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East Allen County Schools, 1300 Green Road, New Haven; grades seven through twelve; high school organized 1911, present building opened 1977
Origins: New Haven's school story begins in a log cabin on the Absolom Holcomb farm in 1829, by the account in the school's yearbook history. In 1858 a two room school at Eben and Middle Streets became the first free school in Adams Township. The frame building came down in 1885 for a brick structure, and in that building New Haven High School was organized in 1911; four students graduated in 1913. The first true high school building followed in 1923, officially the Adams-Township school, though everyone called it New Haven school. Its gymnasium, the Community Building, was built in 1938 and burned at one corner in 1945. Additions came in 1956 and a West Building in 1959, with a further addition in 1965, by the yearbook's own dates; a secondary summary gives the 1950s additions as 1955 and 1957, unreconciled. By September 1967 some 1,300 pupils crowded the complex nearly to capacity.
The Building: The yearbook of 1977 is headed "Students, faculty say good bye to old building." The school on Green Road was built in 1975 and opened in 1977, with Paul Goeglein as principal. The football stadium keeps an older name: John H. Young Stadium, for the longtime principal and superintendent John H. Young, and it was reconstructed in a recent project to seat about 1,600. The building's second life began in 2019, when the separate middle school was demolished, grades seven and eight moved into a new junior high section, and ribbon cuttings were held on August 8 and 9, 2019 for the new Intermediate School and the junior high.
The District: East Allen County Schools, headquartered in New Haven at 1240 State Road 930 East, states that it was formally organized in 1962 across eleven townships. New Haven was not created by that consolidation; the Ball State study of May 1965 treats the New Haven Public Schools as a pre-existing system inside the new corporation, and Paul Harding, principal from 1950, became the first superintendent of the consolidated era.
Growth: The combined school counted 1,129 students in 2011 to 2012. With the junior high grades added in 2019, the counts run higher: 1,380 in 2023 to 2024 and 1,413 in 2024 to 2025 across grades seven through twelve.
Athletics: The Bulldogs play in the Northeast Eight Conference. The IHSAA credits seven football sectional championships: 1981, 1988, 1991, 2001, 2010, 2013 and 2016. The boys were cross country state runner up in 1960, falling 89 to 145 to Hobart under coach James Weaver. Wrestler Easton Doster won the 144 pound state championship in 2024 at 39 and 0, the program's first state title in the association's words, and New Haven won the 2023 to 2024 girls wrestling team title in the records book, in a tournament the IHSAA notes was then run by the state girls wrestling coaches association, not sponsored by the IHSAA; in the sponsored era, Ysabelle Ocampo became the first New Haven girl to win an IHSAA wrestling championship. In March 2026 the basketball team made its first state finals appearance, losing the Class 3A final to Indianapolis Cathedral 71 to 61 at 22 and 8, with DaMarcus Wright receiving the Trester Mental Attitude Award.
Today: New Haven serves grades seven through twelve under principal Patricia Meadows. Its Academic Super Bowl team in fine arts won the state championship in May 2025 at Purdue University, and the school carries a Jobs for America's Graduates program, renewed by the board in October 2024, alongside career study through the East Allen Career Center.
Sources:
- Mirage, New Haven High School yearbook, 1968, and the 1949, 1954 and 1977 editions: the early schools, buildings, additions and the 1977 farewell.
- Ball State University study of the East Allen County Schools, May 1965, and the district School Bus Replacement Plan: New Haven as a pre-existing system, organized in 1962.
- Allen INGenWeb Project, Schools of Allen County, citing The Journal Gazette facilities list: the 1977 construction date.
- East Allen County Schools Board minutes, 2019 to 2025: the ribbon cuttings, JAG renewal, principal Meadows and the Academic Super Bowl recognition.
- The Post and Mail: the John H. Young Stadium reconstruction.
- Indiana High School Athletic Association records and the 2026 Class 3A final report: the titles and finals appearance.
- National Center for Education Statistics, New Haven Jr/Sr High School: 1,413 students, 2024 to 2025.