Timothy L. Johnson Academy Middle School

Fort Wayne; opened fall 2018 on the authorizer's documents (its current listing says 2019); a separately chartered school, grades 6 to 8

A school of its own: The middle school shares a building and a name with Timothy L. Johnson Academy, the elementary school whose entry stands in this history, but it is a separate school in law and on the record. Timothy L. Johnson Academy Middle School, Inc. operates a public charter school under Indiana Code 20-24, sponsored by Trine University, as its State Board of Accounts audit report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020 states. It files its own audits, separately from the elementary's, beginning with 2018-19; it holds its own federal district record, an independent charter district at 4625 Werling Drive with a grade span of six to eight and a staff count of thirty-seven in the 2024-25 directory data; and its authorizer reviews it on its own each year. This entry is keyed to its opening, fall 2018, on the authorizer's documents, with the authorizer's later figure printed beside it below.

The opening: Education One, L.L.C., Trine University's charter authorizing arm, lists the school in its 2018-19 annual report, filed with the Indiana State Board of Education, as "Timothy L Johnson Academy Middle School, Authorized/Pre-Opening, Fall 2018." This history's entry for the elementary academy carries the same account and the same caution, and it is carried here in the same form: the middle school opened in the same Werling Drive building in the fall of 2018, on the authorizer documents, though Education One's current listing says 2019, a discrepancy carried here unresolved.

The ground it shares: The elementary academy opened in September 2002 in the first class of Indiana charter schools, and a Journal Gazette retrospective calls it the first charter school in Fort Wayne. Ball State University, its first authorizer, chartered it among six schools opening that fall, and the Leona Group operated it from the start. Its first home was the Come As You Are Community Church building on South Anthony Boulevard, and by 2011-2012 it was on Werling Drive, in the building that had been Village Elementary School of East Allen County Schools; the year of that move stands unresolved in the record, bounded between April 2010 and 2011-2012, and in December 2011 the academy sought the former Pleasant Center Elementary School instead, a building that went to the airport authority. The middle school was added into that Werling Drive building sixteen years after the elementary's founding. The schools are named for their founder, Timothy L. Johnson; beyond that identification, no biography of him was found in the sources consulted for either entry, and the want stands open in both.

Authorizer and operators: The authorizer changed once, for both schools together: Ball State did not renew the charter, and Trine University, through Education One, became authorizer effective July 1, 2013 on Ball State's account, though Education One's own later reports give 2014, and the difference is unresolved. Both schools now hold Education One charters running to June 2039. The Leona Group operated the schools until the board selected Phalen Leadership Academies; the elementary corporation's audited statements note a service agreement with Phalen Leadership Academy, Inc. effective July 1, 2017, a date that stands a year ahead of the selection as the elementary's entry tells it, and both are carried as their sources give them. Phalen's parent, Entrepreneurial Ventures in Education, held the agreement until it was terminated on June 30, 2024, and the schools have since run under their own boards and common leadership; Dawn Starks leads them as superintendent and school leader.

The middle school's own course: The Indiana Department of Education counted one hundred forty-seven scholars at the middle school as of October 1, 2021, against a budgeted enrollment of one hundred fifty, and Education One rated the school Meets Standard that year; the federal count holds at one hundred fifty students in grades six to eight, and the two counts are carried with their sources. The authorizer's 2022-23 review rated the school Meets Standard again, with an average instructional rating of 3.3 points. Its 2023-24 review records that the school received a three year extension on its three year charter term because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2025-26 review rated the school Approaching Standard, with a weighted score of 2.4, and noted that fifty-nine percent of its students are identified as English Learners, crediting the school's targeted strategies for those students with steady growth.

Teams: The middle school's mascot is the Jaguars, as the elementary academy's entry records for the Johnson schools. Neither school has grades above eighth, so neither appears in Indiana High School Athletic Association records, and the middle school's athletics run at the middle school level only.

Sources:

1. Education One, L.L.C., 2018-19 Annual Report (filed with the Indiana State Board of Education): Timothy L. Johnson Academy Middle School, authorized and pre-opening, fall 2018, and the middle school's audit listed separately from the elementary's
2. Indiana State Board of Accounts, Timothy L. Johnson Academy Middle School, audit report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020: the corporation operating under Indiana Code 20-24, sponsored by Trine University
3. National Center for Education Statistics, district directory: Timothy L. Johnson Academy Middle School, district ID 1800203, grades 6 to 8, 4625 Werling Drive, staff of 37.00 in 2024-25
4. Education One, L.L.C., Annual Reviews of Timothy L. Johnson Academy Middle School, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2025-26 (trine.edu): the enrollment counts, the standards ratings and the charter term extension
5. Moosed History, "Timothy L. Johnson Academy": the elementary academy's opening of 2002, the shared ground and leadership, the authorizer change, the operators, and the middle school's opening discrepancy of 2018 against 2019, carried unresolved