Levan R. Scott Academy

Fort Wayne Community Schools, 950 East Fairfax Avenue, Fort Wayne; prekindergarten through fifth grade; the Cadets; opened as Southern Heights Elementary School in the middle 1950s, renamed for Dr. Levan R. Scott in 2000, and doubled in size by a $17 million expansion completed in 2024

The Building: The school at 950 East Fairfax Avenue opened as Southern Heights Elementary School, taking its name from the Southern Heights neighborhood around it. When it opened is a question the district answers two ways. The school's own history page dates the opening to 1955, and a compiled list of Fort Wayne school openings agrees. The district has also told it the other way, three times: a district history post of September 16, 2021 says the school opened in 1956, the district's community newsletter repeated 1956 in 2024, and a news account of the school's expansion groundbreaking put the opening in 1956 and the original building's cost at $465,427. This page prints both years rather than choose between the district's own tellings. What no source disputes is the school that stood here for its first four and a half decades, a neighborhood elementary of fifteen classrooms on the city's southeast side.

The Namesake: In 2000 the school was renamed for Dr. Levan R. Scott; the district's 2021 history post gives the precise date, May 22, 2000. Scott gave Fort Wayne Community Schools twenty eight years. In 1965 the district named him principal of McCulloch Elementary, the first African American principal in the city's history, and he retired in 1986 as assistant superintendent in charge of administrative services. The school's history page remembers a career spent on justice and equality in the district's schools. The renaming turned a neighborhood school into a memorial to that career, and the academy that carries his name teaches blocks from where he made it.

The Expansion: By 2022 the building was bursting, its fifteen classrooms supplemented by four modular classrooms parked outside. On September 14, 2022, students helped break ground on an expansion of nearly $17 million, part of the 2020 School Building Basic Renewal/Restoration and Safety Project that Fort Wayne voters had approved, with Weigand Construction managing the work. The addition runs 43,456 square feet and doubled the school: nineteen new classrooms, a media center, a cafeteria and support spaces, taking Scott from three sections of each grade, kindergarten through fifth, to five sections, with two prekindergarten classrooms besides. The modulars came off the lot when the work finished in 2024, the district added parking and a parent pick up lane, and neighbors toured the doubled building at a public open house that year. Superintendent Dr. Mark Daniel called the school's attendance area the fastest growing area in Fort Wayne Community Schools.

Enrollment: The federal record tells the growth story in numbers. The National Center for Education Statistics counted three hundred five students at Southern Heights in 1988, one hundred forty eight of them Black and one hundred thirty seven White, with two Asian students and eighteen Hispanic students. The count sagged to two hundred eleven in 1991 and two hundred twenty five in 2008, then turned: three hundred nineteen in 2013, three hundred ninety two in 2014, four hundred fourteen in 2015, a peak of four hundred forty in 2021, and four hundred nineteen in 2025. The 2025 school is a different mix from the 1988 one: one hundred thirty four Asian students, the largest single group, one hundred twenty six Black students, one hundred thirteen Hispanic students, twenty two White students and twenty three students of two or more races. Free or discounted lunch eligibility stood at twenty eight percent in 1988, ran above ninety percent through much of the 2010s, and stands at seventy five percent in 2025. About thirty five teachers keep classes near twelve students to a teacher, and the district spends $13,935 per student here, the eleventh highest figure among its thirty one elementary schools.

Today: In 2026 Levan Scott Academy is a Title I elementary school with an English language learner program, teaching about four hundred twenty students in Board of School Trustees District 5. Its students feed into Miami Middle School and Wayne High School. The Cadets take their mark from a knight's helmet in green on the school sign, and the school's family materials run in English, Spanish and Burmese. Whatzup magazine, profiling a local ministry's work in the school in 2026, reported that Scott Academy's third grade literacy score rose from 58.3 percent in 2024 to 90.3 percent a year later. SchoolDigger, working from state test data, ranks the school 958th of 1,005 Indiana elementary schools in 2025; the literacy jump its neighbors talk about is the newer story.

Sources:

1. Levan Scott Academy, History page, levanscott.fortwayneschools.org, 2026: opened in 1955 as Southern Heights Elementary School, the name taken from the neighborhood; renamed in 2000 for Dr. Levan R. Scott, his twenty eight years in the district, the 1965 McCulloch Elementary principalship as the city's first African American principal, the 1986 retirement as assistant superintendent in charge of administrative services, and the career's focus on justice and equality; the Title I and English language learner programs; feeders Miami Middle School and Wayne High School; Board District 5.
2. Fort Wayne Community Schools, Facebook post, September 16, 2021, collected in Allen County Genealogical Society, Elementary Schools in Allen County, Indiana, Allen INGenWeb, 2026: the school at 950 East Fairfax Avenue opened in 1956 as Southern Heights Elementary, and was renamed on May 22, 2000.
3. Fort Wayne Community Schools, The Visionary community newsletter, Smore, 2024: the school opened in 1956; the nearly two year renovation that doubled the school's size at $17 million, with nineteen modernized classrooms, a media center, a cafeteria, collaboration spaces, parking and a parent pick up lane, and the public open house of 2024.
4. Adams Radio Group, 1039waynefm.com, September 15, 2022: the groundbreaking of September 14, 2022 with students helping; Weigand Construction as construction manager; nearly $17 million within the 2020 School Building Basic Renewal/Restoration and Safety Project approved by voters; the 43,456 square foot addition with nineteen classrooms, a media center, a cafeteria and support spaces; the fifteen classrooms and four modular classrooms it replaced; the move from three sections of each grade to five, with two prekindergarten classrooms; Superintendent Dr. Mark Daniel on the fastest growing area in the district; the school opened in 1956 at an original cost of $465,427.
5. History of Public Schools in Fort Wayne, compiled openings list, fortwaynesouthside.com, 2026: Southern Heights beginning in 1955 and changed to Scott in 2000.
6. National Center for Education Statistics, Levan R Scott Academy (180363000564), as republished by SchoolDigger: enrollment of 305 in 1988 with its composition, the low of 211 in 1991, 225 in 2008, the climb through 319 in 2013 and 440 in 2021 to 419 in 2025 with the 2025 composition, free or discounted lunch eligibility of 28.5 percent in 1988 and 75.4 percent in 2025, and about thirty five teachers at about twelve students to a teacher.
7. SchoolDigger, Levan R Scott Academy, 2026, from Indiana Department of Education data: average spending of $13,935 per student, eleventh highest among the district's elementary schools, and a rank of 958th of 1,005 Indiana elementary schools in 2025.
8. Whatzup, "Love Fort Wayne unites faith, business leaders," 2026: the school's third grade literacy score of 58.3 percent in 2024 and 90.3 percent a year later, as reported by the ministry working in the school.
9. Fort Wayne Community Schools and Levan Scott Academy, Facebook posts, 2025 and 2026: the green knight's helmet Cadets mark on the school sign, and family materials in English, Spanish and Burmese.