Weisser Park Elementary School

Fort Wayne Community Schools, 902 Colerick Street, Fort Wayne; an arts magnet school, first through fifth grades; the Koalas; built in 1964 and named for the neighborhood it stands in

The Name: The school's own history page is plain about both halves of its beginning: "The school was built in 1964" and it "was named for the neighborhood it is located in." Weisser Park is the neighborhood's name before it is the school's, one of the Fort Wayne schools that carry the name of the ground around them rather than the name of a person. The school sits in the Board of School Trustees' District 4, and its students go on to Memorial Park Middle School and South Side High School.

The Building's First Life: The building on Colerick Street did not begin as the school it is now. The Allen County Genealogical Society's school holdings include yearbooks of Weisser Park Junior High School for 1965 and 1970, so in its first decade the building carried the older grades, and the district's history page acknowledges the movement without dating it: grade levels at the school changed over the years. When the junior high years ended here, and which grades the building held in each decade between, the published record does not say. What filled the rooms instead, beginning in the early 1980s, was the arts.

The Magnet: Fort Wayne's arts magnet program began in 1979 at Whitney Young Elementary, and in 1981 it expanded across the south side to Weisser Park. The two schools were joined for a time into one school with two sites, then separated in the 1990s, and in 2025 they were reunited: the district now describes Whitney Young and Weisser Park as one unified school community across two campuses, the early childhood center on Pontiac Street and this building taking the children from first through fifth grade. The arts curriculum here, in music, visual arts, theater arts and dance, is built on the National Standards for Arts Education, and the school day runs longer than the district's ordinary day to hold it: band, strings, choir, piano, theater, dance, pottery, textiles, chimes, photography, drawing and painting. Spanish is taught to every student, and the school runs an English language learner program alongside. It is a magnet, with no geographic boundary; its students come from across the district by the School Choice Lottery. In 2018 it added a Discovery Education STEAM partnership to the arts program.

The Federal Record: A school that draws from a whole district draws big. The federal record counts six hundred fifteen students in 1987 and a peak of eight hundred eight in 1991, the largest elementary enrollment in Fort Wayne Community Schools on SchoolDigger's reading of the same record. It counts seven hundred fifty three in 1996, a low of five hundred forty two in 2010 and again in 2012, and six hundred thirty two students in 2025, taught by forty eight teachers at about thirteen students to a teacher. In 2025 Black students were thirty six percent of the school, White students thirty three percent, Hispanic students twenty percent and Asian students one percent, a citywide draw visible in the numbers: this is not a neighborhood school's makeup, because it is not a neighborhood school's enrollment.

Standing: Public School Review's overall ranking places the school 882nd of 1,743 Indiana schools in 2023. SchoolDigger ranks it better than fifty three percent of Indiana elementary schools and fourth among the district's thirty one, standing that has held it in the district's upper reach while its enrollment stayed the district's largest.

Today: The school's students are the Weisser Park Koalas, and the school is led by Principal Kent Martz on the current GreatSchools listing. The building the district raised for a neighborhood junior high in 1964 now spends its days on choir and pottery and Spanish, and since 2025 it has done so as half of one school again, joined to the Pontiac Street campus where its magnet program was born.

Sources:

1. Weisser Park Elementary School, Our History page, weisserpark.fortwayneschools.org, 2026: the building of 1964; the naming for the neighborhood; the arts magnet program from Whitney Young in 1979 and its expansion to Weisser Park in 1981; the one school with two sites; the arts curriculum and the expanded school day; Spanish for all students; the feeders, Memorial Park Middle School and South Side High School; Board of School Trustees District 4.
2. Weisser Park Elementary School, About Us page, weisserpark.fortwayneschools.org, 2026: the reunification of Whitney Young and Weisser Park in 2025 as one unified school community across two campuses; the Discovery Education STEAM partnership of 2018; admission by the School Choice Lottery.
3. Allen County Genealogical Society, Middle Schools in Allen County, Indiana, Allen INGenWeb, 2026: the Weisser Park Junior High School yearbooks of 1965 and 1970 in the ACPL Genealogy Center's holdings.
4. National Center for Education Statistics, Weisser Park Elementary School (180363000570), as republished by Public School Review: 615 students in 1987, the peak of 808 in 1991, 753 in 1996, the low of 542 in 2010 and 2012, and 632 in 2025 with 48 teachers; the 2025 makeup; the overall rank of 882nd of 1,743 Indiana schools in 2023.
5. National Center for Education Statistics, as republished by SchoolDigger: the largest elementary student body in Fort Wayne Community Schools; ranked better than 53 percent of Indiana elementary schools and 4th among the district's 31.
6. DonorsChoose, teacher classroom page for Weisser Park Elementary School, 2026: the Koalas.
7. GreatSchools, Weisser Park Elementary School profile, as republished by homes.com, 2026: Principal Kent Martz.