Cliff Buchan
News Editor

A huge check and a pep talk from a federal education official were the perfect send-offs for the final day of school last Thursday at Lakes International Language Academy.

Thanks to a federal grant that will pump in more than $800,000 over three years, the charter public Spanish immersion school in Forest Lake will add a Chinese Mandarin language option for students.

Kristine Cohn, the top official in the U.S. Department of Education’s Region V, came from Chicago to Forest Lake on June 7 to officially announce the awarding of a grant worth $264,946 in funding for the first year.

The charter school was a finalist for the grant a year ago, Principal Cam Hedlund said, and rose to the funding level in the second round of funding.

Grants from the Federal Foreign Language Assistance Program establish, improve or expand innovative foreign language programs for elementary and secondary school students to help increase the number of Americans learning for language critical to national security and commerce.

Cohn, in speaking to a gymnasium packed with well over 300 kids on the final day of the year, said it was important for today’s youth to learn more than one language. Instead of being bi-lingual (English and Spanish), the grant would help students establish a third language, Chinese Mandarin.

“It is what we need now,” Cohn said of citizens who are multi-lingual.

At the conclusion of the program, Cohn also gave kudos to the staff, administrator and board at LILA for its work to secure the grant. “There was a lot of competition for the dollars out there,” she said.

In speaking to the school officials, Cohn praised the local effort. “Revel in your celebration,” she said. “Revel in the fact you are doing such a good job.”

Lakes International plans to use the funding to enhance its existing Spanish immersion program and add the Chinese Mandarin option.

Hedlund said the focus of the Chinese Mandarin option would have its first impact at the kindergarten level this fall where students would have a double immersion exposure to Spanish and Chinese.

Lakes International continues to grow. The school had 360 students this year and will send its first group of seventh-graders to an ISD 831 junior high building where a cooperative agreement is in place to allow for additional Spanish instruction.

The school expects to enroll 440 students in 2007-2008 and will cap enrollment at around 600 students in three or four years at its school which is the remodeled and expanded Memorial Hospital building.

Cohn is the U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ top official in Region V comprised of Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.

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