The German International School of Silicon Valley (GISSV) is a private school educating children from preschool to grade 12 using bilingual full immersion. It has sites in Mountain View and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

.Deutsche Schulen und Kindergärten / German Schools and Kindergartens
German Consulate General, San Francisco, 2011-09. Retrieved 2012-01-04. Students graduate the school with both the German International

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

and the California High School Diploma. The school is accredited with the Western Association of Schools ( WASC), as well as the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and by the German government (

Central Agency for German Schools Abroad The German Central Agency for German Schools Abroad (german: Zentralstelle für das Auslandsschulwesen, ZfA) is an agency of the Federal Office of Administration, itself an agency of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, that operates and manages ...

, ZfA) as an official German School Abroad (DAS
Deutsche Auslandsschule
.

History

The German School of Silicon Valley (GSSV) was formed in November 1999 as a spin-out of the German American International School (today

Alto International School Silicon Valley International School, colloquially INTL, (pronounced "international"), is a private grade day school located in Silicon Valley, with two campuses in Palo Alto (formerly International School of the Peninsula, ISTP) and Menlo Park ...

), based in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; ...

. Classes started in February 2000 with 34 students. In July 2000, the school moved to the site of the former Whisman Elementary School in Mountain View. Two years later, the GSSV obtained a 20-year lease with the city of Mountain View. In 2003, the GSSV officially changed its name to German International School of Silicon Valley (GISSV). GISSV opened a Berkeley/East Bay campus* in August 2007, after a parent-led task force identified a number of families interested in German-English bilingual education in the East Bay. In the spring of 2018, the campus separated from GISSV and is operating now as East Bay German International School, a locally managed, independent school.Contact
." East Bay German International School. Retrieved on March 21, 2017. In August 2011 GISSV opened the campus in San Francisco, located in the

Presidio A presidio ( en, jail, fortification) was a fortified base established by the Spanish Empire around between 16th century, 16th and 18th century, 18th centuries in areas in condition of their control or influence. The presidios of Captaincy Genera ...

. This campus started with a Kindergarten class in fall 2011 in one of the typical historic Craftsman buildings. The school grew constantly adding one grade per year, having a full K-8 program in the 2019/20 school year. GISSV added a third building to the campus in the school year 2016/17 but outgrew the location eventually. A new location was found in the

Castro Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''. ...

- starting school operations in August 2020 with a Preschool-8 program.

Locations

* Mountain View (310 Easy Street) * San Francisco (117 Diamond Street - starting Aug 2020) *Former Berkeley/East Bay Campus: GISSV opened a Berkeley campus in August 2007, after a parent-led task force identified a number of families interested in German-English bilingual education in the East Bay. The parents teamed up with the existing GISSV in Mountain View and jointly opened an East Bay/Berkeley campus as an extension of the existing Preschool-12 program. First operating in Kensington, the school moved in 2012 to the historic

Hillside Elementary School Hillside Elementary School is a 50,302 ft2 former public elementary school in the hills of Berkeley, California, at 1581 Le Roy Avenue, bordered by Le Roy Avenue, Buena Vista Way, and La Loma Avenue. It is registered as a List of ...

, which was built as a public school in 1925 in

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

. Because of the cost of seismic and other needed retrofit work, the school was moved from Berkeley to a new location, the former Anna Yates School in

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 12,905 as o ...

, in 2016. In the spring of 2018, its board separated it from GISSV.Berkeley/East Bay
." German International School of Silicon Valley. Retrieved on March 21, 2017. From the 2018/2019 school year, it is operating as East Bay German International School, a locally managed, independent school.

References

{{authority control European-American culture in San Francisco German-American culture in California Private K-12 schools in California Emeryville, California Education in Berkeley, California Mountain View, California Schools in San Francisco German international schools in the United States International schools in California International schools in San Francisco Educational institutions established in 1999 1999 establishments in California