The Ypsilanti Board of Education approved a 1-year lease agreement for the Washtenaw International High School to use the East Middle School building for its first year of classes beginning this fall.

School board president David Bates said the International Baccalaureate high school, run by the Washtenaw Intermediate School District, will pay only the costs of utilities in order to operate the building. Bates said that was the school district’s way of helping out the students from Ypsilanti and other districts around the county who are joining the school.

“We hope they’ll be there for a long time and we’re happy to be the host for the county,” he said.

Washtenaw International High School will open its doors for its first year of operation at the beginning of the 2011-12 school year. Students from Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor Public Schools, Willow Run Community Schools, Whitmore Lake Public Schools, Milan Area Schools, Saline Area Schools and Lincoln Consolidated Schools will be attending the school, which will teach the International Baccalaureate curriculum.

The school will eventually hold 600 students, with 150 students set to join during each of the first four years.

The Baccalaureate is a rigorous program of learning used around the world. More than 3,000 IB programs exist in 139 countries around the world involving about 1 million students. There are 33 International Baccalaureate schools in Michigan.

The WISD will front $250,000 to start the program in the first years. The proposed budget for the first full year of the program is about $1.4 million.

Superintendent Dedrick Martin will sign the lease on behalf of the district.

Bates said the 1-year lease agreement will allow the district to renegotiate in future years, after the start-up costs associated with the school fade away. He said the district expects to receive $50,000 from the WISD in the 2013-14 school year and $100,000 in the 2014-15 school year.

“We’d have expenses if the building sat empty and now we shouldn’t have any costs associated with operating that building,” Bates said, adding that both parties will be better off because of the agreement.

The school board also passed a resolution agreeing to hold a joint meeting with the Willow Run school board at 7 p.m Aug. 24 at Eastern Michigan University and to work closer with Willow Run schools to find consolidation opportunities.

Kyle Feldscher covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.