[4] The preschool opened in September 1975 in two rooms in the old Bartelme School in Rogers Park where Janet and Addy Tellez were the only teachers.

[citation needed] Intense lobbying by IAMS parents paid off in 1983, when the school won its own site, in a temporary building in Lakeview.

[6] In 2000, after much community input, an architecture competition was held and IAMS almost won a brand new building in the Avondale neighborhood.

Instead, six years later, the school moved back to the LeMoyne building, which underwent a $7 million renovation by the Board of Education.

Parents, community and staff can connect with each on the IAMScommunity yahoo group (membership is required to view calendar and messages).

The more parents, staff and community members that participate in the running of the school, the stronger the collective voice to advocate for the best education for children.

Long considered a national model of successful dual-language instruction, Inter-American School, its teachers and administrators have been honored and profiled throughout the years.

While today there is more awareness of the economic and cognitive benefits of bilingualism and biliteracy, sustainable dual-language programs are not the norm.

Parents, staff and community are working very hard to ensure the future sustainability of the program in its present location.

Members of the IAMS team continue to lobby for the resources and capacity to support and rebuild one of Chicago Public School's finest and most innovative programs.

It replaced a sod and concrete athletic field, and its opening allowed the school to conduct physical education classes outside.

[4] The school, as of that year, aimed to have 60% of its students be Hispanic or Latino in order to maintain language interaction and to comply with desegregation laws passed by the U.S. federal government; the lottery takes into account gender and ethnicity.

Barbara V. Kirk Sesenac wrote in the Bilingual Research Journal that the school's income and racial demographics were "relatively stable.

64% of the bilingual staff members were Hispanic and Latino; their origins included Mexican, Cuban, Peruvian, and Puerto Rican backgrounds.