Brussels American School (BAS) was opened in October 1967.[1] It is located near Brussels, Belgium on a 17-acre (69,000 m2) area in Sterrebeek, part of the municipality of Zaventem. The school serves as a DoDDS private school for all US military or diplomatic dependents. It celebrated its fortieth anniversary in late 2007. It also takes many European students from Partnership for Peace (PfP) countries of NATO, to include Macedonia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan,Albania etc. Its proximity to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) helps serve as an excellent opportunity for American children to enroll in a school taught to familiarize them with the American school system.
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Its mission statement is stated as such,[1]
Student-teacher ratio at the secondary level is quite low, providing for a higher level of student-teacher interaction, and the school's academic standards are high.
The school has thirty-six faculty members, many of whom have been at Brussels American School for more than fourteen years. The student body holds, on average, three hundred students K-12, and approximately one hundred students in its high school. With so few students, BAS changed from Division Three to Division Four in the year 2006. In the year 2009-2010 the DODDSE schools combined Divisions 3 and 4; therefore, making Brussels American School division 3 again. Of all the DoDDS schools, Brussels American School holds the highest percentage of students who graduate, highest average AP & SAT scores, and highest acceptance rate to the Service Academies. A prime example of this is the AP Chemistry class of 2009, where seven of the eight students achieved fives on the AP exam.
The school's mascot is a Brigand, which is defined as a land pirate. Brussels American School has nine active sports for the High School student body, which normally includes less than 100 students. Tennis, Cross-Country, Girls Volleyball, Football, Wrestling, Boys and Girls Basketball, Boys & Girls Soccer, Cheerleading, and Track and Field are all offered. Being a DoDDSE Division III school, BAS is naturally less likely to overcome the competition of the many larger DODDS-E schools, but its student athletes still manage to compete aggressively—particularly against Division III foes. For instance, the Men's Cross Country team has not lost a championship in six years, and the Tennis team, despite its size, is able to routinely challenge more established adversaries. In 2010, the BAS soccer team defeated one of their primary rivals AFNORTH for the first time in over half a decade; however, the football team has only won one game in the past four years and has not been to the playoffs during this time. The girls Basketball and Soccer teams each recently had three year title streaks, and the girls Volleyball team has won three championships in four years.