South Wayne Elementary School

Fort Wayne Community Schools, 810 Cottage Avenue, Fort Wayne; prekindergarten through fifth grade; the Eagles; the building opened in 1923 and the school closed in May 2026, after one hundred three years

The Name: South Wayne is a neighborhood name before it is a school name. The school's own account, collected by the Allen County Genealogical Society, explains that the school took the name of the neighborhood around it, and the neighborhood took its name from the town of South Wayne, incorporated in 1889 and annexed into Fort Wayne in 1894. The school on Cottage Avenue served that former town's streets for the whole of its life.

The Building: Two dates open the school's history, and both are printed here. The school itself counted from 1923: its history page begins "1923, South Wayne Elementary opens," speaks of more than a century of continuous education, and now remembers the school as 1923 to 2026. A compiled list of Fort Wayne school openings carries a South Wayne school older than that, begun in 1896 with an addition in 1923. Read together, the accounts describe a neighborhood school on this ground from 1896 and the building of 1923 that the school took as its own starting point. That building, with its later additions, is the one that closed in 2026.

The School in Numbers: The National Center for Education Statistics counted four hundred fifty nine students at South Wayne in 1987 and four hundred seventy eight in 1988. Enrollment thinned for two decades, bottoming at two hundred seventy in 2010, then recovered to four hundred nineteen in 2019 before easing again. In its final full year, 2025, the school taught three hundred forty students with thirty two teachers, about eleven to a teacher. By then the school's makeup was thirty eight percent Hispanic, thirty three percent Black, seventeen percent White, ten percent students of two or more races and two percent Asian. About eighty one percent of its students qualified for free or discounted lunch, and the district spent $16,142 per student there. Its students went on to Portage Middle School and South Side High School.

Standing: SchoolDigger, from Indiana Department of Education data, ranks South Wayne 894th of 1,005 Indiana elementary schools in 2025, twenty sixth of the district's thirty one, though the school's percentile among Indiana schools had improved from the fourth in 2015 to the eleventh in 2025. About twenty two percent of its students were chronically absent in 2023 to 2024, above the district rate.

The Archive: The school leaves an unusually deep visual record. In January 2025 the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library added a South Wayne collection to its Community Album, more than six hundred twenty one images of the building's construction, its classrooms, and school life from the 1950s through the 1970s. Whatever becomes of the building, the school's faces and rooms are kept.

The Closing: On November 4, 2025, Fort Wayne Community Schools announced that South Wayne would close at the end of the 2025 to 2026 school year. News reports of the announcement gave the district's reasons as the high cost of repairing or replacing the aging building, budget constraints, and the space available in nearby schools. The school's own history page records the end plainly: "In May 2026, South Wayne Elementary closed after 103 years of service." From the 2026 to 2027 school year most of its students went to Fairfield and Abbett elementary schools, on adjusted boundaries. Brenda West was its last principal. For the building, the district's published plan keeps part of it standing: "The original portion of the building will be demolished while the remaining space will be renovated and transformed into an administrative services center for FWCS staff." No date or contractor for that work appears in the sources consulted. The Eagles' students now learn in other buildings; a piece of their school stays in district service, and the oldest piece comes down.

Sources:

1. South Wayne Elementary School, About Us, Our History and What's Next pages, southwayne.fortwayneschools.org, 2026: the name taken from the neighborhood and the former town of South Wayne, incorporated 1889 and annexed 1894; "1923, South Wayne Elementary opens"; the closing in May 2026 after 103 years of service; students to Fairfield and Abbett from 2026 to 2027 with boundary adjustments; the original portion of the building to be demolished and the remaining space renovated into an administrative services center for FWCS staff.
2. History of Public Schools in Fort Wayne, compiled openings list, fortwaynesouthside.com, 2026: a South Wayne school beginning in 1896, with an addition in 1923.
3. WANE 15 report of the district's November 4, 2025 announcement, as summarized in The Fort Wayne Update, November 5, 2025; and The Fort Wayne Daily News Now, November 4, 2025: the closure at the end of the 2025 to 2026 school year, for the high cost of repairing or replacing the building and budget constraints.
4. Allen County Genealogical Society, Elementary Schools in Allen County, Indiana, Allen INGenWeb, 2026: the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center Community Album's South Wayne collection of more than 621 images, announced January 19, 2025.
5. National Center for Education Statistics, South Wayne Elementary School (180363000563), as republished by Public School Review: enrollment of 459 in 1987, 478 in 1988, 270 in 2010, 419 in 2019 and 340 in 2025; thirty two teachers.
6. SchoolDigger, South Wayne Elementary School, 2026, from Indiana Department of Education and federal data: the 2025 makeup of 38 percent Hispanic, 33 percent Black, 17 percent White, 10 percent two or more races and 2 percent Asian; free or discounted lunch at 80.6 percent; spending of $16,142 per student; a rank of 894th of 1,005 Indiana elementary schools in 2025 and 26th of 31 in the district; chronic absenteeism of 22.1 percent in 2023 to 2024; students went on to Portage Middle School and South Side High School.
7. Niche school profile, as republished by homes.com, 2026: Brenda West, principal.