• Glennwood Elementary opened in 1913 on property the city acquired from the heirs of Thomas Glenn. The site was on the outskirts of town, bordering an area known as “Glenn’s Woods” (now Glennwood Estates).

    In the school’s first years older boys were given a choice of attending study hall or helping to clear brush as men felled trees on what was to become the playfield.

    From 1913 to 1915 the building served as Decatur’s high school. In 1915 Glennwood, with an enrollment of 250 students, became Decatur’s only elementary school. The Glennwood PTA was founded that same year.

    During Glennwood’s first decades, students and teachers either walked or rode the trolley which turned around at the end of its line across the street from the school. As times changed and parents began driving their children to school in the 1950s, a semicircular driveway was installed to ease traffic along Ponce De Leon Avenue.

    The school’s library was established in the mid-1940s. In 1949, a new wing was added on the west end of the building, housing more classrooms and an auditorium. The school got its first intercom system in 1951 – a novelty that thrilled students and teachers alike. In 1961, after raising money through suppers at the school, the PTA funded the addition of a playground blacktop. 

    In 2002 work began on Glennwood’s long awaited renovation. Students and faculty moved to a temporary home in the Fifth Avenue school near the Oakhurst neighborhood. In August 2003 they returned to a renovated and expanded Glennwood facility.

    In a press release issued January 7, 2004, Glennwood Elementary, "A Great Place to Learn", was named a 2004 School of Excellence in Student Achievement. The school received this recognition as one of 13 schools demonstrating the greatest continuous gains in reading/language arts and math over the previous three-year period.

    Principals

    • 1913-1927        Mrs. T. N. Fulton
    • 1927-1944       Mrs. H. B. Carreker
    • 1944-1945       Mrs. P. G. Sessions
    • 1945-1956       Mrs. J. A. Campbell
    • 1956-1964       Miss Vee Simmons
    • 1964-1986       Miss Joyce Paris
    • 1986-1994       Mrs. Marie “Betty” Matthews
    • 1994-1996       Mrs. Faye Wilson
    • 1996-1998       Dr. Ellis W. Mills
    • 1998-2000      Dr. Debra Allen
    • 2000-2004     Mrs. Jan Goodloe
    • 2004-2011       Dr. Gloria Lee
    • 2011-2018        Mrs. Dianna Herron-Watson
    • 2018-2020      Dr. Kristy Beam
    • 2020-                 Dr. Holly Brookins