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Matthew C. Perry Elementary School is named in honor
of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, United States Navy. In 1853,
Japan was a country that had been closed to outsiders since the 17th
century, and Commodore Perry was sent on a mission to reopen trade routes.
On July 8, 1853, he led a squadron of four ships into Tokyo Bay and presented
representatives of the emperor with the text of a proposed commercial
and friendship treaty. The treaty was accepted on March 31, 1854, opening
the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to U.S. trade.
In September 1955, the United States Army established
the American Dependents School in Iwakuni, and our school operated under
this name until 1957, when the U. S. Navy established a Naval Air Station
and officially renamed the school Matthew C. Perry School. In 1958,
the air station reverted to the U. S. Marine Corps, and the school retained
its name under the new command. In 1984, the elementary and high schools
were combined into a single unit school, but by 1987, the schools were
separated once again, with approximately 750 students now presently enrolled
between the two schools.
Matthew C. Perry Elementary School includes kindergarten
through 6th grade with approximately 500 students and a faculty and staff
of over 40 educators. The school provides a general education curriculum
much like any public elementary school in the United States, and also
offers Sure Start classes for preschoolers. In addition to self-contained
classrooms, we have team teaching in several grades, as well as multi-age
classes.
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