A current parent on why the International School of Denver became more than a school for her family. By Annie Furlong

"We came to ISDenver for Spanish. We have stayed for the teachers who know our daughters, the friends we did not expect to make, and a community that has made our family's life genuinely better."

When we started touring early childhood programs for our oldest daughter, we were not looking for a K-12 school. We were looking for a good place for a three-year-old. Like most parents at that stage, we were comparing daycares and preschools, thinking about the next year or two, and assuming the bigger decisions were still a long way off.

Then we found ISDenver, and Spanish immersion changed the calculation.

Fluency in a second language was something my husband and I wanted for our kids, and we knew the window when it comes easily is early. The chance to give them that from the very beginning was too good to pass up. What we did not expect was that a preschool decision would turn into a four-year relationship, with our second daughter now starting here too.

What we noticed once we were inside

The immersion was the draw. It is not what has kept us.

What we saw at ISDenver, and did not see elsewhere, was that language is the entry point rather than the whole point. There is real cultural depth behind it, and a global mindset woven into how the kids learn to think about the world. Our daughters are not just learning Spanish words. They are learning that there are many ways to be a person.

We were also struck by how much support surrounds every kind of learner. Language support, learning support, and simply the practice of meeting kids where they actually are. No two children arrive with the same starting point, and this school seems to build around that rather than in spite of it.

And then there are the values. Plenty of schools put kindness and respect for differences in their mission statement. What convinced us was watching it show up in how the children treat one another, which is a much harder thing to manufacture.

The practical reality of two working parents

I want to be honest about something that does not always make it into these conversations, because I think other working families deserve to hear it.

We are a dual working household. A 3:30 dismissal, on its own, would not be survivable for us - and Denver Public Schools have an even earlier dismissal than the 3:30-3:45 ISD standard day end time.

Aftercare being built into the school rather than something we have to hunt down each year removes an enormous amount of stress from our calendar. And the programming is not just supervision. Even at 3 years old, my youngest daughter can sign up for soccer, hula hooping, or flamenco. She is doing something she is excited to tell me about in the car ride home.

The coverage extends past the school day, too. ISDenver runs camps during fall and spring break, so when we cannot take the week off, our kids still have a full day of care and a full day of fun. And because ISDenver families get first priority on summer camp enrollment, I am not spending January in a quiet panic trying to assemble twelve weeks of childcare out of spreadsheets and waitlists.

Any parent knows exactly how much that’s worth.

The part we did not see coming

Here is what genuinely surprised us: we found our own community here, not just our children's.

We have made real friends at this school. The kind we see on weekends, without the kids, because we actually like each other. My husband plays in the Wednesday night parent and faculty soccer games and looks forward to it every single week.

There is a feeling among the parents that we are all in this together, watching each other's kids grow up, showing up for each other. That was not on our list when we were touring schools. It has turned out to be one of the things we value most.

A word about the teachers

Across four years and every teacher our family has had, what stands out is how visibly they love our kids.

My daughters will sprint across a field to hug a teacher. When we run into them outside of school, at a Rapids game or somewhere around town, the teachers are just as warm, and the girls immediately start chatting with them in Spanish. That kind of connection cannot be assigned or scheduled. It is either there or it is not.

I would also point to the social-emotional learning, because I have watched it work. I have seen middle schoolers looking out for the early childhood kids, helping them, folding them in. That was not my own experience growing up, and it is not what I hear from friends whose children are at other schools in the area.