Soesterberg HS History
Opened: 1981
Closed: 1994
Soesterburg American Elementary/High School was located at Camp New Amsterdam approximately forty miles from Amsterdam and seven miles from Utrecht. A single school facility housed all the classrooms, grades K–12, as well as a gym, multi-purpose room, Learning Resource Center, viewing room, offices, and conference rooms. The two schools shared the same facilities. For the 1981-82 school year there were 640 students between the two schools with a faculty of thirty-six.
Soesterburg High School was completed in 1981 although some sections of the school were older. The facility included classrooms, media center, multipurpose room, offices, gymnasium, and conference areas. School specialist included counselor, special education teacher, librarian, and host nation teachers.
The school mascot was the Falcon, the newspaper was the Falcon Flyer, and the school colors were orange and black. One yearbook mentioned the red lockers at the school.
The administrators for the 1989-90 school year were Dr. Paul Ristow, principal, and Noel Senecal, vice principal. Dr. Juliana Cordone was the principal for the final year of the school, 1994-95. The school staff was approximately thirty, and five staff members were at the school from the beginning to the closure. The enrollment for grades seven through twelve was about 200 students. Students from Volkel and Coevorden traveled one-and-a-half to two hours by bus each day to attend the high school.
Arts at the school included a band, chorus, orchestra, marching band, keyboards, Speech/Drama, and an Art Club. Other student activities were Journalism, Model United Nations, Student Council, Future Business Leaders of America, National Honor Society, Foreign Language Club, and an Industrial Arts Club.
The small high school had a full complement of sports including football, men’s and women’s basketball, boys’ soccer and coed teams for cross country, tennis, and track and field.
Students participated in many field trips and intercultural events. One intercultural event was Sports Day with a local Dutch school. Dutch and American students formed mixed country teams to compete in several different sports. During the last two years, the middle school students attend an annual Adventure Week.
Information from DoDDS School Information Guides, school yearbooks, websites, and alumnus Kimball Medders