Primary school opportunities for the children of faculty, staff, and laborers at the Panamerican Agricultural School (EAP) in Zamorano began in the fifties with a small Spanish school located within the campus. In recognition of the contributions of Doris Zemurray Stone, supporter of the EAP and board member, the school was named after her daughter Alison Bixby Stone.
During this period of time, the school serviced it’s students with teachers hired from the surrounding countryside. All classes were taught in Spanish. During the 1992 school year, a group of EAP parents took the initiative of starting a bilingual nursery for four students in one of the homes on campus. The parents hired a local Kindergarten teacher with their own resources. In 1994 parents with school age children decided to merge the existing Alison Bixby Stone School with their home-schooled bilingual nursery. The English language was then introduced as the official language within the classroom. During the 2000-2001 academic year, ABSS graduated its first class of sixth graders.
Parallel to this, EAP in accordance with their social mission developed and instituted a sliding scale in order to help Zamorano employees defray schooling costs for their children.
This measure gave workers access to high-quality educational opportunities for their children that would not have been possible for them otherwise. The population of the school began to include not only children of Zamorano employees but also of the surrounding communities of Danli, Jicarito and Tegucigalpa. Teacher student ration was set at no higher than eighteen students per teacher and sometimes as low as ten.
Purdue University began its relationship with the ABSS in 1994. An educational team from Purdue helped the ABSS Parent Board and its teachers develop basic curriculum outlines in order to meet the needs of its students.
