Originally constructed to take the place of the Lee-Jackson High School, Mount Vernon High school first opened in November 1939. With the opening of the school, Lee-Jackson principal G. Claude Cox moved to Mount Vernon, becoming the school's first principal, and Lee-Jackson became an elementary school. In 1945, Principal Cox resigned to become principal of Wythe High School in
Wytheville, Virginia, and Lee-Jackson principal Melvin B. Landes moved to Mount Vernon to begin a nearly thirty-year tenure there. The school's current location was built in 1961 as Walt Whitman Intermediate School. In 1973, Mount Vernon and Whitman swapped facilities, and the former intermediate school was enlarged to serve its new role as a high school. The original Mount Vernon High School continued to operate as the Walt Whitman Intermediate School until 1985, when Whitman was moved to the former Stephen Foster Intermediate School. Also in 1973, Principal Melvin Landes retired, and Thomas G. Hyer took over as Principal. After nine years as principal, Nardos King resigned in 2015 to take a position as Assistant Superintendent of High Schools with the
Baltimore County Public Schools system. Assistant Principal Esther Manns became the interim principal of MVHS in September 2015. In February 2016, Rocky Run Middle School Principal Dr. Anthony S. Terrell was announced as the principal of Mount Vernon High School, beginning in March. The original Mount Vernon High School is still standing on Richmond Highway; it became the
Islamic Saudi Academy, which moved to the facility in 1989. This school closed in 2016. ==Academic achievement==