Rolling Valley Elementary School

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

Rolling Valley Elementary School opened on September 5, 1967, with 410 students and 14 teachers. Our building was formally dedicated on January 23, 1968. By the spring of 1968, there were more than 610 students and 21 teachers at Rolling Valley. Our first principal, Arthur R. Mitchell, once stated that four to five new students enrolled every week!

Principal Arthur R. Mitchell (1967-78)

Rolling Valley Elementary School was designed by the architecture firm of Saunders & Pearson, and was built by E. H. Glover, Inc. at a cost $522,800. Originally, Rolling Valley was built for a capacity 660 students. Our school had 24 classrooms, a library, administrative offices, a health clinic, a teachers' lounge, a kitchen, and a multi-purpose room.

Rolling Valley concept artwork by architects Saunders & Pearson. Published in Globe & Free Press Newspapers, August 10, 1967, on page 27.

During the early years, children in grades 1 and 2 were grouped together in "primary" classrooms. Children in grades 3-6 were grouped separately by grade level.

Kindergarten
Did you know that during the first year Rolling Valley was open there were no kindergarteners in our school? A kindergarten program was piloted in several schools in 1967 and proved so successful that one year later FCPS implemented kindergarten county-wide. FCPS enrolled approximately 8,000 children in kindergarten in September 1968.

Homewood Elementary School
In 1966, during the architectural design process for our school, Rolling Valley was referred to as Homewood Elementary School. Our building was officially named Rolling Valley by the Fairfax County School Board in December 1966. Learn why that name was chosen in this video produced for Fairfax County Public Schools’ cable television channel Red Apple 21.

Rolling Valley Elementary School opened in September, 1967. The school was named for the Rolling Valley residential subdivision. The name Rolling Valley was inspired by nearby Rolling Road and Pohick Creek Stream Valley Park. Rolling Road is one of the oldest roads in Fairfax County, dating back to the 1700s when Fairfax County was a sparsely settled, rural farming community. The primary crop raised at that time was tobacco. After the tobacco was harvested and dried, it was packed into large barrels called hogsheads. The hogsheads were used to transport the tobacco from plantations to inspection warehouses where it was loaded onto ships and sold overseas. A fully loaded hogshead weighed about 1,000 pounds. Because they were so large and heavy, the hogsheads were literally “rolled” along the road by oxen and slave labor. The roads on which the hogsheads travelled were known as “rolling roads.” Rolling Road, through Springfield, was used to transport tobacco from Ravensworth Plantation to a warehouse at the mouth of Pohick Creek on Pohick Bay. It was one of many “rolling roads” in use at that time in Fairfax County.

"I’m in northern Fairfax County, standing on what used to be the rolling road from Leesburg to Alexandria – except, you can’t see it because the road is about 8 feet underground…or can you? Those logs peeking out under the water are the old road. Where rolling roads crossed shallow streams, logs were put down to keep hogsheads and wagon wheels from getting stuck in the mud. In the early 1800s, the road to Alexandria was moved further upstream and this road was abandoned. It became covered in silt and was eventually buried.
Now, as the stream washes away at the banks, the old road is becoming visible again. Many of the roads, or parts of roads, we use today, such as: Route 7, Georgetown Pike, Ox Road, Braddock Road, Old Colchester Road, and parts of Route 1, were at one time used as rolling roads."

1975 to 1985
The period between 1975 and 1985 was a challenging time for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS). Student enrollment gradually declined during this decade resulting in the closure of several schools in the eastern part of Fairfax County. The closures affected neighborhoods that saw the earliest growth post-World War II. The children in these neighborhoods were graduating high school, and there were fewer families in the area with young children. Enrollment at Rolling Valley fluctuated, but our school was not in danger of closure. In 1979, 629 students were enrolled at Rolling Valley. By 1983, that number had fallen to 394. Boundary changes and the development of new housing subdivisions in the West Springfield area caused the student population to rise again by the late 1980s.

From 1978 to 1998, Rolling Valley had three principals: James V. Luscavage (Left, 1978-80), Robert F. Clark (Center, 1980-84), and Mary M. Dill (1984-98).

Renovations and Additions
During the 1960s there was very little funding available for school construction, so Rolling Valley was built without a gymnasium or music room. These rooms were built in 1986, when Rolling Valley received its first addition. Prior to this time, physical education was taught by classroom teachers in their rooms, and later by physical education teachers in the multi-purpose room and outdoors through structured play.

Square Dancing was often taught in the multi-purpose room until the gymnasium was constructed.

In 1989, a 10-classroom addition was built by E. H. Glover, Inc. at a cost of $1.4 million. The first building-wide renewal of our school was constructed from 1996 to 1998 at a cost of $3.6 million. A new classroom wing was added, the library was renovated, and air conditioning was installed throughout the building. After the renovation was complete, our building was rededicated during our 30th anniversary celebration on May 30, 1998.

Principal Mary Dill retired at the end of the 1997-98 school year and was succeeded by our fifth principal, Gayle Andrews. Our sixth principal, Debra Lane, led Rolling Valley from 2007 to 2010. She was succeeded by our current principal, Maureen Boland.

Principals Gayle Andrews (Left, 1998-07), Debra Lane (Center, 2007-10), and Maureen Boland (2010-Present)

Our Mascots
Did you know that Rolling Valley's first mascot was a giant? We have no artwork or photographs of this mascot, but alumna Karen Drain recalls that the giant was a large man with a club in his hand. There were trees at his feet to give a sense of his cartoonish size. Our second mascot was a unicorn. The first appearance of the unicorn in our yearbooks was in 1982. In 1993, our mascot changed to the rockets. On the occasion of our school's 30th anniversary celebration, in May 1998, then Principal Mary M. Dill stated, "When we chose the rocket we thought about soaring into the 21st century. We are rocketing into the future... but we do want to remember the past because when you remember your past it helps you build on the future." Rolling Valley's current mascot, the Rockin’ Robin, came into use in 1999.

The Unicorns (1982-93), The Rockets (1993-99), and The Rockin' Robins (1999-Present)