Catoctin Elementary School was the first school using a circular design to be constructed in Loudoun County.  It was built in 1966 at a cost of approximately one million dollars.  The money for this construction was provided by the first school bond referendum to be initiated and passed in Loudoun County.  The school was named after the beautiful Catoctin mountain range rising west of the town of Leesburg.  

The initial construction contained two circular classroom pods of ten classrooms each, a library, an administrative area, clinic, teachers' lounge, kitchen, and multi‑purpose room to serve as a cafeteria and an auditorium.  The building was designed to accommodate six hundred first through seventh grade students; however, when the middle schools opened in 1972, the school began serving students in kindergarten through fifth grades. 

With the increased enrollment and the introduction of the kindergarten program, a second bond referendum enabled the county to build an addition to Catoctin Elementary, which opened during the 1974‑75 school year.  This new addition contained four kindergarten classrooms and ten regular classrooms at a reported cost of $600,000.

A bond referendum provided the funding for the gymnasium which was completed in 1999.

The principals at Catoctin Elementary have included:

• Weldon P. Reeves – 1966 – 02/1971

• Gerald A. Shipp –02/1971–1972

• Fred E. Drummond – 1972 – 1989

• Susan Y. Mills – 1989 – 2004

• Julie M. McKay – 2004 – 2006

• Rebecca B. Moyer – 2006 – 2009

• Jennifer L. Rueckert- 2009 - 2016

• Janet A. Platenberg - 2016 - Present