Our School
School Hours
8:15 AM - 2:50 PM
Arrival: Doors open at 8:00 and breakfast will be served from 8:00-8:15 am. Detailed arrival and dismissal information can be found here.
Winnona Park Elementary is an EL Education School (formerly known as Expeditionary Learning). EL Education is an instructional model adopted by all K-2 schools in the City Schools of Decatur. It is an outstanding school reform model that is the product of a collaboration between Outward Bound and the Harvard School of Education. All City Schools of Decatur K-2 schools are proud to be part of the EL Education network of schools.
“We are Crew, Not Passengers!”
-Kurt Hahn, founder, Outward Bound/Expeditionary Learning
At Winnona Park, students, staff, and families make up the Crew. In Outward Bound and in EL Education, the Crew is responsible for the entire journey. In fact, without their individual and collaborative effort, the journey cannot happen to its fullest. The Crew reaches the destination as a team.
Instructional Vision:
All Winnona Park students can achieve more than they think possible when we build caring relationships focused on student-centered instruction.
School Colors: Purple & Gold
School Mascot: Whiskers the Wildcat
History
Winnona Park School opened its doors on September 17, 1923, housing six grammar school grades for 175 students who had previously attended Decatur's Glennwood and Oakhurst schools. Until 1935, the auditorium doubled as two classrooms and a lunchroom. The building was designed by architect J.W. Sayward. In 1941 the cost of lunch was 7 cents. In 1943, hot lunch service was provided at a price of 10 cents. The school building has survived two fires, the first in 1959, and then in 1975.
Student enrollment in Winnona Park has remained fairly constant. The exceptional years were 1940-1960. There were 313 students enrolled in 1942, and the school had double sessions from 8 am to noon and from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. For many years the grades consisted of one through seven. For a brief period in the 1960s, the seventh grade attended Decatur Junior High School and Winnona Park housed grades one through six. With the addition of kindergarten and the relocation of both fourth and fifth grade to Glennwood Academy, and sixth and seventh grades to Renfroe Middle School, the school currently houses kindergarten through second grades.
Many thanks to alumna Peggy Moler Bussert for clarifying some of these details!
