Williamsburg High School to soon be a UC off-site campus

Students at Williamsburg High School should soon have more opportunities to receive college credit hours without ever leaving the Williamsburg Independent campus.

Through a partnership with University of the Cumberlands, high school students at Williamsburg Independent have been able to obtain college credit in classes such as English, math and social studies through dual credit classes at the high school for quite some time. The two entities are now currently working to expand that partnership by making Williamsburg Independent an off-site campus, which would allow far more classes to be taught that could help provide high school students with a jumpstart on college.

Williamsburg Superintendent Tim Melton said that discussions regarding becoming an off-site campus initially began as a natural extension of the high school’s cyber engineering career pathway.

“Their cyber engineering program over there at the Cumberlands is one of the top in the world—I guess, really—when you look at it, so it was a natural fit for us to be able to partner with them,” said Melton. “And this will give our students an opportunity to be introduced to it here, to take dual credit classes here and then transition over to the college.”

The cyber engineering career pathway may have been the linchpin for the planned expansion to an off-site campus and will be the first new area to see a myriad of available dual-credit classes, though it wont’t be the only thing on offer.

“We’re not going to stop there,” said Melton.

According to Melton, he currently already has a number of teachers who are qualified to teach dual-credit classes in a variety of career pathways.

While the high school has traditionally provided dual-credit classes, schools that aren’t considered an off-site campus are capped as far as what can be offered. Once Williamsburg Independent becomes a full-fledged off-site campus, students from sophomore level up will be able to begin taking the new dual-credit classes as they become available. 

Additionally, Melton confirmed that all college credits earned will transfer to any college with the student upon graduation and not just UC. 

“We’re trying to create positive experiences so that whenever they go over here to the Cumberlands or anywhere else, they have those credit hours,” said Melton. 

There is currently no specific timeline on when new dual-credit classes will be added, but Melton said he expects it to be a gradual process.