Jardine school has always been a bright spot in the Planeview neighborhood

Jardine STEM and Career Explorations Academy

Address: 3500 Ross Parkway, near Pawnee and Oliver

Enrollment: 500 — 52% Hispanic, 18% white, 17% Black

Opened: 1958

Before it closed in 2006, Joyland Amusement Park operated across the street from Jardine, teasing generations of students who had to pass by a roller coaster every morning on the way to school.

Jardine started its existence in the early 1940s as Planeview High School — built to educate the children of the thousands of aircraft workers who had moved to Wichita and settled in Planeview, a wartime housing development built by the federal government. Planeview High School was a six-year school, built adequately but of temporary wartime construction, only meant to last about 10 years.

Planeview was annexed into the city of Wichita in 1955, and in 1957 — after the Wichita school district opened Wichita High School Southeast — grades 10-12 were transferred there, and Planeview became a junior high, serving grades seven through nine. That same year, the district changed the school’s name to William M. Jardine Junior High, an ode to a local educator and author who’d served as president of both Kansas State University and Wichita State University.

A new building replaced the temporary structure in 1958, designed to house 850 students. Jardine added sixth graders in 1988, and in 1989, its ninth graders were moved to high schools. In 1996, the school was closed, and students were sent to Mead, Truesdell and Curtis middle schools. It reopened for the 1996-1997 school year as Edison Junior Academy — run by the for-profit New York-based Edison program. When the district canceled its contract with Edison in 2003, the school transitioned to Jardine Magnet.

Today, Jardine is one of five magnet middle schools in the district and is run as a neighborhood magnet, meaning that students who live in the area are allowed to attend without going through a lottery process. This year, 190 students at Jardine are from the neighborhood, and the remainder were chosen via the magnet program lottery.

The school focuses on STEM — which stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics — and it strives to integrate those subjects into all of its curriculum. Its STEM Action Lab allows students to have hands-on experiences with audio and video production, computer graphics and animation, gaming, forensic science and more. Jardine Jaguars can be in a Minecraft club, join a Lego Robotics Team, work on the school yearbook or compete in cross country, track, volleyball or basketball.

The school also has one of the most respected middle school ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) programs in the district. It helps students who don’t speak English assimilate into middle school life. Informally at Jardine, it’s known as the “newcomer program.”

Stasha Jump, the parent of one former and one current Jardine student, said that her younger child — who has ADHD and dysgraphia — has been bullied since preschool, and the staff at his previous school wasn’t helpful. She put him in the lottery for Jardine, and he was selected. Jump said she found the staff to be positive and judgment free, and when the bullying started again, the staff stopped it.

“Jardine is the first school where our son feels seen, understood, has friends and his grades are flourishing,” she said. “Teachers check in with me when they are concerned with our son maybe feeling down and left out... No other school has ever supported us in this way.

Gerron Ayento, now a pastor in Florida, said he and his cousins attended Jardine during the 1970s. He remembers the school as a diverse place that offered lots of opportunities for participation. He still keeps in touch with some of his friends from Jardine, even after 45 years.

“I also believe the location, walking distance to Joyland Amusement park, makes the memories even more enjoyable. Skating with those same friends at Joyland Skate on Friday and Saturday or meeting at the amusement park just solidified the Jardine spirit even more... I am thankful to have been a part of the memories.”