In January of 1967, a bond issue was passed by the City of Waynesboro approving construction of an elementary school to be built at 1020 Jefferson Avenue. The new school was to replace the two buildings housing an elementary school at the Jackson Wilson site located on Pine Avenue. In March of that year, construction bids were placed and the contract was subsequently awarded to S. R. Gay and  Company of Lynchburg, Virginia. Ground was broken on the first day of June 1967, marking the beginning of construction of the new school.

At the beginning of the 1968-1969 school year, the students of Jackson Wilson moved into Berkeley Glenn Elementary School. The new school was named in honor of Francis Berkeley Glenn, who had been a longtime teacher in Waynesboro, a former principal at the Waynesboro High School, and the fifth superintendent of the Waynesboro Public School System. Berkeley Glenn Elementary School was formally dedicated in a ceremony on March 9, 1969.