Our History

Croninger Elementary School is named for Fred Croninger, who served as principal of Central High School from 1921-1947. Mr. Croninger started his education career in 1905 as principal and head teacher of a high school in Deshler, Ohio. In 1910, he became the principal of Bluffton High School, where he led the basketball team to the first Indiana State basketball tournament in 1911. This success led, in part, to Mr. Croninger being elected president of the IHSAA in 1931. In 1913, Mr. Croninger moved to Central High School as a math teacher. He also worked as the business manager of athletics and later as the head of the math department at Central. When Mr. Croninger took over as principal, Central was the only public high school in the city. The overcrowding at the school was eventually alleviated by the opening of South Side and North Side high school. After his retirement from Fort Wayne Community Schools, he traveled, continued to attend Central athletic events and worked for 11 years in the math department at the Indiana Institute of Technology. He was present when the school was dedicated in his name in November 1966.

Croninger is one of the district’s seven magnet schools, offering a program focusing on communication in its various forms, including housing its own television studio. The program started in the fall of 1988. As a magnet school, Croninger does not have attendance boundaries; instead, students must apply through the FWCS lottery process. Students attending Croninger feed into Blackhawk Middle School and Snider High School. The school is located in the Board of School Trustees District 3.

Croninger is a Four Star School.