Wiesbaden MS (formerly JHS) History
Opened: 1960
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The original Wiesbaden Junior High School, which became Wiesbaden American Middle School and finally Wiesbaden Middle School, was located in the Hainerberg Housing area next to Hainerberg Elementary School and across the street from Wiesbaden High School. The junior high/middle school was a two-story complex.
Currently, the new 21st century Middle School which was opened for the 2015-16 school year is located in the Hainerberg Housing area. The school serves the families of the US Army Garrison Wiesbaden, which is home to USAEUR HQ (United States Army Europe). The new facility is conveniently located near base housing adjacent to Wiesbaden High School and Wiesbaden Elementary School. The school has a great playground and is close to youth services, the Wiesbaden Entertainment Center, the commissary, and the post exchange.
Wiesbaden Middle School embraces the Middle School Concept with students attending classes in teams which creates a sense of belonging. Generally, students attend required classes in their own grade level neighborhood and leave that neighborhood to attend elective classes such as band, art, and physical education.
The school colors are blue and gold, and the mascot is the Wildcat. The first school newspaper was the Paw Prints.
Wayne Liken was the principal and Wallace Ginn the assistant principal for the 1962-63 school year, and class sizes were often thirty or more. By the 1968-69 school year the principal was Norman Todd with Raymond Walsh as the assistant principal. Mr. Todd remained principal through the 1971-72 school year. His other assistants were Darrell Mack, ’69–’73; Marguerita Milke, first semester ’71–’72 and Dale Hunter second semester ’71–’72. The enrollment for these years was over 1,000 students in grades seven and eight with about fifty-five faculty and staff. Boys participated in basketball, soccer, and wrestling, and the first girls’ sports team was volleyball during the 1970-71 school year. Other extracurricular activities included the arts, band, chorus, drama, and fine arts, as well as a yearly talent show. Students had clubs for stamp and coin collecting, a pep club, and drill team and served the school through the Red Cross program and as assistants in the library, medical area, and office and as audio-visual aides. The ’72 yearbook describes the typical student at each grade level and the typical teacher.
For the 1972–1976 school years the principal was John Reddington. His first assistant was Darell Mack followed by Nick Speros the next year. For the 1975-76 school year the assistant principal was Hollis Cox. The junior high school had between 750 and 1,000 students in grades seven and eight. In the early seventies, students had a wide variety of extracurricular opportunities available. Club activities at the junior high school included Junior Red Cross, Afro-American club, stamp club, coin club, several crafts clubs, film club, trivia club, typing club, shorthand club, green thumb club, chess club, and a genealogy club. Other organizations were the student council, the yearbook, school newspaper, three levels of band, stage band, and a drama group. The junior high had a “School in the Snow” program where students attended ski school for a week and an Outdoor Education program. The “Yourself in Germany” group planned and participated in overnight trips to various German towns. The school also had an eighth-grade boys’ basketball team that competed against other DoDDS schools, a swim club that went to a local swimming pool each week, and girls’ school based athletic group.
In the eighties, the six grade was added to the school and Wiesbaden Junior High was renamed Wiesbaden American Middle School. In the 1981-82 school year there were 800 students enrolled. For the 1987-88 school year, the staff consisted of thirty-eight full-time teachers, two half-time teachers, two administrators, two counselors, a reading improvement specialist, a special education teacher, a librarian, a nurse, a talented and gifted coordinator, two secretaries, and two clerks. There were 830 students in grades six through eight. The enrollment varied between 1,100 students and 820 during the ’80s. Paul LeBrun was the principal from ’79–’81 followed by David Heath and Patricia Smith. The assistant principals during this time included Dr. Rita O’Keefe (’79–’81), Patricia Smith (’82–’86), Lambert Kroon (’84–2000), Elizabeth Buck (’85–’86), Michael Murray (’86–’87) and Jerry Hood (’88–’89).
The curriculum at the middle school included all the normal classes including three foreign languages. A business enterprise program, WOWS (Work Opportunity Within the School), was part of the middle school exploratory program. JROTC was added in the mid-eighties. Gymnastics was an intermural sport for girls as well as volleyball. Coed sports included horseback riding, skateboarding, and outdoor education activities. The middle schoolers also competed in Math Olympiads and Math Counts. The first Future Business Leaders of American club was formed, and students were trained as peer mediators. New clubs during this time were the computer club and the Metric 500 car race club. The National Junior Honor Society was actively engaged in school service projects.
The 1990s brought several new changes to the school, although the leadership of Ms. Smith and Mr. Kroon continued. During the 1990-91 school year Wiesbaden middle school students participated in their first study trip to Russia. With the drawdown of military personnel in Germany, the middle school enrollment dropped to 535 students in 1993 and by the 1994-95 school year there were only 410 students. The staff consisted of twenty-two teachers, a counselor, two special education teachers, a compensatory education teacher, media specialist, and a behavior management specialist shared with elementary school. Patricia Smith retired after the 1995-96 school years after thirty-one years in DoDDS and twenty-eight of those years at Wiesbaden Middle School — thirteen as an English teacher, four as an assistant principal and eleven as the principal. Mr. Robert Brinton was the principal for one year (1996-97), followed by Dr. Scott Hendrick for two years. Dr. Pete Price became the principal for the last year of the nineties and remained principal through the 2003-04 school year.
Cross country and swimming were added as sports in the nineties. The newspaper became the Wildcat Chronicle. The music program expanded and included a beginning, intermediate, and advanced band as well as a Jazz Band. The school had their first SAVVY Day in the late nineties. This day was in honor of Students Against Violence and Victimization of Youth. Parents and the military community participated in the activities.
New events at the school for the 21st century were Read Across America, Red Ribbon Week, Race for the Cure and S.A.D.D. The school had a flute choir and AVID — Advancement Via Individual Determination — was added to the curriculum. The school instituted student-led conferences to focus on student achievement, empowerment, and accountability. From 2004 to 2008 students dealt with the deployment of their parents to dangerous zones. Deployment support groups were formed to help students deal with the issues and pressures of deployment. During the 2007-08 school year 30% of the eight graders had a parent deployed.
The enrollment for the 2000s ranged from 600 to just over 300 students. Ms. Barbara Hickman became the assistant principal for the 2001-02 school year and remained in this position for three years. The next administrative team was Alexia Venglik, principal, and Ken Younkin, assistant principal.
New student activities and school honors were the theme for the 2010s. A new student program, S2S — Student to Student — was begun the first year of the decade. This program was designed to help new students transition to the school. The school’s swim team were the Tyrolean Division Champs for 2010, 2011, and 2012. During the 2012-13 school year the school had its first STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) family night. Students wore orange to school to Unite Against Bullying. New activities included the Young Astronauts Club and a Glee Club. Outdoor Education activities took place in the forest, the pool, and in the snow. A student reported that the program had great adventures and great trips. New curriculum offerings included computer apps, applied technology, graphics, family consumer science, and Lego League. Most importantly, Wiesbaden Middle School was recognized as a Blue Ribbon and Green Ribbon School during the 2015-16 school year. According to the principal, Susan Hargis, it was the only school to receive both honors in the same year.
Chuck Fannin was the principal for the first two years of the decade (2010–2012) followed by Dr. Susan Hargis (2012–2016). The next principals were Daniel Serfass (2016–2018), Dr. Jacqueline Ferguson (2018–2019) and Dr. William Hill (2019–2020). The assistant principal during this decade was Jeff Pond (2011–2019) followed by Isabel Christian nee White (2019–2025).
The new Wiesbaden Middle school was designed using the DoDEA 21st Century Facility specifications and was the first school in Europe to be completed using this concept. The three class wings are two stories each and have six neighborhoods. Each neighborhood is divided into a variety of learning areas such as learning studios/classrooms, laboratories, and group rooms with associated infrastructure rooms. These rooms and their centers can be spatially linked based on the type of class and its requirements.
The core, or heart, of the school is the multipurpose room, designed as a two-story hall with galleries on the sides. It is located in the physical center of the building. The multipurpose room also functions both as a cafeteria for lunch and as a common area at the beginning of each day for socializing and circulating. The school also has additional rooms for general use and an information center which is on the upper level. Mechanical rooms are located in the basement.
Lauren Tobias was the principal, and Isabel Christian was the assistant principal from 2020 to 2024. There were between 450 and 500 students in grades six through eight during this time. Shawn Knuden became the principal for the 2024-25 school year. The 2020s started with COVID protocols and remote learning. Throughout the years the middle school and high school have worked closely together, which lately was reflected in the programs presented by their combined music events. The JROTC program returned to the school for the 2021-22 school year, and another new offering was robotics.
Information from DoDDS School Information Guides, the school website, school yearbooks and internet resources