JEDDAH, 21 May 2004 — The former Saudia-SAIS school — known commonly as the American school — has announced it will reopen in August as a new non-profit legal entity, ending eight months of uncertainty and rumor.
Having bought the assets of the school but kept the US accreditation and the bulk of the staff, it has now received its operating license from the Ministry of Education and opens its doors to students at the beginning of the new academic year on Aug. 28.
The American International School of Jeddah (AISJ) will to all practical purposes be the same school, but after Saudi Arabian Airlines announced that it was closing down the facility, it has been reformed as a new legal entity.
Announcement of the impending closure caused great concern at the end of 2003 as the fate of the 600-plus pupils at the school — around 10 percent of whom were Saudi nationals — hung in the balance as behind-the-scenes negotiations decided the fate of the long-established school.
“Saudi Arabian Airlines sponsored this 52-year-old school from 1985 to the present, and there are over 50,000 students from the school scattered around the globe,” said the president of the AISJ school board, Susan Boyd. “We look forward to continuing this tradition of high quality education in the future.”
Stephen Bennett, the superintendent of the Saudia-SAIS school is clearly delighted with the outcome. “There will be an exciting future for AISJ as more academic options are developed,” he said.
Saudia planned to close the school and decided to withdraw from its role as sponsor because it saw no further need for the school in its operations. It planned to disperse the staff and sell off the school’s assets or retain them in their own training facilities.
The parents approached a senior member of the royal family and asked for assistance in continuing the school’s life under a new name and license.
After protracted negotiations, Saudia has agreed and the school’s future is secure.
The school for at least the next two years will be housed at its present premises in north Jeddah, the terms and conditions already agreed.
At one point in the process, Saudia decided to sell off the school’s assets but an agreement was reached allowing the school to buy the assets as a complete package for a substantial sum.
The new school is still accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools in the US and has recruited 15 more teachers to top up the teaching faculty.
Under Saudi law, a national school run as a not-for-profit organization has to be started by three citizens of the country concerned and must be intended for the education of the citizens of the originating country. Other nationals may attend and, in the case of the AISJ, certainly will.
Dr. Georgene Wade, the school’s assistant superintendent, said that unlike the original school, “we are now an American State Department-sponsored overseas school. With that designation we are eligible for grants and professional development opportunities for teachers and for salaries for American employees.”
Wade paid tribute to the assistance of the US consulate, two of whose staff sat on the school board during the transition period. “The whole community saw the need for our school to continue,” she said, “and there was a tremendous response from businessmen, parents, community leaders and very senior public figures. Without their unstinting free help and influence, we simply could not have succeeded. A number of well-known business families in Jeddah have been incredibly generous in setting up financial and bureaucratic arrangements and making sure all the legal and commercial pitfalls have been avoided.”
“We were delighted when all the many parts of this complex jigsaw fell into place,” said Ron Acuff, one of the two US Consulate members on the board.
Some of the Saudis who have been instrumental in bringing about a successful outcome to a tense period for AISJ do not even have children in the school.
