page_title: Carlucci American International School of Lisbon
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Carlucci American International School of Lisbon / History
caption_attribution_description: English: CAISL 50th Anniversary Memorial
context_page_description: The Carlucci American International School of Lisbon is a prominent private international school in Linhó, Sintra, Portugal, a wealthy suburb of Lisbon on the Portuguese Riviera. Founded in 1956, CAISL is the oldest American school in the Iberian Peninsula and the only U.S. State Department school in Portugal. It is named in honor of Frank C. Carlucci III, former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal and U.S. Secretary of Defense. Hillary Clinton, at the time First Lady of the United States, officially inaugurated CAISL's current campus in Linhó in 1998.
  CAISL operates as a dual American and International Baccalaureate program and is one of Portugal's most expensive schools. CAISL's student population is largely international, with most students connected to diplomatic missions and embassies in Lisbon, followed by Portuguese nationals, and a sizable minority of Americans. CAISL has numerous partnerships with institutions, such as the prestigious Gulbenkian Foundation, to support research initiatives into teaching methods, philanthropic outreach, and to host international conferences and cultural exhibitions.
context_section_description: CAISL's history begins in 1956, when the school is founded as St. Columban's School, by Irish professor Anthony A. McKenna, to serve the children of the American engineers who were in Portugal working on the Salazar Bridge (now 25 de Abril Bridge), in Lisbon, so that the children would be able to reintegrate back into the American system upon their departure from Portugal. During this time, the school was housed in the Quinta da Casa Branca, an 18th-century quinta (manor or estate) in Carnaxide, Oeiras, outside of Lisbon.
  The school renamed itself the American International School of Lisbon (AISL) in 1995, when management of the school passed from private ownership to the Fundação Escola Americana de Lisboa (American School of Lisbon Foundation; FEAL), a not-for-profit foundation was created by the American Delegation to Portugal, the Ford Motor Company, and Espírito Santo Financial Group. These three entities became the three, equal members of the school's board of trustees. With the school's new not-for-profit mission and with a new oversight organization, through FEAL, AISL became a U.S. State Department-recognized school.
  After the creation of FEAL in 1995, the foundation's main priority was to centralize all of the schools of AISL onto one purpose-built site, as the secondary school, elementary school, and early child center were housed in different facilities spread across the Portuguese Riviera. In 1997, in cooperation with the municipal government of Sintra, a new purpose-built campus was built in Linhó, in the freguesia of São Pedro de Penaferrim, on land granted on a permanent lease by the municipality near the Quinta da Beloura. In 1998, the Linhó campus was inaugurated by Hillary Clinton, then the First Lady of the United States.
  In 2001, the school officially changed its name to its current designation as the Frank C. Carlucci American International School of Lisbon, in honor of American diplomat and politician, Frank C. Carlucci, who served as American Ambassador to Portugal, from 1974 to 1978. Carlucci, who went on to serve as Deputy Director of the CIA and U.S. Secretary of Defense, played a prominent role in Portugal following the events of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, especially in maintaining good Luso-American relations.
  CAISL has maintained a friendly school rivalry with the British St. Julian's School in Carcavelos, as competitive leading international schools in Portugal.
caption: A panel of azulejos celebrating CAISL's 50th anniversary with an image of the old crest of St. Columban's School superimposed in front of CAISL's current emblem.
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