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Berwyn Heights Elementary School sixth-graders celebrated their graduation June 17, 50 years after the school's first sixth-grade class graduated in 1959.

"The promotion is always here, and it's always student-centered," said Principal Karen Singer. "We had people from the original class of 1959 and they were able to talk and interact together."

The school opened in 1958 and promoted its first class of sixth grade students in 1959.

Dennis McDougald, 60, of Beltsville was one of the original graduates and talked with current graduates.

"The students were like, ‘Wow, there is life after elementary school,'" McDougald said.

McDougald, who was raised in Berwyn Heights, said it was fun to interact with the students and reconnect with some of his former classmates.

He offered advice and congratulations to a few of the students, one of whom McDougald said reminded him of himself as a child.

"I said to him, ‘You have little control over your height, but you have a lot of control over your attitude, personality, knowledge and education,'" said McDougald, who was the shortest in his sixth-grade graduating class.

The group of graduating sixth-graders was also unique as they were the first kindergarten class to attend Berwyn Heights Elementary after it re-opened in 2002. Seventeen of the 70 graduating students started attending Berwyn Heights as kindergartners.

From 1981 to 2002, the school was closed and the building was used as the headquarters for the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute. Since then, the MFRI has moved to the University of Maryland, College Park.

Ann Harris Davidson, local historian and Berwyn Heights Education Advisory Committee chairwoman, crusaded to re-claim the school from the state in 1995. After working with the Berwyn Heights Town Council and Prince George's County School Board Committee to secure a new location for the MFRI, the school was re-claimed in 2002.

The keynote speaker for the graduation was retired counselor Mary Wade who was with the graduating students from kindergarten to fifth grade.

"The promotion really allowed the students to see the full circle they've made," Singer said.

In the fall, many of the students will be going to Greenbelt Middle School or Hyattsville Middle School. Thirteen students auditioned and were accepted into the William Wirt Middle School in Riverdale, where they will focus on music or the arts, Singer said.

Awards were also given at the graduation ceremony. Sixth-grade graduate Faye Ramirez received the Ann Harris Davidson Community Service Award, which was created in honor of Davidson's involvement and dedication to the school.

"[Faye] was the classic all-around good kid who tries to do the right thing," Davidson said.

E-mail Jordan Attebury at jattebury@gazette.net.