History

Barker High School opened October of 1996 as a result of ten years of meetings by Central Valley School District's At Risk Action Team. Prior to 1996, a series of on-campus programs (junior-senior mentorship, 4-ACES high school contract, learning opportunity center, senior images block, projects curriculum and sophomore enrichment) had been developed to serve discouraged students. Although many of these remain operational today, during the At Risk Action Team's recommendation year, 1995-96, it became apparent that the District needed to offer an off-campus program for those students who had become disenfranchised on their home campuses. Barker High School was created to fill that need and provide an off campus extension program for the two District high schools, Central Valley and University.

As Barker evolved to meet the needs of students and fill educational gaps not provided by nearby programs, it became obvious that the school had created its own academic atmosphere and was no longer operating as an extension of the the two traditional District high schools. Barker staff worked to make it an independent school within the district, pursued accreditation and, in the spring of 2002, achieved the goal of becoming a diploma-granting high school. 

Barker continues to grow and evolve, never losing sight of the need to teach each student as an individual.