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Hunt Valley Elementary School

GPS Coordinates: 38.7619198, -77.2440372
Closest Address: 7107 Sydenstricker Road, Springfield, VA 22152

Hunt Valley Elementary School

Here follows a history of the school as published on the Fairfax County Public Schools website:

Hunt Valley Elementary School opened on September 3, 1968. Our first principal was Barbara Cooper Fry. Hunt Valley originally had just 22 classrooms and a pupil capacity of 660.

In the late 1960s, the West Springfield area was rapidly transforming from vast tracts of forest into suburban neighborhoods. This led to steady enrollment growth at Hunt Valley, and by the spring of 1969 our building was nearing capacity. In February 1969, the Fairfax County School Board authorized an 11-classroom addition and modernization to Hunt Valley to increase the building’s capacity to 990 students.

The original Hunt Valley Elementary School building was designed by the architecture firm of Mintz & Easter, and was built by general contractor Burroughs & Preston, Inc., at a cost of $599,700.

The term “modernization” was used by the School Board to describe the addition because it would feature a new and experimental design: open classrooms clustered around resource area pods. Other modern features of the addition included classrooms for music and science, and a gymnasium. These learning spaces were not constructed in Fairfax County elementary schools prior to the late 1960s.

The 1969 addition, outlined in red, was built at a cost of $526,787. Construction began in the fall of 1969 and was completed in time for the opening of school in September 1970.

What’s in a Name?
During the design and construction process Hunt Valley Elementary School was referred to as Sydenstricker Chapel Elementary School. These construction blueprints for Sydenstricker Chapel (Hunt Valley) Elementary School are dated October 24, 1967.

Our school was given the name Hunt Valley by the Fairfax County School Board in April 1968. Learn about the origin of the names Hunt Valley and Sydenstricker in this video produced for the Fairfax County Public Schools cable television channel Red Apple 21:

Hunt Valley Elementary School was established in 1968. The school is named for the area's landscape and the surrounding neighborhoods. Many of the neighborhood road named chosen by developers reflect a sports hunting theme, particularly fox hunting. Fox hunting is a sport where riders on horseback chase wild foxes with a pack of hounds. For nearly 300 years, Fairfax County was prime fox hunting territory. George Washington often hunted in Fairfax and wrote about his love for the sport in his diary.

Not far from Hunt Valley Elementary School stands one of Fairfax County's last remaining one-room schoolhouses, the Sydenstricker School, also known as the Pohick School. The Pohick School was established around 1900. In 1911, Sydenstricker Chapel was built next to the school. It was named for Reverend Christopher Sydenstricker. In the 1910s, local residents petitioned the school board to rename the schoolhouse Sydenstricker and the board approved.

This first Sydenstricker schoolhouse burned down in 1928 and was quickly rebuilt the same year. In the early 1930s, the consolidation movement began in Fairfax County Public Schools. One-room schoolhouses throughout the county closed and students were moved into new brick buildings. The Sydenstricker school children were sent to the Burke school, but parents strongly protested the move. In 1937, the school board agreed to let the students return to Sydenstricker, but in 1939, the school permanently closed and the building was eventually sold to the Pohick Community League. The building is now a national historic site. The belfry contains the original school bell purchased from Sears and Roebuck in the 1920s. Hunt Valley Elementary School carries on the legacy of educational excellence established by these early Fairfax County Public Schools.

Welcome Kindergarteners
On September 9, 1968, elementary schools throughout Fairfax County opened their doors to the five-year-olds of the community, marking the first time kindergarten was offered in all of the county’s public schools. Burke Elementary School was too small to house all the kindergarteners living within its boundary, so the students were bused to Hunt Valley Elementary School instead. The two schools operated for several years in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a “complex” with Hunt Valley’s principals serving as the lead principal of both schools.

Burke was built in 1939 with grant funding from the Federal Government’s Public Works Administration (PWA).

On the Move
Continued growth of the West Springfield area in the early 1970s pushed enrollment at Hunt Valley well above capacity. The 1972-73 school year was particularly challenging with 1,173 students assigned to Hunt Valley. Boundary adjustments occurred several times with the opening of new schools nearby, namely Orange Hunt (1974), White Oaks (1980), and Cherry Run (1983).

"My one negative memory of Hunt Valley was teaching on the second floor of the building with no air conditioning. Kris Johnson and I team taught in rooms 205-206. I also taught in the open pod areas. One day for morning exercise, three of our students borrowed their mom’s wigs and pretended to be Diana Ross and the Supremes and sang a medley of their songs. Hunt Valley grew by leaps and bounds and Kris and I found ourselves teaching in what was then the science lab. I remember Willard Scott, the Channel 4 weatherman, coming to talk to the children."
~ Carol Livengood, Hunt Valley Teacher

Maureen Boland, principal of Rolling Valley Elementary School, attended elementary school at Hunt Valley in the late 1970s.

"I remember a few teachers. Mrs. Casey was my first grade teacher and she was very popular in the school. She was so nice and caring. I think she stayed in first grade her entire career. Also, the sixth grade teachers were well loved. They team taught in rooms with automatic door partitions – so you either had Martin/Guy or Johnson/Livengood. I had Martin/Guy and I remember they made learning fun with activities. One of my favorite memories was the Greek Olympics in sixth grade. We actually divided into City States and had a whole day of activities which concluded in a chariot race around the track on the lower field with chariots that we made! The other thing I remember is that we had a piece of playground equipment that we called The Tower. It was a death trap that would never be allowed by today’s standards, but we loved the tower."
~ Maureen Boland, Hunt Valley Student, 1974-80

A Glimpse of Hunt Valley in the 1970s:
The System 80 Teaching Machine was used to diagnose whether children were working below grade level in a particular skill. The System 80 was widely used in in schools in the 1970s for reading and math instruction.

Going the Distance
In the summer of 1984, Ginny Fant, Hunt Valley Elementary School’s reading teacher, introduced a new summer reading program. Fant’s reading marathon program challenged first and second graders to read at least 50 books over the summer and to keep a journal in which they were to record a description of each of the books they had read. In the fall, the eight students who completed the marathon received gold-painted medals, and their picture was placed on a bulletin board for all 900 students in the school to see.

"The eight children are proud of their achievement, which school reading instructor Ginny Fant calls remarkable. “You’ve got to remember they only learned to read a few years ago,” says Fant. “It’s the old ‘practice makes perfect,’ just like they would practice the piano,” she said."
~ The Washington Post, October 4, 1984

A Glimpse of Hunt Valley in the 1980s
Strings Teacher Mr. Velke and Students, 1980-81.

A New Look
In 1990, Hunt Valley Elementary School received a small addition in the form of two classrooms for the School Age Child Care (SACC) program. The SACC classrooms were built next to the gymnasium. Our school’s first building-wide renewal began construction in fall 1995.

The $5.3 million renovation of Hunt Valley Elementary School took two years to complete.

During the renovation, extensive changes were made to the building. A raised stage was installed in the gymnasium to create an assembly hall space for student performances and school functions. A new media center, housing a computer lab, reading room, and television studio, was constructed in what had been an outdoor space between the 1968 and 1969 buildings. The old library on the second floor of the 1968 building was converted into an art classroom. Additionally, the school office was moved from the center of the building to the front of the school.

"I remember the 1995-97 renovation very well. The school office was located in the center of the building with no windows at that time. The office was never relocated into a trailer during the renovation. We continued to work while construction was going on. As construction got closer to the office, we would cover our typewriters and computers with big sheets of plastic at the end of the day to keep the dust off. In the mornings, we would remove the plastic sheets, dust off and clean our work areas as much as possible and carry on. It was not a pleasant experience. I’m not sure if we had the option to move the office into a trailer, but we should have done that."
~ Ann Rodriguez, Student Information Assistant

Hunt Valley was rededicated on Wednesday, April 29, 1998. The rededication ceremony included performances by the school chorus and remarks by then principal Mary Barker, former principal Saundra Wolstenholme, and Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Daniel Domenech.

Into the 21st Century
In addition to traditional activities such as Student Council Association, chorus, band, and strings, students at Hunt Valley Elementary School in the early 2000s could participate in Art Club, Homework Club, the Virginia Young Reader’s Summer Reading Club, the Be Smart, Don’t Start Club, and the student-run TV News Show.

A Special Guest
In February 2007, Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, a former professional baseball player, visited Hunt Valley. She spoke with students about her experiences as being one of three women, and the first female pitcher, to play in the Negro Leagues.

"Hunt Valley librarian Anne Calabrese said she was thrilled to have the chance for Johnson to speak to the students. “This teaches the students that you don’t have to give up your dreams, you can reach them with hard work,” Calabrese said. “For the girls especially, I think they needed to hear that they can go out and do anything. It’s good for the boys to hear that too.”
~ Connection Newspaper, Feb. 28, 2007

A Tradition of Excellence
Hunt Valley Elementary School has been recognized by numerous local and state-level awards in the first two decades of the 21st century. From 2008 to 2011, and Hunt Valley was the recipient of four Virginia Governor’s Awards for Educational Excellence. In 2012, Hunt Valley was named one of Northern Virginia Magazine’s “Best Elementary Schools.” From 2012 to 2018, our school was the recipient of seven Distinguished Achievement Awards from the Virginia Board of Education. And, in 2018, Hunt Valley was one of the first schools in Virginia to receive a Purple Star Award for meeting the needs of military children and families.

Hunt Valley Elementary School’s mascot has been a hawk since at least 1978.

Our Principals
"The principals at Hunt Valley have always been great. That’s why we call our school Happy Valley. Everyone that comes to our school becomes happy." ~ Betsy Green, Hunt Valley Teacher

Barbara Cooper Fry (1968-70)
Talicia C. Smoot (1970-74)
Dolores L. Varnon (1974-80)
James V. Luscavage (1980-88)
Saundra Wolstenholme (1988-97)
Mary D. Barker (1997-07)
Patricia Small (2007-13)
David Fee (2013-Present)

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Award-winning local historian and tour guide in Franconia and the greater Alexandria area of Virginia.

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Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

franconiahistory@gmail.com

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