MacArthur ES History
Opened: 1974
Closed: 1991
MacArthur Elementary was a new school that was opened in August 1974, although it was still incomplete. The school was one of the five school complexes at Clark Air Base. Because of its central location, most of the K–5 students walked to school. A MacArthur teacher reported that desks and furniture arrived the day before school opened and supplies took a while to arrive.
The center of the school was the library/media center. Five buildings were used for classroom instruction and one housed the administrative office, nurse’s station, and counselor’s office. The eighth building was the gymnasium/auditorium. Folding partitions provided the flexibility for two to four teachers teams to work together.
In 1980, the Clark schools were reorganized. MacArthur school now served students in kindergarten through grade four. That same year the Developmental Center at MacArthur served preschool special education students and trainable mentally retarded (TMR) children aged 6-21. By the 1981-82 school year, there were 580 students in grades kindergarten through four. There were thirty-five professional staff, ten aides, and two administrators.
The school enrollment reached 680 for the 1987-88 school year and then decreased to 650 by the 1989-90 school year. The school’s Development Center provided services to preschool handicapped, TMR, severely emotionally disturbed, and deaf and hearing impaired.
MacArthur Elementary School closed in 1991.
Information from DoDDS School Information Guides and DoDDS-Pacific Region 1946-1986