St. Louis Language Immersion Schools

St. Louis Language Immersion Schools (SLLIS) is a non-profit organization founded in 2007 to develop and operate a network of charter schools in St. Louis, MO. In 2009, SLLIS opened The French School and The Spanish School with classes of kindergarten and first grade. Each school will grow one grade per year until SLLIS operates a full K-12 network of total immersion schools with the International Baccalaureate curricular framework.

Mission: SLLIS provides a bilingual, culturally responsive, transformational education that enriches the children of St. Louis City.

Purpose: To dismantle systems of oppression by creating a just, equitable and inclusive school, St. Louis community, and world.

Values: 

• Provide an accessible and rigorous bilingual education.
• Listen to and engage all voices.
• Commit to equity, anti-racism, and cultural competency.
• Reflect on and respond to data throughout the school community.
• Celebrate mission moments, both big and small.

In 2007, Rhonda Broussard founded St. Louis Language Immersion School (SLLIS), a federal non-profit charter management organization funded primarily by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and guided by a agreement with SLLIS’ primary sponsor, the University of Missouri-St. Louis.



Under Broussard’s leadership, The French School and The Spanish School opened in 2009 for kindergarten through fifth grade. The Chinese School, also serving K-5, opened in 2012. The International School, for sixth through eighth grade students receiving a bilingual education in French or Spanish, opened in 2014.

In January 2017, the Board of Directors voted to reconfigure the four schools into one K-8 school, running three different language immersions programs in Chinese, French and Spanish. SLLIS operated on various campuses for many years.

In February 2018, the SLLIS Board of Directors adopted the Gomez and Gomez Dual Language Enrichment Model, further structuring how SLLIS goes about  immersion instruction. 

In December 2018, the SLLIS Board of Directors purchased SLLIS' current facility at 1881 Pine Street, and all SLLIS programs moved to this location.