Shanghai American School

Shanghai American School (SAS) is an independent international school located in Shanghai, China. Founded in 1912, SAS has two campuses and over 2,800 students enrolled in Pre-K through 12th grade.

The Puxi campus is located in Huacao Town, Minhang District, and the Pudong campus is located in the Shanghai Links Executive Community.

Academics
The school has various signature programs, including Innovation Institute, a two-year interdisciplinary project-based learning program, and Microcampus, a month-long immersion into a small village in China's Yunnan Province. Microcampus and Innovation Institute have both been recognized by hundrED as part of the 100 most innovative education programs in the world.

Both campuses, in Puxi and Pudong, offer Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Diplomas, as well as both programs together to high school students.

Activities
Students at the school engage in over 150 clubs, sports, and other activities, including the National English Honor Society, National Honor Society, Rho Kappa Honor Society, Model United Nations, International Thespian Society, VEX Robotics Competition, and Tri-M Music Honor Society.

SAS is a founding member of Asia Pacific Activities Conference (APAC), which comprises some of the largest international schools in Asia. Through APAC, SAS students participate in a variety of intramural recreations, including badminton, volleyball, band, choir, and theater. The school also co-founded the China Cup and Tri-Cities competitions. SAS students also compete in the China International Schools Sports Association (CISSA) League.

Early Decades
SAS opened on September 17, 1912, with 38 students and a two-building campus in Shanghai's Hongkou District, north of the Bund. The school was founded to serve "the children of American missionaries and other European residents in the East." It quickly established a reputation for academic excellence, and within a decade, the campus had grown to include twelve buildings on or near North Sichuan Road. With the support of the Shanghai-based and overseas American businesses, especially Standard Oil Company, SAS broke ground on a purpose-built campus located amid farmland on the western edge of "Frenchtown" (today's former French Concession).

In 1923, SAS moved to a new campus located on Avenue Petain (now Hengshan Road), whose administration building was modeled after Philadelphia's Independence Hall surrounded by a campus that included a lake and quadrangle reminiscent of historic American colleges. (Parts of the campus remains along Hengshan Road including the Administration Building, headmaster's home, Girl's Dormitory, and Water Tower. Over the next two decades, SAS's fortunes echoed those of Shanghai. SAS enrollment increased until Japanese invaders occupied Shanghai and interned many foreigners, including SAS students and teachers during the Second Sino-Japanese War when the SAS board suspended operations.

Bootleg SAS
During the suspension, SAS teacher Frank "Unk" Cheney determined school must continue. He gathered the remaining faculty, staff, and equipment and continued SAS under a series of different names calling them "Bootleg SAS."

Bootleg SAS operated out of the SAS campus on Hengshan Road, as well as in the International Community Church across the street (still an active church at 53 Hengshan Road). In 1943, Cheney and most of the SAS population were forced into Chapei Civilian Assembly Camp, a Japanese-run internment camp. Still not content to see the school cease operations, Cheney packed thousands of books and brought them to an internment camp so the school could go on. Housed in an open-air shed with rudimentary supplies, the newest iteration of Bootleg SAS nevertheless opened with 222 students. At the end of World War II, the SAS Board of Managers vowed to re-open SAS in the fall of 1946. Unwilling to wait an additional year, Cheney opened yet another Bootleg SAS in the fall of 1945 to serve students until SAS could officially open the following fall.

Post-WWII
At SAS, the period of 1946–49 saw the return of old traditions, sports and arts programs. The school and its campus were even featured in LIFE magazine. But by 1949, with China at the end of the civil war and Shanghai about to be liberated by the Communist Party, the SAS Board of Managers once again made the decision to close the school.

The Rev. Val Sundt, then vice principal, was inspired to invoke the "Spirit of Cheney" and assure the school would once again continue. Sundt founded the final Bootleg SAS in 1949–50, called Private American School. At the conclusion of the school year in May 1950, Sundt closed the school and the remaining SAS teachers and students heeded evacuation warnings from the U.S. State Department and departed Shanghai.

The Re-founding
In January 1980, encouraged by the reformist efforts of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, the U.S. re-established its Consulate in Shanghai. One of the Consulate's first employees, economics advisor Tom Lauer, brought his wife, Linnea, and three children to Shanghai. Recognizing a need to educate the children of Consulate employees, the U.S. State Department asked Lauer to restart Shanghai American School.

SAS re-opened on the U.S. Consulate grounds on Huai Hai Road in September 1980. It remained there until outgrowing the space in 1989.

The Shanghai Girls #3 School agreed to share space with SAS. With a booming foreign population coming into Shanghai, SAS had heavy demand.

Pit Stop Campus Era
By the mid-1990s, SAS had decided to build not one but two purpose-built campuses – one on each side of Shanghai's Huangpu River. Before the campus construction could be completed, the school moved again.

Three temporary campuses were established. In Puxi, a semi-built cultural center in Zhudi Town was reassigned to the school. In Pudong, another cultural center – Huaxia – was selected to be SAS’ first presence on the Pudong side of the Huangpu River. A third temporary campus was founded in the Shanghai Centre on Nanjing Road to serve the youngest SAS attendees, though it soon proved unnecessary and closed after just one semester.

Facilities during this time in SAS history were makeshift at best. The school's swim team held competitions at Shanghai's Holiday Inn, and storefronts across from campus served as classrooms while the school continued making plans for the future. SAS became a co-founder of the region's Asia Pacific Athletic Conference (APAC), in spite of having no athletics facilities at the time.

Modern-day SAS
In 1998, the Pudong campus opened on in the Shanghai Links. In 2000, the Puxi campus opened in Minhang, just off the Shanghai-Changzhou Expressway.

In 2004, seven North Koreans climbed over the perimeter wall of the Puxi campus and, thinking that the school was US government property, attempted to claim asylum. The seven North Koreans were later removed by police.

In 2017, Puxi campus English Teacher James Mikkelson was fired after sexual abuse allegations were sent in by former students. The case was handed to the authorities, and the school advised students to have no further contact with him. Mikkelson had previously been accused of sexual misconduct in Italy. A blog was set up where students and former colleagues shared their experiences about him.