Paint Branch Elementary School

Students walk into Paint Branch Elementary, the result of lobbying for an integrated elementary school by Lakelanders and other community members.

Request to name the media center at Paint Branch School in honor of John C. Johnson

Class from Paint Branch Elementary School 1977-78 school year. Their teacher is Mrs. Lyon

A ticket for a banquet for Agnes Gross held at Paint Branch ES, she was a long time member of Embry AME Church. She was a part of a missionary service.

In Lakeland in the area of Paint Branch Elementary School and College Park Community Center

Image taken from contact sheet in collection

Shortly before demolition

University of Maryland student tutor with Lakeland elementary student. There is a long history of University of Maryland student volunteer tutoring programs partnering young Lakelanders. In the 1990s and 2000s one of those programs was the Lakeland Stars out of Paint Branch Elementary School. Pictured are a pair of program participants.

Two seated on the porch of the Gray family home located on the corner of 54th Avenue and Pierce Avenue

Miss Norris's pre-kindergarten class of 1974-1975, at Paint Branch Elementary School

In the late 1960s, it became clear that the fifty-year old building housing Lakeland Elementary school no longer met the needs of the community's children. Community leaders fought long and hard to have a new school built in Lakeland. This commitment was maintained despite the school board’s selection of a site occupied by several houses. Even some of those who would be losing their homes worked actively for a new school in Lakeland. They were triumphant, and Paint Branch Elementary School opened in 1972 as an integrated elementary school with students from Lakeland and neighboring majority-white communities. Shown above is Miss Norris’s pre-kindergarten class in 1974-75. Today, the school serves more than 350 students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.