New grades, programs planned for Missoula International School. Multi-language capability key to future business success

The Missoula International School has already gone from cinco to seis. Now it’s moving up to siete, and soon ocho.

As the Spanish-language immersion school celebrates its 10th year of operation, its leaders say the demand for middle-school classes has reached the action point. Starting next year, it will enroll seventh-graders, and eighth grade the year after that.

“Sixth grade is a hard year to transfer from a school like ours,” said Julie Lennox, head of the school. “Some of our fifth-graders are very close to being bilingual. Knowing we have these kids who would be impacted next year, we called together our advisory board and studied the different reasons for going to a middle school. We studied what a perfect middle school would look like. In the end, it really did make sense for the sustainable future of our school.”

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2006/02/24/news/local/news02.txt

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