Ben Guerir School History
Opened: 1951
Closed: 1963
Ben Guerir School was established in 1951 at Ben Guerir Air Force Base which was one of the five bases constructed in what was then French North Africa. The bases were constructed for SAC during a “crash program” which began in 1950. The base was located about thirty-six miles north of Marrakech.
Ben Guerir American School had students in kindergarten through tenth grade. Eleventh and twelfth grade students were five-day dormitory students at Nouasseur American School near Casablanca. The building was designed as a school. It was a one-story building with classrooms off a single hallway that had three levels to accommodate the slope of the area. Kindergarten and first grade were in a separate building. The school had a home economics classroom and a shop and used the base gymnasium for physical education. A playground was located across the street and there was a blacktop area with a basketball court.
The school played sports against local teams and other schools in Morocco. The sports program included baseball, soccer, volleyball and basketball.
There was usually at least one section for each grade level and some combination classes. The last year there were seventeen students in the tenth grade. The school had a host nation teacher who also taught French for the upper grades.
Robert McKinney, a student at the school in 1962-63 remembered his teacher, Mr. Morgan. He related that Mr. Morgan would take four or five students at a time on field trips like the one he attended to a French restaurant in Casablanca. Another teacher, Mr. Kinney, had sessions for Gifted and Talented students two nights a week at his home for eight students, four boys and four girls.
The school newspaper was Sandscript.
The school was closed in 1963.