It opened in 1952 as the Parent Cooperative School, with an initial class of 40 students. The school opened to serve children of Trans World Airlines employees brought to Saudi Arabia to establish Saudia Airlines, as well as other children. The lack of a formal American curriculum school in Jeddah was an issue TWA employees faced because they needed schools for their children. Parents then formed the Parents Cooperative School, in which they volunteered to teach students using a home school curriculum. When the expatriate community kept expanding with time, the school began to notice a rapid growth, and therefore built a new facility in 1968, and again in 1975. In 1976, the North Campus was built in order to accommodate the rising number of students. By 1985 the school changed its name to Saudi Arabian International School , and by the year 2000–2001, it had its first 12th grade graduation, becoming the first international school in Jeddah that had a diploma program. Until 2004, the school was under the direct auspices and sponsorship of Saudia Airlines, children whose parents are expatriate workers for Saudia Airlines such as pilots and engineers go to school at SAIS where mostly live in Saudia City, Khaledeyah district, as the housing compound of Saudia Airlines expatriates. After 2004, The school changed its name once again to the American International School of Jeddah after Saudia officially announced that they would no longer continue their sponsorship of the school, due to their need to focus solely on the airline business. Since 2005, the school has been run as an independent not-for-profit entity.
Accreditation and affiliations
As of 2016, the school is accredited and/or in partnership with the following associations:
The school has various buildings, one each for the Elementary and Middle schools, and three for the High School. All buildings contain their respective room's classrooms. In addition, the Elementary Building contains the School Library, Multi-Media Rooms, Music/Choir Rooms, and the Large Gymnasium. The Middle School contains a Computer Lab and an Art Studio. One of the High School buildings has three fully equipped classrooms for Art, Computer Science, and Health instruction. In addition, other facilities include:
A second, smaller gym, containing a basketball court and sporting supplies for low-organizational games
A school cafeteria offering both indoor and shaded outdoor seating areas
New campus
A new campus, designed by Zuhair Fayez Partnership, is scheduled to open in school year 2018–2019. The announcement and groundbreaking occurred in 2014; Anne Casper, the American consul general in Jeddah, attended the ceremony.
