Waynedale Elementary School

Fort Wayne Community Schools, 7201 Elzey Street, Fort Wayne; prekindergarten through fifth grade; the Olympians; built in 1971 on a site that has held a Waynedale school since 1917

The Ground: Waynedale has had a school on this ground for more than a century. The preservation organization ARCH records the Waynedale School of 1917, designed by the Fort Wayne firm of Mahurin and Mahurin, standing here in the present building's place. That school replaced an older structure, so the ground's school history runs back past the oldest building on it that anyone has dated, and it was built for a community as much as for children: its auditorium seated two hundred people. The elementary school on Elzey Street today is, on that account, the third school building on its site, and the name over its door is the neighborhood's own.

The Building: ARCH dates the present building to 1971, the year the 1917 school was replaced on the same site. The district's own record tells the date a year later: a district photograph of the school dated May 1977 is captioned as showing it five years after the school opened, which puts the opening in 1972. The district's capital projects coordinator, Zachary Evans, gave it a third way in 2022, telling The Waynedale News "the school was built around 1970." The three tellings stand within two years of each other, and they are printed here as they stand. Half a century after it opened, the building was renovated under the district's 2016 bond program at just under five million dollars: a secure entryway, a new cafeteria, air conditioning through the building, new lighting and facade work, reported by the neighborhood's newspaper as the work finished in the fall of 2022.

The Federal Record: The federal record counts three hundred ninety five students in 1987 and five hundred sixty seven in 1992. Between 1992 and 2007 the count fell by nearly a third, down to three hundred ninety one, a long slide no source consulted explains; then it climbed back within four years to a peak of five hundred seventy five in 2011, and counts three hundred eighty three students in 2025, taught by twenty eight teachers at about fourteen students to a teacher. It is a neighborhood school with a long reach: its attendance zone is computed at about forty three square miles, taking in the streets around the school and the county's southwest edge beyond them. In 2025 minority students were fifty eight percent of the school, counting Black students at twenty five percent, Hispanic students at seventeen percent and Asian students at five percent. The Asian share had stood at twenty three percent in 2017. No source consulted explains that spike or its passing, and none is offered here.

Standing: Public School Review's overall ranking places Waynedale 1,154th of 1,743 Indiana schools in 2023, in the state's lower half. Its enrollment tells a matching story of a neighborhood holding steady rather than growing: the school teaches fewer children in 2025 than it did in 1987, in a renovated building, on ground the neighborhood has kept a school on for three buildings and more than a hundred years.

Today: The school's students are the Waynedale Olympians. When the renovation finished in 2022 the building held about four hundred twenty students from prekindergarten through fifth grade, taught and kept by a staff of more than fifty, under Principal Kristee Hoffner. The ground has carried a school for more than a century, and the building on it still teaches the community the 1917 auditorium was raised to seat.

Sources:

1. ARCH, Inc., post on the 1917 Waynedale School, October 6, 2022: the Mahurin and Mahurin design, the older structure it replaced, the auditorium seating 200, and the replacement of the building by the new Waynedale Elementary School in 1971 on the same site.
2. Allen County Genealogical Society, Elementary Schools in Allen County, Indiana, Allen INGenWeb, 2026: the district photograph of May 1977, posted May 31, 2018, captioned as showing the school five years after it opened.
3. The Waynedale News, November 4, 2022: the renovation at just under $5 million from the 2016 bond, with the secure entryway, new cafeteria, air conditioning, lighting and facade work; about 420 students from prekindergarten through fifth grade and more than 50 staff; Principal Kristee Hoffner; Zachary Evans of the district on the building's date.
4. National Center for Education Statistics, Waynedale Elementary School, as republished by Public School Review: 395 students in 1987, 567 in 1992, 391 in 2007, the peak of 575 in 2011 and 383 in 2025 with 28 teachers; the 2025 makeup and the Asian share of 23 percent in 2017; the overall rank of 1,154th of 1,743 Indiana schools in 2023; the attendance zone of about 43.2 square miles.
5. Waynedale Elementary School, school site, 2026: the Waynedale Olympians.