Izmir Dependent School History
Opened: January 1953
Closed: 1962
According to the 1956 yearbook, in January 1953, the Navy Dependents School opened with nine students in the high school and operated on a half-day schedule. The school was located in an apartment house on Mustafa Bey Caddesi. The next school year the high school enrollment increased to seventeen students, and the school was moved to the Navy Headquarters Support Detachment building, where the junior and senior highs had a portion of one floor for their use. The school was located in HSD Building Number One and consisted of supervised correspondence courses. For the 1954-55 school year, the school had an enrollment of twenty-one students. The HSD Building Number Two was built, and the high school students were moved into the new building. For the 1955-56 school year the school no longer operated on a supervised correspondence course basis, although some students were taking unavailable courses by correspondence from the University of Nebraska.
For the 1955-56 school year, the high school enrollment increased to fifty-eight students. In January 1956, the Navy left the area, and the Air Force took over the school. The high school was in Detachment 20 under the command of Colonel Richard Armstrong and was now considered the Air Force Dependent School. The school had a boys’ basketball team and a cheerleading squad. In May, lockers for the school finally arrived. The teacher/principal for the 1955-56 school year was Mr. Dale Clark and there were seven faculty members. The school had a regularly published newspaper and several clubs including a Teen-Age Club and Pre-Teen club. The boys’ basketball team played local Turkish schools and made one trip to Ankara to play the high school there. There were three boys’ softball teams—Blue, Gray, and Green—that played in a school league.
For the 1956-57 school year, the entire school was now in HSD Building Number 3 with expanded facilities that included an auditorium, science laboratories, a large library, typing, and arts and crafts rooms. The Turkish language was now required for every student in the American school. New activities included a library club and a bridge study group. Soccer was added to the sports curriculum. The school also had a tennis court, a basketball court, and separate fields for soccer, football, and softball. New traditions were begun at the school, including a Sadie Hawkins Day, a parent-student formal, Christmas and spring formals, and a senior trip. The school was included in the Vapor Trails yearbook published by the Air Force Schools in Europe, Asia Minor, and Africa. Mr. Jack Daseler was the principal and there were ten high school faculty.
By the 1957-58 school year the school had ninety-nine students and eight teachers, with Mr. Hornor Kidd as the principal. The school newspaper was called the Sultan Scroll. The school had a girls’ volleyball team and a high school and junior high chorus.
Mr. Carl Gustafson was the principal for the 1958-59 school year, and the faculty for the high school had ten teachers. The play “Our Town” was presented by the drama club. Other new activities included a Lettermen’s Club, Red Cross Club, Science Club, and Photography Club.
The school had its first band for the 1959-60 school year. The enrollment for the high school was now over 150 students. The dependents school principal was Morris Crum, and Clyde Slocum was the high school principal.
Mr. Warren Jennings was the principal for the next two school years. The enrollment for the high school portion of the school was now over three hundred students. The school had a National Honor Society, a French Club, a Turkish American Club, Girls Athletic Association, and Future Teachers of America.
Information from school yearbooks