Bowling Green English immersion school opens August for ESL immigrants; looking for teachers

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Bowling Green Independent Schools are teaming up with Fugees Family, Inc. with a vision to open a school specifically for English learning immigrants.

Starting in the fall, the Teranga Academy will support teenagers and families who have been in the United States for three years or less. 

Currently 80 students are eligible to enroll in Teranga Academy’s in competency-based English immersion education this August, However, school expects to enroll more students each day. 

This program is also for students who have had limited or interrupted education, so the program will be a way for them to catch up and feel prepared for high school.

‘We are all just thrilled,” said BGISD Director of Instructional Programs Elisa Brown. “It gets us up in the morning. It is a very exciting opportunity for our students, so we can just not say how happy we are so have this opportunity with the Fugees family.”

“It’s just a perfect fit, ” agreed Fugees Family, Inc. CEO Luma Mufleh. “When we compared it to the other schools we visited, everybody was just authentic and transparent about what needed to be done. It was going to be a partnership, not who is just going to be doing it.”

Brown says that as time passes, she expect to see Ukrainian refugees enroll in the school. 

“It allows us to meet the population of students where they are and get them the skills that they’ll be able to use for success even ask after high school,” Brown said. “It just makes our community a better place when everybody has this opportunity to learn and excel at what they’re good at.”

The new school will be built onto the Bowling Green Learning Center on Old Morgantown Road.

The school is still looking to fill its new teaching positions. Click here to apply.