Prior to the establishment of ASD, most expatriates
Americans were based in the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran and attended the
Saudi Aramco Expatriate Schools. Children of US Consulate staff would be remotely educated with educational material sent by courier between schools in the United States and Dhahran. In the early 1960s,
Saudi Aramco agreed to donate a prefabricated hut to house ASD, with a
New Jersey–based
public school teacher being appointed as
headmaster, Robert Preston. With increasing enrollment, additional classrooms were built in 1973. By 1977, enrollment at ASD increased to 1,254 pupils. A sister school, the
Dhahran British Grammar School (now the British School Dhahran) was opened in the same campus. The campus was adjacent to the US Consulate in Dhahran and in close proximity to the
Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran inside the boundaries of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. Until the establishment of high school at Dhahran Academy, most dependent expatriate children of Saudi Aramco went abroad to boarding schools for high school. American School Dhahran now receives significant enrollment from the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp and there are
Aramco-operated buses between the Camp and the school. In 2019, the International Schools Group contracted with Al Rashed Group to build a new, purpose-built campus to house the American School Dhahran and the
British School Dhahran in a more remote area. The new facility is adjacent to the Canary Vista Compound in Al-Aziziyah and is closer to the
King Fahad Causeway that links the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the
Kingdom of Bahrain by land. It is 15 kilometers from the
Half Moon Bay. == See also ==