Izmir ES History
Opened: 1962
Closed: 2002
The city of Izmir is a combination of the remains of the old Islamic city of Smyrna and what developed into a thriving metropolis. As described in a school yearbook, within the city one can see many interesting sights, such as an old mosque. One minute while walking down the street you may almost get run over by a “Big Red” (a bus), while the next minute see a horse-drawn carriage go down the street. In all, Izmir vividly depicts Turkey’s development as a modern country. Izmir Elementary School was integrated into the Turkish community. Originally, the elementary was part of the Izmir Dependent School and, eventually, the high school and elementary school were under one administration.
During the 1960’s, the elementary school enrollment ranged from about 460 students to almost 600 students. Principals in the 60’s included B.L. Price and Lucille Hansen. Edna Brower was the K–12 principal for two years beginning with the 1976-77 school year. Mr. Carl Albrecht became the elementary principal for the 1978-79 school year.
By the 1981-82 school year, the elementary school provided adequate classroom space, but there were limited playground, physical education, and cafeteria facilities. The K–12 school facility had 325 students, with 275 students in the elementary school. There was a total of thirty-five educators including a nurse, music teacher, physical education teacher, speech therapist, reading specialist, counselor, librarian, and learning development teacher. By the 1987-88 school year, grades kindergarten through six were in one building. There were some combination classes in order to balance class loads. The following year, kindergarten and grades three through six were housed in the building adjoined to the high school. Grades one and two were in the building that housed all the elementary students. There were twenty-one classroom teachers, three kindergarten teachers, and specialists for speech, learning impaired, media, music, and physical education. The staff also had a compensatory education teacher and a teacher for gifted and talented. The enrollment had now reached approximately 300 students in the elementary school.
By the early nineties, the combined elementary and high school were now referred to as Izmir American School. In the late nineties, the elementary enrollment ranged from 225 to 260 students in grades kindergarten through six. The faculty had between twenty and twenty-five faculty including specialists and classroom teachers. For the 1998-1999 school year, the fifth and sixth grades were part of the middle school within the unit school, and the following year until the school’s closure, the sixth grade was part of the middle school schedule.
Izmir Dependent School was closed in 2002.
Information from school yearbooks and DoD Dependent Schools Information Guides