American Community Schools
| American Community Schools of Athens | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
|
129 Odos Aghia Paraskevi Chalandri Greece |
|
| Information | |
| Established | 1945 |
| School district | Halandri |
| President | Stefanos Gialamas |
| Grades | JK–12 |
| Number of students | 800+ |
| Color(s) | Blue and gold |
| Accreditation | Middle States Assoc. of Colleges and Schools, International Baccalaureate |
| Newspaper | The Blue and Gold |
| Yearbook | Hermes |
| Website | ACS Athens website |
ACS Athens – American Community Schools of Athens is a private school offering international JK–12 education to local, national and international students in Greece. ACS Athens embraces American educational philosophy, principles and values.
It is located in Chalandri in the Athens area.
In 1946, the British Army School was established in several homes in the Glyfada area of Athens to educate the children of British military personnel who were stationed in Greece at the close of the Second World War. The history of ACS Athens begins here; for shortly after its inauguration, the school began to admit British and American civilians. In 1949, many more American children arrived in Greece, and a high school was opened for them in Kolonaki. Also established was an elementary school, in Psychico, which was later moved to a facility in Filothei. The British Army School had metamorphosed into the Anglo-American school.
The first yearbook of the new school, The Evzone, published in 1952, highlights the accomplishments of a graduating class of six seniors who had graduated from a school that now occupied a rented villa in Kifissia. This house, complete with towers and turrets, served as the school's home until 1961. The same yearbook also documents the activities of Junior School students in a facility in Kalamaki, which would serve as the home of the Junior School until its operations were transferred to a building on the American base later in the decade following an airplane accident.
The 1954–55 school year marked another milestone in the history of the school. Chartered in the state of Delaware as a private, non-profit educational institution for the children of American diplomatic and military personnel, the Anglo-American School became the American Community Schools of Athens. From its inception, the school received no official subsidies, and its operations were funded by tuition fees. In December 1960, the ACS Athens School Board obtained funds under Public Law 480 to purchase land in Halandri, then a sleepy farming area, and began construction of a new school facility. The Class of 1962 was the first to graduate from the new facility.
The 1962 Evzone contains the following paragraph: "This year's graduating class is the first to hold commencement exercises at the new American Academy located in the suburb of Halandri, approximately seven miles from the center of Athens. They were among 380 students who proudly took possession of the new building last September . Two-storied, containing twelve modern classrooms, two science laboratories, a library and a study hall, the building replaced an ancient villa in Kifissia on Tatoi Road which overflowed into four very unscholarly army huts. In the rear of our new school is a spacious playground area...By late spring of 1962, it appears that a new junior school will be erected on our present grounds, plus a gymnasium and an auditorium."
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Wikipedia