Fifty years ago, a group of kindergarteners and first-graders became the founding class of a small Catholic school on the outskirts of the Diocese of Arlington.
From those small beginnings, All Saints Catholic School in Manassas has grown dramatically to become the sixth largest elementary school in the diocese last year with 520 students.
In honor of the school’s 50th birthday, Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde is scheduled to celebrate an anniversary Mass Sept. 8 at 10:30 a.m. at All Saints Church. The day’s festivities will also include the dedication of a new flag pole and tours of the school’s newest wing, which opened in 1999.
“As much as I’ve seen it change and develop, the core mission has remained the same — we have a unique mission to educate the children in the faith,” said David Conroy, who took over as the school’s first lay principal in 1996 and is the longest-serving principal in the school’s history.
Conroy said the anniversary will be highlighted throughout the year at school fundraisers and events, and the students will participate in a variety of anniversary-themed service projects.
Three other diocesan elementary schools — Our Lady of Good Counsel in Vienna, Sacred Heart Academy in Winchester and St. Leo the Great in Fairfax — and Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington will also celebrate 50 years in 2007.
Next week, Mary Ann Evans will begin her 20th year teaching second grade at All Saints. Though she lives in Fairfax Station and her children attended nearby Catholic elementary schools, Evans said the family atmosphere at All Saints has kept her there for the majority of her teaching career.
“It’s a very warm and loving place,” she said. “It’s a real family atmosphere … everybody chips in.”
Evans, who had 18 students in her first class 20 years ago, has seen the school’s growth firsthand, and has overcome her phobia of computers as technology has made its way into the classroom, most recently in the form of the computerized Activboards.
“Fifty years ago, nobody in their wildest dreams would’ve thought we’d be doing that in education,” she said.
All Saints School was founded in 1957 by the Benedictine Sisters who also were responsible for Linton Hall School in Bristow. Within two years, the school relocated from the sisters’ motherhouse in Bristow to rented facilities at the National Guard Armory in Manassas.
In October 1960, the school, which included grades kindergarten through fourth, moved to its current building at the corner of Stonewall Road and Center Street in Manassas, next to the site of the new All Saints Church that was built in 1974. The Benedictines provided a principal for the school until the death of Benedictine Sister Therese Dowgiallo in 1990. Notre Dame Sister Ann Glaser served as principal from 1990-96.
For more information about All Saints School’s 50th anniversary celebration, go to www.allsaintsvaschool.org.

Stephanie Tracy can be reached at stracy@catholicherald.com.

(c) Copyright 2007 by Arlington Catholic Herald