Matthew C. Perry HS History
Opened: 1987
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In September 1955, the US Army established the American Dependents School, and the school operated under this name until 1957 when the US Navy established a Naval Air Station and officially renamed the school Matthew C. Perry School. In 1958, the air station reverted to the US Marine Corps. The school retained its name under the new command and comprised a correspondence high school with one teacher and four elementary school teachers. In 1977, the school was separated into a high school and an elementary school, with separate faculty and principals for each school. In 1984, the two schools were once again combined into a single unit school under the supervision of a principal and assistant principal. By 1987, the schools were separated once again. In 2018 MC Perry JHS became Matthew C. Perry High School.
The original school was located in the center of the housing area of the Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station which occupied a small peninsula on the Seto Inland Sea. The high school shared several older structures with the elementary school. The school included a library/audio-visual center, multipurpose room, and lunchroom.
Construction of a new, modern facility was completed in the spring of 1985. The new high school building was completely carpeted except for the two science labs and the multipurpose lunchroom. The media center, shared with the elementary school, included a TV studio fully equipped with the latest cameras and monitors which allowed for internal broadcasting to all the rooms in both the elementary and high school. Also, the building contained a music room, business lab, graphics lab and photographic darkroom computer lab, home economics lab, and ten classrooms. An industrial arts shop was located in a wing of the elementary school with the shared gymnasium and art/ceramics lab. Eleven educators on the high school staff and specialists were shared with the elementary school. There were 20 classroom teachers and specialists in the areas of reading improvement, speech therapy, learning disabilities, talented and gifted, English as a Second Language (ESL), compensatory education, media specialist, and counseling. The school enrollment for the 1989-90 school year was 210 students.
Currently, Matthew C. Perry High School comprises grades 9 through 12 with approximately 230 students and a faculty and staff of thirty educators. The school mascot is the Samurai, and the school colors are burgundy and gold.
Information from internet sites, school yearbooks, DoDDS School Information Guides and DoDDS Pacific Region, 1946-1986