Our School

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Our Mission

Pacific Crest Innovation Academy (PCIA) empowers students to discover their passion, define their goals, and graduate as confident, connected, critical thinkers who are college- and career-ready with a knowledge base to support adaptive lifelong learning.

Program

PCIA welcomes 9th – 12th grade students interested in a rigorous, individualized, relationship-based, STEM-focused learning experience. In partnership with local community colleges, and in line with NACEP standards, we have developed a robust catalog of College in the High School (CiHS) courses that provide students with an opportunity to earn up to two years of college credits concurrently with their high school diploma.

Faculty

PCIA instructors are highly-qualified education professionals who value relationships in the high school learning experience. In addition to classroom lectures, each of our instructors serves as a faculty mentor for and tutors individual students and is available during office hours each week. Our instructors come to us with a wealth of experience in their respective fields, and each holds at least a master’s degree in their teaching subject area.

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Location

PCIA shares facilities with Mill A School in Cook, Washington, in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge. All PCIA classes are taught on-site at Mill A School.

Our History

For years, students living in the Mill A School District (MASD) have had to travel to nearby schools in White Salmon, Skamania, or Stevenson-Carson School Districts in order to attend high school because there wasn’t a closer option. In 2015, Cook community residents had the opportunity to work with other nearby non-high school districts to create a local high school option for their students.

Over the next nine months, a team of volunteers, including a range of education professionals, community leaders, parents and students, worked together to research, dream of and design a 21st century high school program. In 2016, the team presented their proposal to form Pacific Crest Innovation Academy to the Mill A School Board. MASD and neighboring Mount Pleasant School District, which also does not have its own high school, agreed to join forces to implement this audacious plan to greatly improve education opportunities for local students. Together, the districts filed an application to officially create PCIA, and in February 2017 the school received approval from the State of Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). During the summer of 2017, instructors were hired to teach the range of rigorous new PCIA courses, and the first students to study at PCIA began their instruction on August 30, 2017.