Mannheim MS History
Opened: 1985
Closed: 2011
Mannheim American Middle School was in the Benjamin Franklin Village, which was part of the Mannheim American Military Community. Mannheim is an industrial city with a metropolitan area. The school served the Mannheim and Worms military communities.
The middle school, which was constructed in 1985, was a complex of inter-related buildings with twenty-four general purpose classrooms, six science rooms, a gymnasium, multipurpose room, and fully equipped art, home ecology, and industrial arts rooms. Special services were provided by a reading improvement specialist, a speech therapist, learning resource specialist, nurse, and two counselors.
The school mascot was the Mustang, and the school motto was “Where Every Child is Our Future.”
The middle school curriculum included AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination), JROTC, and TAG (Talented and Gifted) offerings. Students were able to participate in a variety of afterschool activities such as drama, band, and chorus as well as clubs like newspaper, yearbook, computers, tech ed, gardening, environment, and outdoor education. Student achievement was recognized through the Renaissance Program, Awards, and the National Junior Honor Society. Students also competed in the National Spelling and Geography Bees. The intramurals program included many sports.
Study trips included visits to Miramar, Neuschwanstein Castle, Auto-Technik Museum, Speyer Cathedral, Buffalo Park, and Heidelberg.
The enrollment for the 1987-88 school year was 750 students in grades six through eight. There were forty-five teachers and specialists. The specialists included a teacher for the talented and gifted and a teacher for severely emotionally disturbed, two learning development teachers, a reading improvement specialist, speech therapist, and a teacher for English Language Learner.
Frank Roehl was the principal from 1994–1997 and his assistants were Ms. Wooley (’94–’95) and Ellen Minette (’95–’97). The administrative team for the 2003-04 school year was principal Jacqueline Yardley and assistant principal Shelia Smith.
By the early nineties, the enrollment had dropped to about 450 students and continued to drop until the school’s closure in June 2011.
Information from DoD School Information Guides and school yearbooks