Perry Hill Elementary School

Northwest Allen County Schools; 13121 Coldwater Road, Fort Wayne; kindergarten through fifth grade; the Cougars; opened 1972 on an aggregator lead, beside a recollection of a brand new building in about 1976

The Opening: The directories give Perry Hill a founding year, 1972, and nothing behind it. The year comes from schooldistricts.us, a directory aggregator, as recorded in this history's master inventory; no district page, handbook or news account states when the school opened, and the federal record cannot arbitrate, because it begins only in 1987, already counting seven hundred forty students. One named memory points a few years later. Whatzup, profiling Fort Wayne actor Michael Nelaborige, recounts that at thirteen he saw the Civic Theatre's 1976 production of Brigadoon and, the same year, acted in his sixth grade production, which ran two performances at the brand new Perry Hill Elementary. A brand new school in about 1976 and an opening in 1972 do not reconcile, and this entry does not reconcile them. It prints the lead as a lead and the recollection as a recollection. What three trade and district sources do document is that the district office sat in this building for fifty years before leaving in 2025, which puts a working schoolhouse here by the middle 1970s under either story.

The District's Back Rooms: Perry Hill's second tenant is the best documented thing about it. For about fifty years the central office of Northwest Allen County Schools worked out of repurposed classrooms and storage closets at the back of the school, under the address 13119 Coldwater Road, two numbers south of the school's own, which is why older district letterheads carry that number. Superintendent Wayne Barker, quoted by School Construction News in October 2025, put the old office's capacity at about fifteen or sixteen people. In May 2025 the district opened a stand alone Administration Center at 12913 Coldwater Road, thirty two thousand square feet built for eighteen million dollars, designed by Elevatus Architecture and built by Weigand Construction. Weigand was then commissioned to build out four new classrooms in the vacated wing, and the architect's account gives the reason in one line: the school's growing population required the classroom space back. The district kept using the building as its public room when it needed one; in January 2022 its board meetings resumed in person in the Perry Hill cafeteria.

The Federal Record: The National Center for Education Statistics has counted Perry Hill since 1987. The series opens at seven hundred forty students, reaches seven hundred forty three in 1992, then drops to four hundred forty in 1993, a one year fall that stands in the table unexplained, against thirty eight teachers counted the year before and twenty one that year. It recovers to six hundred ninety five in 1998, runs six hundred thirty three in 2006, bottoms at three hundred eighty nine in 2009, and stands at five hundred forty five students with thirty three teachers in 2025. The district's own membership figures on EMMA run six hundred one, six hundred ten, five hundred fifty six, five hundred forty five and five hundred forty six from 2019/2020 to 2023/2024. Testing puts the school in the state's top twenty percent overall, ranked two hundred twentieth of one thousand seven hundred forty three in 2023, with mathematics proficiency of fifty nine percent, reading of fifty seven percent, and science between sixty five and sixty nine percent, in the top five percent statewide. Eighteen percent of its students were eligible for free lunch in 2025, and its attendance zone is computed at about four point five square miles. The school has taught out of portable classrooms: in December 2019 the Carroll High School student newspaper counted Perry Hill and Huntertown as the two elementaries holding fifth grade in four portable classrooms each.

The Cougars at Work: The school's own name for itself is the Cougars. Its site links the Perry Hill Cougars School Song, and the parent teacher organization's newsletter is titled Cougar News, written to the Cougar Family. In June 2025 the district accepted an AWS Foundation grant of twenty five thousand dollars for an accessible preschool playground at Perry Hill, alongside the move of three developmental preschool classrooms from Hickory Center Elementary into this building. The playground's partners were the AWS Foundation, PlayPros, BF Goodrich and United Way, and volunteers installed most of it in a single day that summer, a build WANE 15 later featured in its Positively Fort Wayne series. Four years earlier the school's fundraisers ran smaller and stranger: in April 2021 the district's own media alert described students taping their principal to a wall, the reward in an American Cancer Society fundraiser, on the same day as a fourth grade egg drop.

Today: The principal in that 2021 alert was Caleb Miner. The district's 2026 directory now pairs Perry Hill with Principal Matt Kochert, and carries Miner one rung up, as Executive Director of Human Resources; the commercial directories still listing Miner as this school's head are a promotion behind. Perry Hill answers at 260-637-3158, teaches kindergarten through fifth grade and the district's relocated preschoolers, and sends its students on to Maple Creek Middle School and Carroll High School. Its opening year is still an aggregator's word against an actor's memory, and until a district record surfaces, that is where the record leaves it.

Sources:

1. Northwest Allen County Schools, About Us directory, 2026: Perry Hill Elementary School paired with Principal Matt Kochert (Matt.Kochert@nacs.k12.in.us) and phone 260-637-3158; Caleb Miner carried as Executive Director of Human Resources; the Administration Center at 12913 Coldwater Road.
2. Perry Hill Elementary School site, ph.nacs.k12.in.us: the Perry Hill Cougars School Song; the school's phone, 260-637-3158, and fax, 260-637-8347.
3. Perry Hill Elementary PTO, COUGAR NEWS newsletter, issues of 2025 and 2026: the Cougar Family address and the Cougar Crag.
4. Northwest Allen County Schools, Elementary Student Handbooks, 2025-2026 and 2026-2027: Perry Hill at 13121 Coldwater Road, Fort Wayne, and the building reported asbestos free in the district's asbestos summary.
5. School Construction News, October 22, 2025; Weigand Construction and Elevatus Architecture, Administration Center project accounts: the district office's fifty years in repurposed classrooms and storage space at the back of Perry Hill, about fifteen or sixteen staff fitting in the old space, the stand alone Administration Center of 32,000 square feet and $18 million opened in May 2025, and the four classroom buildout in Perry Hill's vacated wing, commissioned because the school's growing population required the space back.
6. Northwest Allen County Schools, media alert of April 1, 2021: Perry Hill students taping Principal Caleb Miner to a wall as an American Cancer Society fundraiser reward, with a fourth grade egg drop the same day; and district release of January 21, 2022: board meetings resuming in person on January 24, 2022 in the Perry Hill cafeteria.
7. Northwest Allen County Schools, board memorandum of June 23, 2025 (Diana Kochert, Executive Director of Special Education): the AWS Foundation grant of $25,000 for an accessible preschool playground at Perry Hill, with three developmental preschool classrooms relocating from Hickory Center Elementary; the Fort Wayne Update, August 5, 2025: partners AWS Foundation, PlayPros, BF Goodrich and United Way, volunteers installing most of the playground in one day; WANE 15, Positively Fort Wayne, on the installation, via its Muck Rack listing dated March 23, 2026.
8. The Charger Online, Carroll High School, December 12, 2019: Perry Hill and Huntertown Elementary as the two district elementaries holding fifth grade in four portable classrooms each.
9. Whatzup, profile of Michael Nelaborige: at thirteen he saw the 1976 Civic Theatre production of Brigadoon and the same year acted in his sixth grade production, which ran two performances at the brand new Perry Hill Elementary; printed as a recollection, unreconciled with the 1972 lead.
10. National Center for Education Statistics, Perry Hill Elementary School (school ID 180825001416, as carried in the school's NeighborhoodScout profile address), as republished by Public School Review: the series of 1987 to 2025, with 740 students in 1987, 743 in 1992, 440 in 1993, 695 in 1998, 633 in 2006, 389 in 2009, 611 in 2021 and 545 students with 33 teachers in 2025; minority enrollment 20 percent; overall rank 220th of 1,743 Indiana schools in 2023, in the top 20 percent; mathematics proficiency 59 percent, reading 57 percent, science 65 to 69 percent; free lunch eligibility 18 percent in 2025; the attendance zone of about 4.5 square miles; enrollment down 10 percent over five years.
11. SchoolDigger, Perry Hill Elementary School profile: ranked 297th of 1,005 Indiana elementary schools, four stars, free and reduced lunch rising from 15.62 percent in 2021-2022 to 23.81 percent in 2023-2024, students going on to Maple Creek Middle School and Carroll High School.
12. Northwest Allen County Schools, continuing disclosure filing on EMMA, fiscal year ended December 31, 2023: Perry Hill average daily membership of 601, 610, 556, 545 and 546 for 2019/2020 to 2023/2024.
13. Indiana Department of Education, nutrition eligibility listing, October 2007 (file dated February 5, 2008): Perry Hill School, corporation 0225, site 0092, with 480 total eligible students (427 paid, 33 free, 20 reduced), 11.0417 percent free and reduced.
14. schooldistricts.us, as recorded in this history's master inventory of Fort Wayne schools: the 1972 opening field, carried as a lead only, with no named source behind it.
15. homes.com, Niche and countyoffice.org listings for Perry Hill Elementary School, consulted and rejected as stale on the principal's name (Caleb Miner).