History and Mission
Bethesda International School (BIS) was founded in August of 2001 by Viviana Cruz with the support of a group of parents and teachers who had been associated with a previous program, the Children’s International Workshop, which functioned during the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 school years. BIS offers a Saturday morning school year Spanish Immersion Program for native and near-native speakers. A vacation camp program of service learning and ecotourism in Latin America is open to middle and secondary school students.
The mission of the Bethesda International School is to serve as a linguistic link between the students’ heritage and their studies in their American schools. BIS will fulfill this mission by promoting the use of the target language in the study of themes that the students cover in their weekday schools. Through their active participation, students will increase their understanding of world cultures while improving their competence in the target language. In addition to developing critical thinking skills, our goal is that BIS participants will experience the value of being bilingual in our modern society.
Parents are encouraged to be active participants in the educational process as the weekend school format requires support in the home. Family members also participate on a regular basis by providing classroom support and hallway supervision on Saturdays.
Classes are offered for grades Pre-K through 12 and include preparation for the Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations. Classes meet from 9:00 am to 12:15 noon in the Primary School and 9:00 am to 12:30 pm in the Middle and Upper School on Saturdays from September through June with the academic year parallel to that of Montgomery County, MD Public Schools.