and its belfry is the district logo. District offices stand at 4824 Homestead Road, and the superintendent is Joshua D. St. John.

The Building: For fifty years the 1970 building grew by accretion, with successive additions connecting buildings and expanding learning spaces as enrollment climbed, though the district does not date the individual additions. Planning for a comprehensive rebuild followed community dialogues in 2017. In February 2019 the district introduced a $169 million plan for what amounted to a new high school within the existing tax rate, and announced that April that it would proceed. The design carried more than 384,000 square feet of new construction and more than 333,000 square feet of renovated space, built around classroom clusters, a new auditorium, a competition gym and an indoor running track, for a capacity of 3,000 students. Groundbreaking came on August 5, 2020. The completed campus was dedicated on October 29, 2026.

Growth: The school outgrew its 600 student design almost at once. A yearbook account records 1,096 high school students kept home by a vandalism closure in January 1979. Federal figures show the modern scale: 2,317 students in 2016, a peak of 2,503 in 2021, and 2,382 in 2024 to 2025, with 136 classroom teachers. The district's Class of 2025 profile lists 20 honors courses, 17 Advanced Placement courses and more than 50 dual credit opportunities, Project Lead The Way strands in biomedical science, computer science and pre-engineering, and a Senior Experience that puts seniors on a college style block schedule with internships and job shadowing.

Athletics: The Spartans' signature program is girls gymnastics. The IHSAA records Homestead's 2001 title as its record sixth state championship, after titles in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1996 and 1999, and the school won a seventh on March 14, 2026, scoring 112.125 to Carroll's 112.025, a margin the IHSAA described as the thinnest in its history and Homestead's first gymnastics title since 2001. Boys basketball won the Class 4A championship in 2015, beating Evansville Reitz 91 to 90 in overtime under coach Chris Johnson at 29 and 2. Girls basketball took its first title in 2017, 61 to 54 over Pike under coach Rod Parker, and girls soccer its first in 2021, 2 to 1 over Carmel under coach Rick Link, finishing 22 and 0.

Today: The rebuilt Homestead opened to tours in the fall of 2026, and that October the district broke ground on a separate Career and Technical Education Center for all Southwest Allen students, expected in August 2028. The principal is Adam Swinford, who took the role in 2025. The school's broadcast program, built around radio station WCYT 91.1 FM, The Point, is described by the school as nationally ranked, and in 2026 Homestead teacher Jason Witzigreuter was named the 2027 Indiana Teacher of the Year.

Sources:

1. Southwest Allen County Schools, Homestead dedication, construction and announcements pages: the 1970 construction, the $169 million project and the October 29, 2026 dedication.
2. Homestead High School Profile, Class of 2025: courses, Project Lead The Way, Senior Experience and principal Adam Swinford.
3. National Center for Education Statistics (180003000002): 2,382 students, 2024 to 2025.
4. Indiana High School Athletic Association: the gymnastics titles, the 2015 and 2017 basketball titles and the 2021 soccer title.
5. The Waynedale News, July 1, 2011, and Performance Services project page: the township consolidation and the rebuild scope.