While most students at West Friendship Elementary School are between the ages of about 5 to 11, they still spent their Friday afternoon at a 100th birthday party.

“How many years?” the school’s principal, Debra O’Byrne, called out. “One hundred!” the students yelled back.

The elementary school will be a new centenarian in West Friendship as it turns 100 this year. To ring in the occasion, students dressed in shades of the school’s color, green, filled rows of seats on the blacktop. They sang songs, shared a timeline of the school’s history, offered predictions for the future, opened a time capsule from the 75th celebration in 2000, and filled a new one to be opened in 2050.

After opening remarks, “West Friendship is the place to be” echoed as students sang their new school song accompanied on the piano by the music teacher who wrote it. Later, a rendition of Katy Perry’s “Roar” with new lyrics fit to West Friendship was sung by the first-grade class, causing tears to well in O’Byrne’s eyes.

“For 100 years, this school has been more than a building,” O’Byrne said at the celebration. “It has been a place of inspiration, belonging and opportunity.”

Ravens cheerleaders and the team’s mascot Poe visited the celebration, along with Howard County Superintendent Bill Barnes, County Executive Calvin Ball, County Council member David Youngmann and Rep. Sarah Elfreth, who called it the “coolest hundredth birthday party” she’s ever attended. The day would be known as West Friendship Elementary School Day in Howard County, Ball declared in a proclamation that reflected on the school’s history, awards and recognitions.

The elementary school is believed to be the oldest continuously operating school in the Howard County Public School System, according to the district. Barnes shared remarks recounting the school’s history — it began with farmers clearing the land for the original building. The first school included a high school with a graduating class of 13, he said, and students rode to school on vehicles that transported produce.

“And I’m grateful for the current staff, the amazing staff here who keep the tradition of excellence and high expectations intact for the hundreds of students that attend today and the families that bring them to school,” Barnes said.

The school and its tight-knit community have endured for 100 years, with many who attended the school still living or working in the community. For some, their children get the West Friendship experience as well.

Maria Villani, a 1994 graduate of West Friendship Elementary, never thought she’d have a child who would attend the school. After moving back to Maryland, getting to celebrate the school’s centennial feels nostalgic. It feels like it was only yesterday that she was her child’s age, walking the halls with a side ponytail and the latest fashion of the day, Villani said.

“I think they will have the same experiences, maybe some different because, of course, times have changed, things have changed, but the overall theme is still there,” Villani said.

The school carries a theme of “small but mighty,” Villani and O’Byrne said. With a student body of about 366, the school has stood the test of time and talk of closing its doors in 2013.

During the summer, when cleaning out a closet, O’Byrne and the assistant principal came across a clock made from a tree that was chopped down to build the school. They also found attendance records from 1925, a letter with an original employee’s salary documented as $1,000 with a yearly pension of $5.25.

It’s a “monumental moment” to be able to celebrate the school overcoming hurdles to stand strong 100 years later, said Samantha Mathis, a third-grade teacher who attended the school. Mathis lived in a house next door to the building and her father, grandfather and cousins all attended West Friendship.

“I love that we have such a tight-knit community. The families are really present, and they’re very supportive of our teachers. The kids seem to really want to be at school, and we just have a lot of fun. I think that the community is what keeps me going at the school, and our staff,” Mathis said.

When Steven Haller went to the school from the late ’90s to the early 2000s, he felt the positive impact of strong parent involvement and community values. He loved all his teachers and felt like they cared deeply about their students, going “above and beyond” to give each the attention they needed. About 25 years later, a student shared a similar sentiment, saying one of the reasons he loves West Friendship is “because we have teachers who love us.”

While times have changed, the parallels to the past continue, O’Byrne said.

“We all value the children. We value the sense of community. When you walk in West Friendship, you feel the warmth,” O’Byrne said. “When I look at the artifacts that we found from the past, you can feel caring just by reading it, you can feel the warmth. That has not changed.”

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