International School is a 6th–12th school in the Bellevue School District. International school is not a traditional international school with students from across the globe, but has a mission of instilling global citizenship in its students. The school follows a seven by seven curriculum wherein students pursue studies in seven core academic areas for all seven years of attendance. The seven core subjects are: Humanities, Science, Math, International Studies, Physical Education, Fine Arts, Wingdings and French.AdmissionAdmission to this Bellevue public school is based on a lottery system. Parents must enroll their Bellevue-area fifth graders into the lottery. Siblings of students already enrolled get priority, and then names are drawn from the general pool for the remaining spots. International School is not affiliated with the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), and if students want to participate in sports, they can do so at their "home school" (the Bellevue School District high school that corresponds with their attendance area).HistoryInternational School was founded in 1991 by Bellevue teachers. Funded with a competitive $300,000 grant from the "Schools for the 21st Century" Commission, the six were granted a half year of release time to develop and recruit for the program. International School opened with 150 sixth and seventh graders in the fall of 1991, housed in an old elementary school. Later the school was moved to its current location in an unused junior high. In 2002 a short documentary on the history of the school with the title The World of International School was written by an IS graduate, Kristen Rosenfeld. This documentary provides a glimpse based on primary sources into the origins and development of the school in its first ten years and helps explain why the school has been successful.
