Lafayette Meadows Elementary School

Southwest Allen County Schools, 11420 Ernst Road, Roanoke; kindergarten through fifth grade; the Eagles; the district's far southwestern school, called into being by a school board decision in 2004 and being enlarged in 2026

The Decision: Most schools in this record begin with a building. This one begins with a vote. The News-Sentinel reported on July 20, 2007 that in 2004 Southwest Allen County Schools had decided to build Lafayette Meadows Elementary near Homestead and Ernst roads, in the district's rural southwest, and that the school required extending sewer and water lines out to its site. The detail mattered beyond the school: developers watched the utilities go in, because where water and sewer reach in farm country, houses follow. The school was the district planting a flag at its far corner, ahead of the growth it expected.

The Name: The district calls the school Lafayette Meadows, plural. The federal record carries it as Lafayette Meadow School, singular, and a researcher looking for it in the national data has to know both forms to find it. No source consulted documents the naming: not the choice of Lafayette, not the meadows. The school stands on Ernst Road with a Roanoke mailing address, in country that was meadow and farmland within living memory, and the name fits the ground in the plainest way. Fitting is not documentation, and this entry asserts no namesake.

The Federal Record: The school's federal record, kept by the National Center for Education Statistics, opens in 2005, the year after the decision to build it, and this entry is keyed to that year as the earliest documented evidence of the school in operation; no source consulted publishes an opening or dedication date. In 2025 the record counts six hundred four students, taught by thirty nine teachers at about fifteen students to a teacher. Minority students were seventeen percent of the school, the lowest share among the six elementaries in this set. Its attendance zone is computed at about forty point seven square miles, by far the largest of the six: this is a country school by catchment, gathering children from miles of township roads. Its enrollment has declined by about ten percent over five school years, while its teaching staff grew by about eight percent.

Standing: Public School Review's overall testing rank places the school four hundred fifteenth of one thousand seven hundred forty three Indiana schools in 2023, in the state's top thirty percent, with math proficiency of sixty three percent and reading proficiency of forty six percent in the state testing the site republishes.

Today: The school's students are the Lafayette Meadows Eagles, congratulated by that name in the district's own board packet for its second grade Kindness Ambassadors. Principal Jenny Fedele leads the school in the district's 2026 papers. The school holds an annual Fine Arts Day with partners including the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and it is one of the four sites of the district's Spartan Kids Pre K program. Twenty years after the vote that created it, the building is being enlarged: a twelve room addition, expansions of the kindergarten and the cafeteria, an auxiliary gym and a media center renovation, designed by MKM architecture + design and built by the Hagerman Group, under the district's 2026 to 2028 renovation contract, which the board approved in April 2026. Her assistant principal in the spring of that year, Jim Kowalski, left in June to become principal at Aboite Elementary. The builders ran a Little Hardhats program so the school's six hundred children could watch their school grow. The growth the district bet on in 2004 arrived.

Sources:

1. The News-Sentinel, July 20, 2007, as carried by aviationpros.com: Southwest Allen County Schools decided in 2004 to build Lafayette Meadows Elementary near Homestead and Ernst roads; the school required extending sewer and water lines, which drew developers' attention.
2. National Center for Education Statistics, Lafayette Meadow School (school ID 180003002044), as republished by Public School Review: the federal series beginning in 2005; 604 students and 39 teachers in 2025, at about 15 students to a teacher; minority enrollment 17 percent; the attendance zone of about 40.7 square miles; enrollment down about 10 percent over five school years with teachers up about 8 percent; overall testing rank 415th of 1,743 Indiana schools in 2023; math proficiency 63 percent and reading proficiency 46 percent.
3. Southwest Allen County Schools, board packet, April 14, 2026: the school's address and contact block at 11420 Ernst Road, Roanoke; Principal Jenny Fedele; the 2026 to 2028 Elementary and Middle School Renovation Design-Build Project Contract; and the board packet of 2026, the Eagles and the Fine Arts Day partners, including the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.
4. The Hagerman Group, project feature, 2026: the Lafayette Meadows expansion and renovation, a 12 room addition, kindergarten and cafeteria expansions, an auxiliary gym and a media center renovation; MKM architecture + design, architect of record; the Little Hardhats program.
5. The Journal Gazette, via mynewsonthego.com, 2026: Spartan Kids Pre K at four sites, Lafayette Meadows among them.