DoDEA: DoDDS-P/DDESS-G Directors Message 01/09/07

A Message from the Director: DoDDS 60th Anniversary
The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDDS) officially marks its 60th Anniversary in the overseas areas during the 2006/2007 School Year. What can we be proud of as we celebrate this important anniversary? Because of the dedication of our teachers and administrative support team, we provide quality education to the 24,000 plus students enrolled in our 45 schools across Guam, Japan, Korea, and Okinawa. We can be proud of 60 years… supporting America’s military families. As educators, we have learned from past conflicts and deployments that schools are one of the most important quality of life factors affecting military readiness and success. When military service members have confidence in
our ability to take care of their children, they are better able to fulfill their mission. Our schools continue operating in a normal fashion, ensuring the safety of our students in a stable and supportive environment. We can also be proud of providing quality education for our students for 60 years. Our students consistently score very well on standardized tests as compared to their stateside counterparts. Our students also continue to do well after they leave our school system. We have DoDEA Alumni who have become world famous celebrities, athletes, captains of industry, senior ranking military officers, teachers, artists, and most importantly, successful family members in a global economy. The students who attend our schools will be the future policy makers, doctors, teachers, engineers, and community members that reach out and make a difference. What will the next 60 years be like for our system? Our principals and teachers have the potential to impact the course of our organization through the work they do with students, parents, and community members. The most important component of our success for the next 60 years is the people who make up the DoDDS-Pacific/DDESS-Guam schools – our administrators, teachers, curriculum specialists, contractors, parents, and volunteers who provide our students with the best educational opportunities both inside and outside the classroom. You all are my heroes! For those of you new to our organization you may find the following information of interest.
		DoDDS was established following World War II. At the end of the war, there was no precedent to follow for establishing and operating dependents schools in foreign occupied countries – quite often, parents organized small schools. In the Pacific the first schools that were opened were the Meguro School and the Johnson Army Air Base School located in the Tokyo area. The first schools were privately supported through carnivals and benefit drives conducted by the local school board authorities. Tuition fees were assessed with Enlisted Men paying $2.00 and Officers paying $4.00 per month. Most of the teachers were dependent wives.
All of these schools came under the operational control of the 8th Army Troop Information and Education Section and were under the overall supervision of General MacArthur. The director of all dependents schools in the Pacific and the man most instrumental in their development was Dr. Robert Patin, a former superintendent of Ohio. The oldest school continuously in existence since 1946 is the Yokota Elementary School. Housing for the early schools varied greatly. Many were located in Quonset huts, but the Bluff School in Yokohama was located in a Japanese Girls Commercial School and the Nagoya School was temporarily located in Nagoya Public Hall and later in the Mitsui Bussan Building. Still later, the Matthew C. Perry School at Iwaukuni inherited the most interesting assortment of buildings, to include a commissary, a chapel, and an Officer’s Club Snack Bar Annex, left over by an Australian contingent of the Occupied Forces. A few of the first schools in Japan operated under policies and procedures of the State of California; others were established under the methods prescribed by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. In 1950, Dr. Patin announced that all 12 Far East Command High Schools in Japan, Okinawa, and the Philippines had received NCA accreditation. This was a major step forward. Dr. Patin was the first Far East representative of the NCA, and we continue to maintain a very close relationship with NCA today.
The schools in Japan operated under the local common tri-service superintendent system until 1964, when the worldwide dependents schools operation came under control of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower. The first Area Office was established in 1964. Under the Area Director school districts were established in 1964, with district superintendents assigned who reported directly to the Area Director. Japan and Korea were initially combined as District 1 and Okinawa was established as District II in 1965. In 1966 the schools in Korea became a separate district; however, the schools returned to District 1 again in 1971.
During the 1960s and 1970s, worldwide enrollment in DoDDS averaged 160,000. In 1976 a Joint House-Senate Conference Committee Report informed the three military departments that the Department of Defense was taking over the operation of the military dependents schools. A newly-established office in the Pentagon – the Office of Overseas Dependents Education, responsible to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Reserve Affairs – took oversight of the schools. In 1979, the Office of Overseas Dependents Education became the Department of Defense Dependent Schools. The three geographic areas (Europe, Atlantic, and Pacific) were reconfigured into six geographic regions (Atlantic, Germany North, Germany South, Mediterranean, Panama, and Pacific); each with a Regional Director and several district superintendents. In the early 1980s the Germany North and Germany South regions were combined into a single Germany region. Following the end of the Cold War, the number of DoDDS schools in Europe was reduced and DoDDS combined with the U.S.-based Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS) to form the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA). Today, DoDEA operates more than 218 public schools in 14 districts located in seven U.S. states, Puerto Rico, Guam and 12 foreign countries to serve the children of military service members and Department of Defense civilian employees. All schools within DoDEA are fully accredited by U.S. accreditation agencies. Some 90,000 students are enrolled in DoDEA schools, with approximately 63,000 students in the DoDDS system and approximately 25,000 students in the DDESS system. DoDDS employs approximately 6,200 instructional personnel, and DDESS employs approximately 2,900. Finally then, as you go forward remember what William Butler Yeats said, that “education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” I hope this winter break was enough time to recharge your own fire for the work that lies ahead of you. To our organization, and the next 60 years, let us never lose sight of our rich history and remain committed to the children and military families we serve. Nancy C. Bresell Director, DoDDS-Pacific/DDESS-Guam