Columbia Community
Columbia Independent School is located on an academic campus in Columbia, Missouri. The Lower School operation occupies a former Catholic grade school building, and the Upper School portion is based in nearby Hickman Hall, part of the Stephens College Campus. Both are rented facilities, as CIS operates fully independently of all other institutions.
Columbia Independent School, however, benefits enormously from its location on the Stephens College campus. Close access to the amenities of the College and to downtown Columbia with easy access by the students to the arts, museum, theatre and other enriching experiences provides an ideal location for CIS.
Columbia is home to the main campus of the University of Missouri, Stephens College, Columbia College and several other educational and cultural institutions. The town is also a major medical community with three hospitals and many excellent physicians.
Columbia is unusual in that it enjoys remarkable economic stability due to careful city planning, steady growth over the last forty years, and a very favorable mix of leading employers, in education, insurance administration, and healthcare. Columbia provides more green space for its citizens than most cities of its size and complexity. All national raters of community quality consistently rank Columbia among the best places to live in the nation.
Situated in an educationally rich community, CIS benefits from and contributes to the surrounding community with a population of approximately 100,000. For more detailed information about Columbia, please visit the Columbia Chamber of Commerce web site at: http://chamber.columbia.mo.us/visitors.html.
