CAL History

It all started when…

The Center for Advanced Learning was approved by the Gresham-Barlow School District Board as a charter school in June 2001 following more than two years of focused planning that involved community members, business leaders and educators from local schools and colleges. The Center for Advanced Learning received over $8 million in bonds and other revenue from area districts to complete construction of a 40,000 square foot facility in April 2003. The Center for Advanced Learning opened officially for students in September 2003 and can enroll up to 600 high school students.

What makes CAL unique from other charter schools is its regional character. The impetus for CAL originated with leaders from the three separate school districts working collaboratively with Mt. Hood Community College and local business leaders to address educational needs.

From the original charter application:

“The mission of the Center for Advanced Learning is to provide secondary East Multnomah County students with advanced, specially designed regional learning environments for a variety of career pathways using contextualized learning modalities and state of the art technology applications that are aligned with state education and national industry integrated standards. “