Banneker Elementary is a small community school that is holding on to nearly six decades of history – all while moving forward.

Built in 1948, the school was opened to black students during segregation. With new schools popping up all over fast-growing Loudoun County, Banneker wanted to preserve its wealth of history.

The school recently invited former principals and students in an effort to capture that history. Today, the school is key to the local community, principal Doug Martin said.

Although the school is among the smallest in Loudoun – it has 182 students – Martin said technology is large part of the curriculum. Students visit the computer lab three times a week and have the school’s laptop computers at their fingertips.

During a recent trip to the Natural History Museum, second-graders were able to use digital cameras to take photos and use those images in special projects, Martin said. He also praised the students for their work in the classroom.

“We’re proud of our test scores,” he said. “We have some of the highest scores in the county.”

According to the school’s improvement plan, every first-grade student during the 2005-06 school year was at grade level proficiency in reading. The district goal is for 90 percent of students to pass all required SOL tests, although 80.4 percent passed the test during 2005-06.

The school has no dedicated art teacher because of its small size, but students still get 60 minutes of art instruction each week.

Martin said his teaching staff is a mixture of newer teachers and long-term veterans.

After the final school bell rings, students have a variety of clubs they can join, such as the chess club, science club and flute club. The county’s parks and recreation department maintains a baseball diamond at the school that’s used for sports.

Banneker doesn’t have a gymnasium, so the cafeteria also serves as the school’s multi-purpose room.

Martin said the school is making efforts to reach out to its diverse students and their families. Noticing that some Spanish-speaking parents weren’t attending certain functions, Banneker scheduled a supper to invite Latino parents to ask questions through an interpreter.

At the end of each school year, Banneker hosts a picnic to mark the conclusion of another year. Although the PTO provides some food, the potluck event allows school officials to meet with parents and the community.

“The last couple of years it gets later and later and people still want to stay,” Martin said with a laugh.