BAHRAIN, 17 August 2004 — The doubt and controversy surrounding the reopening of the Bahrain School in Juffair, run by the US Department of Defense Educational Activity (DODEA), has ended as the school reopened yesterday for administrative purposes.
Board member of the Bahrain International Schools Association (BISA) Dr. Dhafer Alumran said the school principal and most staff had returned to Bahrain and they would be ready to receive parents and students who need assistance in finishing admission formalities or testing that may be required.
“We’re also pleased to announce that the school will be operated by DODEA to whom BISA has leased the facility,” Alumran said, adding the school will formally open for the new academic year (2004-05) on Aug. 31.
“The decision to keep Bahrain School open had been taken at the very highest levels of government in both Bahrain and the United States, and this reinforces the historic, special relationship between the two countries,” he said.
BISA leased the school’s Juffair grounds and the buildings to the US Navy, which is supposed to operate the school until September 2007. However, the temporary relocation of over 1,000 US military dependents and non-essential DoD staff — including teachers at the school — had put its future in doubt.
A US Navy order on July 1 to withdraw all teachers at Bahrain School had left a summer tempest in its wake. The move raised questions within the influential offshore financial community here over Gulf security and US military policies.
Bahrain School caters primarily for the children of the international community. Its dormitory mostly has children of Saudi Aramco’s medical staff.
The tempest began on July 1 when about 950 US military dependents were ordered to leave on “temporary relocation” to the United States. These included 350 children at the school, who were told to enroll at schools in the US in August and September. The reasons for the move remain unclear.
Then, on July 5, another 400 students from about 30 countries, mostly American civilians and Bahrainis, were left in limbo when all teachers at the 36-year-old school were ordered — in the midst of their vacations — not to return to Bahrain.
Now many in the key financial, trading and professional families were sent scurrying to find schools elsewhere, causing a second body blow to the local economy. Alternative schools are hard to find in mid-August.
Hurried meetings of the Bahrain School board with representatives of the US Embassy and the commander of the naval base on July 10 and 22 could not find solutions to soothe the concerns of irate parents and teachers.
Bahrain’s Crown Prince Sheikh Salman ibn Hamad ibn Isa Al-Khalifa, an alumnus of Bahrain School, went to Washington on July 19-21 where he met with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. The visit seems to have made a positive impact.
The president of the teachers’ union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, said everything would hinge on meetings of US Deputy Under Secretaries of Defense Charles Abell and John Molino, and the director of the DODEA worldwide, Dr. Joseph Tafoya. All are based in Washington.
The non-military “tuition students” are to pay $17,000 on average for 2004-2005. This tuition is considered “full cost recovery” and enrollment occurs on a “space available basis.” The US military dependents’ costs, amounting to over $1.3 billion in 2002, are part of the Pentagon’s budget.
Tuition parents in Bahrain have several complaints that they say they can’t resolve with DODEA. For example, they say they are charged about $700 per year for busing to school, but their children are forbidden from riding the buses. They are charged another $700 as processing fees for the two tuition checks per year. They also complain of duplicate charges paid through a Bahrain School “building levy” which they pay on top of tuition allocations for capital building expenses, maintenance and school lease fees.
One parent estimates that Bahrain School nets the US Treasury $2 million per year in excess payments from tuitions, and another $2 million in income taxes paid by the teachers. Over the years, the DODEA and Navy managements have denied these tuition parent complaints.
This summer storm now has a happier ending. The under secretaries of defense, meeting on Aug. 4 and 11 with the DODEA management, have agreed to reopen the school that was never closed. The State Department, on Aug. 14, rescinded its July 2 travel advisory against going to Bahrain. The teachers are returning, even though burdened with difficult airline reservations. They are still under orders to leave their families behind. Finally, most parents and students either never realized their school almost closed, or they haven’t yet heard that it is reopening.
— Additional input by Mazen Mahdi
