Community Holds Second Listening Session on Proposed Menominee Language Charter Middle School

Community education leaders held a second listening session on Jan. 27, 2026 about establishing a language-focused charter middle school centered on Menominee language and culture. The session was led by a NACA Inspired Schools Network fellow and continued community conversations about how to extend Menominee-language immersion beyond early childhood.

The Menominee Indian School District has already opened an immersive pre-K and kindergarten charter school called Kaehkēnawapatāēq, which means "We learn by observing." That early-childhood program is part of a larger local effort to address what leaders describe as language erasure in Indigenous communities and to ensure children grow up with Menominee language and culture as central elements of their education and identity.

Waqnahwew Ben Grignon, the Nation’s language and culture coordinator, framed the work as an extension of existing immersion. "We’re continuing their education process," Grignon said. He noted the continuity targeted by the proposed middle school, adding, "A lot of our kids have been immersed in the language since birth. So we’re trying to move along with their immersion experience and their language learning."

The listening session is one step in a policy and organizational process that will need to address authorization, funding, staffing and curriculum design. A language-focused charter middle school must identify an authorizer, a sustainable operating budget and teachers fluent in Menominee if it is to provide true immersion and a coherent pathway from Kaehkēnawapatāēq through middle grades. Those details will shape how the program performs on enrollment, student outcomes and community support.

Advocates point to health and identity outcomes as key policy considerations. Angela Fernandez, now at the University of Wisconsin School of Nursing, tied language and cultural identity to public health goals. "Having a strong identity connects us to family, friends, community members and the land," Fernandez explained. "[This] is essential for both risk prevention, [such as] suicide, substance misuse, other health risks and health promotion, [such as] harvesting and eating traditional foods, social network surrounding cultural and spiritual practices." That framing places the charter proposal at the intersection of education, public health and cultural preservation.

Local context stretches back to a Menominee Nation initiative launched in fall 2022 intended to protect early language transmission. Community listening sessions and the new Kaehkēnawapatāēq classroom program reflect that multi-year push to create institutional supports for Menominee language learning from the earliest grades upward.

For Menominee County residents, the practical questions will be operational: who will authorize the charter, how it will be funded, how staffing and curriculum will ensure Menominee-language fluency, and how the proposal will connect to existing district programs. The listening session signals community interest and provides a venue for public input; organizers and tribal education officials will need to publish a clear timeline and proposal materials before formal approval steps begin. Next steps include additional community meetings, formal proposal filings and decisions by authorizing authorities that will determine whether the middle school moves from discussion to classroom.