French Language Program

The Mercer Island School District is introducing a French language program at Islander Middle School in the 2025-26 school year for fifth through eighth graders who have had previous exposure to the language at home or at a French language immersion school.

The program will take place two days a week from 7:30am to 8:20am prior to the start of school at IMS, which is at 8:25am. The two days a week the program will take place will be determined closer to the start of the 2025-26 school year.

The curriculum for the program will be taught by MIHS French teacher Sabine Friedman and we estimate there would be roughly 60 sessions over the course of the school year. This program would be in addition to the seventh and eighth grade French language classes currently taught at IMS. This program is not for beginning French language speakers.

This new program does have a cost to families that want to take part. The District estimates the cost of the program to be from $6,000 to $6,500 for the full school year. This cost for the program would have to be paid for collectively by the families taking part. This means if 10 students were to enroll the cost would be $600 to $650 a family for the full school year. If 15 families were to enroll the cost would then be $400 to $433 per family for the full school year. And if there were more than 15 families, then the $6,000 total cost would be divided by the number of families over 15, which would lower the cost a bit more.

Families interested in this before school program should contact IMS registrar Marcy Berejka at marcy.berejka@mercerislandshools.org to see if their student qualifies for the program.

Note: This page will be updated as more information on the program becomes available, specifically which two days of the week it will take place.