The Full Story
About Our School
LH Carpenter houses the Preschool and Kindergarten in the Wabash City Schools Corporation, and has an average yearly enrollment of 200 students.
History
L.H. Carpenter was originally a K-6 Elementary School from 1965-1984. It was named after its first principal, Lowell Carpenter. It was then given to the city in 1984. In 1989, the city gave the building back to Wabash City Schools and they chose to remodel it and the Administration Office moved into the new section. Ivy Tech used the remaining classrooms in the building until they relocated to its current location at the old West Ward Elementary building in 1989. After Ivy Tech moved out, Wabash City Schools then rented out some of the classrooms to the following services between 1989-2019: Patins, Department of Local Government Finance, Red Cross, and Carey Services.
More History!
Our Developmental preschool classrooms were moved to LHC in 2014. In 2017, they added a Title 1 preschool for low income families and a dual immersion preschool. The building then became the L.H. Carpenter Early Learning Center. In 2018, LHC began participating in Paths to Quality, Indiana's statewide quality rating and improvement system fro early childcare and education, and worked their way to a Level 2.
In 2019, 2 typical pre-kindergarten classrooms were added and we reached Level 3 in the state's rating system, Paths to Quality. We also started construction in 2019. We added another wing that mirrors the original wing. We doubled our capacity and now have an average yearly enrollment of 200 students.
Today L.H. Carpenter houses the following; Developmental 3/4 year old, a typical 3 year old classroom, 3 inclusion pre-kindergarten classrooms, 2 dual immersion pre-kindergarten classrooms, 3 kindergarten classrooms, and 2 dual immersion Kindergarten classrooms. Students are offered breakfast and lunch if they are full day. Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students participate in gym, music, art, PLTW, and character building each week. Speech services and Title 1 reading support are offered if needed.
