Frequently Asked Questions

  • Our plan centers around five goals:

    • Design and build a new Maternelle and Lower School

    • Establish a united campus community experience with people, not traffic, at its center

    • Deepen the educational capabilities of our campus

    • Prepare for future enrollment growth

    • Enhance safety, parking, and traffic flow

    This campaign is about more than a building. It is about creating an environment where students can experience the world and grow into leaders, creators, and visionaries. We invite you to join us in realizing this vision.

  • Designing new Maternelle and Lower School buildings will allow us to create spaces specifically designed to meet the needs of our teachers, students, and programs. That said, the core of our program will not be changing as a result of these capital improvements. This campus transformation will set the foundation for future enrollment growth and enhancement of our existing programs.

  • This capital project will be funded through campaign philanthropy, our campus redevelopment fund, and strategic borrowing. A capital project like this is a one-time investment and is not funded through tuition increases. We are working closely with the architects to design a space that strategically minimizes the impact of building maintenance on our annual budget. A successful capital campaign will help ensure we fund our campus buildout from capital versus tuition or operating funds. The school will take on additional debt in the execution of this capital project. However, through diligent planning and forecasting, and through the generous philanthropic support of our community, our Board and staff leaders feel confident that this capital investment is within the financial means of our school.

  • We recently completed a thorough campaign planning process, including a study that validated a $8 million capital campaign goal. This is an ambitious fundraising campaign for our community, but we trust that, with the support of our entire community, we can successfully reach (and exceed!) this goal.

  • We have embarked on this campus transformation now for the following reasons:

    • Replacing our temporary modular classrooms is becoming more urgent each year. We would rather invest in our promising campus redevelopment project than spend more money maintaining dated, temporary structures.

    • We launched our previous campaign in 2017, so the timing is consistent with the school’s promise to launch our next campaign within 5-7 years.

    • This investment in a permanent campus is a critical pillar of our 2022-2027 Strategic Plan and will allow French International to carve a spot among the top independent schools in the Pacific Northwest.

  • The timeline for this project is permit-dependent. We have built successful partnerships with the City of Portland, Washington County, and other authorities to keep this project on schedule.

    Our anticipated schedule is to complete construction on the Maternelle buildings, which broke ground in summer '24, by fall 2025. We anticipate breaking ground on the Lower School buildings, phase 2, in fall 2025.

  • Student safety is our first priority. We are continuing to work closely with our architects and contractors to minimize the impact on our community during construction.

    Students are either in temporary modular classrooms, or in classrooms in the main building and CFA. We will continue to use all available spaces on campus to accommodate our programmatic needs.

    Additionally, there are changes to the layout of campus to keep students safe; crosswalks have been changed and signage has been increased to keep students safe and away from construction.

  • We are so excited that you’re interested in getting involved in the Campaign for French International! Please contact mwilburn@frenchintl.org to schedule a campaign conversation with Marianne Wilburn, Director of Development