Sidi Slimane ES History
Opened: 1954
Closed: 1963
Sidi Slimane Elementary School was located on Sidi Slimane Air Base, one of the four bases constructed in Morocco in response to the heightened concerns during the Cold War. Those four bases were Nouasseur, Ben Guerir, Boulhaut, and Sidi Slimane. A fifth base was planned, but never built. Boulhaut did not have any dependent housing nor a school. There was also a non-SAC (Strategic Air Command) Air Force base at Sale, near Rabat, the capitol of Morocco. Originally, the air base was also known as the Fifth Royal Air Force Base.
Sidi Slimane Elementary School was opened for the 1954-55 school year and served students through the eighth grade. Students in high school were bused from Sidi to Port Lyautey Naval Air Station, Kénitra and attended Thomas Mack Wilhoite High School.
The first principal was Mr. Bill Matthias of Chatsworth, Illinois, and he also taught the seventh and eighth grade students and was in charge of athletics and sports. There were four other teachers and a total of sixty students.
Grade school classes were held in temporary wooden buildings called “Dallas Huts”. Construction of the new permanent grade school building began in September 1954. Grade school students were bused to Sidi Slimane.
The school at Sidi Slimane did not have a cafeteria. A food truck that served sandwiches, drinks, milk, chips, etc. was available to students who did not walk home for lunch. Shuttle buses were timed to take and return students who lived too far away to walk during lunch. The school day began at 8:30 am and ended at 3:00 pm. Students had an hour and fifteen minutes for lunch. When the temperatures were very hot, school started at 6am and released at noon to help avoid the heat coming from the Sahara Desert. Instuction for some special classes such as music was provided after the normal school hours.
The last year for Sidi Slimane began on August 27, 1962, and ended on May 17, 1963. Mr. Robert Van Such was the last school principal. Sidi Slimane Air Base, Morocco was officially closed at 12:00 noon on December 2, 1963. (There wasn’t a dependent school started for 1963-64 year as most dependents had left by the end of July 1963). Most of the school’s equipment such as desks, pianos, etc. were distributed to air bases in Spain at Moron, Torrejon, and Zaragoza.
Information from online resources and alumni, special thanks to Art Williams