Willard Shambaugh Elementary School

Fort Wayne Community Schools, 5320 Rebecca Drive, Fort Wayne; kindergarten through fifth grade; the Hornets; opened in 1963 and named for Willard Shambaugh, a Fort Wayne attorney

The Namesake: The district's own short account of its namesake comes in a post of January 11, 2018, collected by the Allen County Genealogical Society: Willard Shambaugh was an attorney for Lincoln and Wayne Pump, two of the city's industrial employers. That single sentence is nearly the whole of his documented life in the sources consulted for this page. No obituary, bar record or profile of Shambaugh was found, and the school that carries his name keeps no history page telling who he was. What survives is the outline the post gives: a lawyer whose work served factories, honored with a new school in 1963.

The Building: The school opened in the fall of 1963. A compiled list of Fort Wayne school openings gives the year, entering the school as Willard Shamaugh, the surname misspelled; no district history page, dedication account or newspaper anniversary in the sources consulted confirms it, so 1963 stands on the compiled list alone and is printed as such. A class photograph of Mrs. Priscilla Becker's room in 1965 to 1966, preserved by the genealogical society, shows the school at work within three years of that opening. The building stands on Rebecca Drive in the city's northeast, in an attendance area of about nine square miles reaching about four miles at its furthest edge. Its roof was replaced in 2023, in a district project shared with St. Joseph Central Elementary.

Enrollment: The National Center for Education Statistics counted five hundred thirty six students at Shambaugh in 1987. The count climbed to a peak of six hundred thirty seven in 1991, held near five hundred eighty through the middle 1990s, and then began a long, steady slide: five hundred twenty five in 2001, four hundred sixty five in 2007, four hundred five in 2014, and two hundred sixty six in 2025. The teaching staff did not shrink with it. Twenty six teachers now work with those two hundred sixty six students, about ten to a teacher, where the ratio stood at twenty six to one in 1993. The school's makeup has changed with its size. Hispanic students were one percent of Shambaugh in 1988 and are about an eighth of it in 2025; White students are sixty three percent, students of two or more races twelve percent, and Black students ten percent. Just over half of the school's students qualify for free or discounted lunch.

Standing: On state tests Shambaugh runs ahead of its own district. In the most recent ILEARN results reported, about forty percent of its students were proficient in English language arts and forty seven percent in math, against district figures of about thirty one and twenty eight percent, and its third graders scored above fifty percent proficient in both subjects. SchoolDigger, working from Indiana Department of Education data, ranks Shambaugh 521st of 1,005 Indiana elementary schools in 2025. Its chronic absenteeism, between fifteen and twenty three percent in recent years, sits below the district average.

Today: Shambaugh is one of the district's schools with no prekindergarten of its own, kindergarten through fifth grade only. Its students are the Hornets, a name the school's own site carries in its masthead. From Rebecca Drive they go on to Jefferson Middle School and Northrop High School. The building that opened for the children of a growing northeast side in 1963 now teaches fewer than half as many students as it held at its peak, in classes of about ten students to a teacher.

Sources:

1. History of Public Schools in Fort Wayne, compiled openings list, fortwaynesouthside.com, 2026: the Willard Shambaugh school, entered as "Shamaugh," beginning in 1963.
2. Fort Wayne Community Schools, post of January 11, 2018, collected in Allen County Genealogical Society, Elementary Schools in Allen County, Indiana, Allen INGenWeb, 2026: Willard Shambaugh an attorney for Lincoln and Wayne Pump; and the class photograph of Mrs. Priscilla Becker's class, 1965 to 1966.
3. Shambaugh Elementary School, school site, shambaugh.fortwayneschools.org, 2026: the Hornets.
4. National Center for Education Statistics, Willard Shambaugh Elementary School (180363000572), as republished by Public School Review: enrollment of 536 in 1987, the peak of 637 in 1991, 580 in 1995, 525 in 2001, 465 in 2007, 405 in 2014 and 266 in 2025; twenty six teachers; the Hispanic share of 1 percent in 1988 rising to about an eighth in 2025; the attendance area of about 8.9 square miles.
5. SchoolDigger, Willard Shambaugh Elementary School, 2026, from Indiana Department of Education and federal data: ILEARN proficiency ahead of the district in English language arts and math, with third grade proficiency above fifty percent in both subjects; a rank of 521st of 1,005 Indiana elementary schools in 2025; free or discounted lunch eligibility between 51 and 53 percent in recent years; chronic absenteeism between 15.7 and 23.1 percent; students go on to Jefferson Middle School and Northrop High School.
6. ConstructConnect, Project R-2 project listing, 2023: roof replacement and related work at Shambaugh Elementary School and St. Joseph Central Elementary School.