Billings Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Chris Olszewski presented an overview of the Billings Multilingual Academy to families one night this June in a breakout room for Spanish speakers.
“The BMA aims to support multilingual students,” he said with the help of a remote Spanish translator. “And we want to recognize the students as well as their families as assets to our community.”
The Multilingual Academy is one of three charter schools scheduled to open next month. The others are the Billings Early College School, which will award both an associate’s degree and a high school degree, and the Billings Opportunity School, which will provide vocational classes in computers and technology.
Attendees at the Multilingual school information session include Oscar Mendoza, who works for a multinational technology company and whose family joined him from Peru last year.
He said he likes the idea of schools that provide a lot of support and where you can see that the teachers care. He said that’s what he wants for his entire family, the adults as much as the kids.
Now it’s two months later and the Billings schools district says all three of its charter schools have enough students to open.
Sixty students are registered for the Billings Early College School and the Billings Opportunity School. Thirty-five students are enrolled in the multilingual school, 15 students over the minimum the district had been aiming for.
“We are ready,” Superintendent Erwin Garcia said on Monday, just a few weeks before school is set to open. “Classrooms are ready and enrollment is still ongoing.”
School kicks off in the district after Labor Day on September 3 and 4.
