History+of+AISK



The American International School of Kingston (AISK) is a private co-educational day school catering to students from pre-school to grade 12 located in Kingston, Jamaica. The enrollment has averaged for the past two years at approximately 270 students. The student – teacher ratio stands at about 9 to 1. Twenty-six nationalities are represented in the student population. We are a small, transient, international school, which uses American curricula.

AISK was founded in 1994 in order to meet the educational needs of the international community in Kingston, Jamaica. Although, Jamaica is an English-speaking island, the style of education and the preparation of the educators are dramatically different from that in the United States. As such, there was a need to prepare students for a tertiary education in the United States and indeed the rest of the world.

Although at a quick glance, AISK appears to be on stable footing, our challenge has been the transient nature of the stakeholders. After the school opened its doors in 1994, the school focused on the traditional aspects of the entrepreneurial stage. (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2009) We catered to a very select, international group of parents and students that did not understand the traditional ways of the Jamaican educational system and needed to ensure that their children could transition into schools in Europe and the United States alike. It was a very ideological time where there was one manager who was not afraid to get dirty and took active roles in the day –to- day running of the school.

Ms. Anna Wallace, the current Elementary Principal, and I joined the school as it entered the collectivity stage. (Hitt, Miller & Coella, 2009) Still ideological, we sat in a round table at faculty meetings, collaborated for long hours and were all highly committed to the success of our students and ultimately our school. We began hiring an American Head of School and the school began to grow. Ms. Wallace recalls the long hours spent on developing the culture of the school. As the school grew, the culture changed organically and many fought to refocus on our historic goals.

The most painful part of the life cycle process (Hitt, Miller & Coella, 2009) has been the formalization and control stage. We were pushed into this stage by some powerful pressures. The internal pressures were a result of the school’s finances. We were surprised to find that the school was in financial crisis and that immediate restructuring was necessary in order for the school to remain open. The external pressure emanated from the notice from the United States Embassy that we would no longer be able to use their land to house our school. The school could scarcely pay its current bills and now we needed to purchase a new school. We believed the school would close if the US Embassy did not come to the rescue. Instead, the Board of Directors hired a new Director with business savvy and little time for collaboration or even collegial respect.

The faculty that had previously worked with such enthusiasm and vigor, left immediately and the new hires could not relate to the initial vision of the school. There was a ‘disconnect ‘ between the growing administration and the teachers, particularly those that had been there for several years. The admissions process became lax as we let all students in without regard to our ability to accommodate their needs. Cash was golden, not the quality of the education we were providing. Still, external pressures from an affluent parent group interested in understanding why our product was “better” than the others, forced us to at least on the surface formalize. We hired a curriculum coordinator and began working on curricular development. New accountants and foreign teachers were hired and the processes began to be documented formally. We went through the school accreditation process and became earned our accreditation with several serious recommendations. The school’s finances were restored and with the help of the US Embassy and a very active Board of Directors and parent group, the school procured a beautiful new custom built facility. We have somehow emerged from this stage and have started to transition into the more comfortable elaboration stage.