Our History

Towles Intermediate School is named for Dr. Jeff H. Towles, who served on the Board of School Trustees from 1981 to 1988, a time when the district was heavily involved in desegregation. Dr. Towles was elected president of the School Board in 1987. He was passionate about providing a quality education to all students and helped lay the groundwork for the racial balance plan FWCS eventually adopted. Dr. Towles also served as a well-liked physician in the city. As a surgeon, he helped save the life of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan, who was shot and critically wounded while visiting Fort Wayne in 1980.

Towles School opened in 2006 as a first through eighth grade Montessori school. Prior to opening as an intermediate school, the building housed Geyer Middle School, which was named for Ben F. Geyer, a longtime School Board member. The school was built as a middle school in 1959 in the midst of a building boom for the school district. The English Language Learners (ELL) program is also offered at Towles.

As a Montessori school, the curriculum follows the methods developed by Maria Montessori, who believed children must cultivate their own natural desire to learn to become truly educated individuals who are motivated from within by a natural curiosity and love for knowledge. Classrooms are multi-age and look different than traditional classrooms. Materials are at the child’s level and offer a hands-on experience. Students are shown lessons and then work at their own pace. Towles was the first public school with a first- through eighth-grade Montessori program in Indiana.

Beginning in the 2013-14 school year, Towles seventh and eighth grades became Towles New Tech. New Tech encourages students to learn through a collaboration of project-based challenges and through connections with family, business and the community. Students work both independently and in groups on real-world assignments and projects that incorporate the state academic standards in ways that will prepare them for life after high school. Students use computers and other technology daily as tools to foster ideas, innovation and advancement. Students develop the resiliency necessary to succeed in a rapidly changing world and meet the high standards of universities and ultimately, the workplace. Beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, Towles staff led the way to move the 6th grade to be included in the New Tech program. Grades 1-5 continue to follow the Montessori curriculum.

As one of the district’s seven magnet schools, Towles does not have a geographical area for its attendance. Students attending Towles came from Bunche Early Childhood Center and feed into New Tech Academy at Wayne High School. The school is located in the Board of School Trustees District 5.