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Inter-American Magnet School
Inter-American Magnet School (IAMS; Spanish: Escuela Inter-Americana) is a K-8 magnet school in Lake View, Chicago, Illinois. The oldest two-way bilingual school in the Midwestern United States, it is a part of Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
Children learn to speak, read and write fluently in Spanish and English. One of few public schools to be founded by parents, the school serves over 650 ethnically and economically diverse preschool through 8th grade students from all over Chicago. The school is affiliated with the International Spanish Academy of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Sciences and is located at 851 West Waveland Ave. Chicago, Illinois.
Inter-American was started by parents who desired a multilingual school for their children. Adela Coronado-Greeley and Janet Nolan cofounded the school and became teachers there. It first opened with only preschool in 1975. The preschool opened in September 1975 in two rooms in the old Bartelme School in Rogers Park where Janet and Addy Tellez were the only teachers. A single bus provided transportation for the students.[citation needed] The school added new grade levels in subsequent years.
At the end of the year, the Board considered dropping the program, but the Parent Advisory Council (PAC), headed by Adela Coronado-Greeley, persuaded the Board members to expand the program instead, and a kindergarten was added for 1976. The next year, the Board extended the program to first grade and, subsequently, a grade was added each year. In 1978, IAMS moved into LeMoyne School, east of Wrigley Field.[citation needed]
Intense lobbying by IAMS parents paid off in 1983, when the school won its own site, in a temporary building in Lakeview. The new location was the home of Robert Morris Elementary School, which had been a Lakeview neighborhood school since the late nineteenth century.[citation needed] In 1983 the school moved into its dedicated campus. While some Morris teachers and students left the school, most remained when IAMS moved in. IAMS graduated its first class of eighth graders in 1985.[citation needed]
In 1985, Eva Helwing was named the first official school principal and served in that role until she retired in 2005. Helwing, born in 1938, was a Hungarian American who had experienced rule under Nazi Germany and began attending American schools at age 13. She was hired despite the fact that at that time she did not know Spanish because of her past experiences living in Nazi Germany as an ethnic minority and learning English as a second language in the U.S.; she knew English, German, and Hungarian. After being hired she learned Spanish and began conducting school business in that language. Helwing died on January 10, 2012, in Niles, Illinois.
In 2000, after much community input, an architecture competition was held and IAMS almost won a brand new building in the Avondale neighborhood. However, promised federal funding never materialized. Instead, six years later, the school moved back to the LeMoyne building, which underwent a $7 million renovation by the Board of Education. The school now provides dual-language, multicultural, literature-based education for over 650 students. The tradition of parental activism continues. Parents are deeply involved in every aspect of school life, from curriculum to transportation, to volunteering in the classrooms.[citation needed]
Familias En La Escuela (FELE) is the evolution of the PAC. FELE is completely free; no dues are required. One of the annual highlights organized by FELE is the Fiesta Cultural, a family-friendly celebration of Latino music, dance, food, arts and culture. FELE is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization; donations to FELE are accepted through Guidestar. Parents, community and staff can connect with each on the IAMScommunity yahoo group (membership is required to view calendar and messages).
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Inter-American Magnet School
Inter-American Magnet School (IAMS; Spanish: Escuela Inter-Americana) is a K-8 magnet school in Lake View, Chicago, Illinois. The oldest two-way bilingual school in the Midwestern United States, it is a part of Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
Children learn to speak, read and write fluently in Spanish and English. One of few public schools to be founded by parents, the school serves over 650 ethnically and economically diverse preschool through 8th grade students from all over Chicago. The school is affiliated with the International Spanish Academy of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Sciences and is located at 851 West Waveland Ave. Chicago, Illinois.
Inter-American was started by parents who desired a multilingual school for their children. Adela Coronado-Greeley and Janet Nolan cofounded the school and became teachers there. It first opened with only preschool in 1975. The preschool opened in September 1975 in two rooms in the old Bartelme School in Rogers Park where Janet and Addy Tellez were the only teachers. A single bus provided transportation for the students.[citation needed] The school added new grade levels in subsequent years.
At the end of the year, the Board considered dropping the program, but the Parent Advisory Council (PAC), headed by Adela Coronado-Greeley, persuaded the Board members to expand the program instead, and a kindergarten was added for 1976. The next year, the Board extended the program to first grade and, subsequently, a grade was added each year. In 1978, IAMS moved into LeMoyne School, east of Wrigley Field.[citation needed]
Intense lobbying by IAMS parents paid off in 1983, when the school won its own site, in a temporary building in Lakeview. The new location was the home of Robert Morris Elementary School, which had been a Lakeview neighborhood school since the late nineteenth century.[citation needed] In 1983 the school moved into its dedicated campus. While some Morris teachers and students left the school, most remained when IAMS moved in. IAMS graduated its first class of eighth graders in 1985.[citation needed]
In 1985, Eva Helwing was named the first official school principal and served in that role until she retired in 2005. Helwing, born in 1938, was a Hungarian American who had experienced rule under Nazi Germany and began attending American schools at age 13. She was hired despite the fact that at that time she did not know Spanish because of her past experiences living in Nazi Germany as an ethnic minority and learning English as a second language in the U.S.; she knew English, German, and Hungarian. After being hired she learned Spanish and began conducting school business in that language. Helwing died on January 10, 2012, in Niles, Illinois.
In 2000, after much community input, an architecture competition was held and IAMS almost won a brand new building in the Avondale neighborhood. However, promised federal funding never materialized. Instead, six years later, the school moved back to the LeMoyne building, which underwent a $7 million renovation by the Board of Education. The school now provides dual-language, multicultural, literature-based education for over 650 students. The tradition of parental activism continues. Parents are deeply involved in every aspect of school life, from curriculum to transportation, to volunteering in the classrooms.[citation needed]
Familias En La Escuela (FELE) is the evolution of the PAC. FELE is completely free; no dues are required. One of the annual highlights organized by FELE is the Fiesta Cultural, a family-friendly celebration of Latino music, dance, food, arts and culture. FELE is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization; donations to FELE are accepted through Guidestar. Parents, community and staff can connect with each on the IAMScommunity yahoo group (membership is required to view calendar and messages).
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