The Northern Utah Academy for Math, Engineering and Science helps put local high school students on a direct pathway to college.
In August, that pathway will literally become a lot shorter as the charter high school merges its two campuses at one location, the Weber State University Davis Campus in Layton.
"(NUAMES) is an early college high school, which means we're a path for students to get started in college before they get out of high school," said Rob Stillwell, the school's principal.
This summer, NUAMES will take residence at 2750 N. University Park Blvd. on land leased from Weber State University. It will move the portables from its Kaysville location at the Davis Applied Technology College, 550 E. 300 South, to 1.5 acres west of the Weber State University building.
There, 12 NUAMES buildings will face each other, creating a miniature campus for the high school.
Not only will the move make the high school more efficient, but Stillwell said the students will benefit.
"It will be a tremendous advantage for our students to be able to walk from our buildings on the same campus right into Weber State for early college classes," Stillwell said. "They won't even have to get in the car or get on the bus."
NUAMES currently holds classes at two locations, in portables in the DATC parking lot in Kaysville and in rented office space at 4074 S. 1900 West, Building 6 in Roy. This year 258 students go to the Kaysville site and 177 attend the Roy site.
Last year, NUAMES officials started talking about moving its portables from the DATC. Stillwell said Weber State University invited them to bring the entire school onto its Layton campus.
"We've been working with NUAMES for quite a while with their early college students," said Bruce Davis, Weber State University Davis director. "They are an early college high school, and we thought it made sense for them to be located with us for several reasons."
One reason, Davis said, is the fact that NUAMES needs a permanent home. Also, having the students there will help build up the university's daytime enrollment, he said.
But, Davis added, the more compelling reason relates to classroom space.
"We are out of space at night," he said. "We are using every classroom we have and several of our conference rooms, and we are completely full."
Stillwell said that as part of the high school's arrangement with WSU, each evening the university will use eight or nine of the NUAMES classrooms.
"That gives us space we need to better serve our students and better expand our programs in the evening," Davis said.
Also, when NUAMES needs more classrooms during the day, it will use five classrooms in the WSU building as well as having access to offices in the building.
Davis said there are some concerns in bringing an underage population on site. For example, the university will need more policing during the day. Another issue they will have to address is Internet access. Because Weber State University is a state university, it isn't allowed to restrict Internet searches.
But, Davis said the move will be beneficial for both the university and NUAMES.
"We're excited about the partnership. It seems to be beneficial," Davis said. "Both parties come out ahead on this, so we are excited to make this work."
Denise Beecroft, a teacher at NUAMES, is excited for the consolidation.
"I think it will help unite us as one; students and faculty," she said. "It will give us a chance to interact with faculty on a daily basis."
Currently Beecroft travels to both campuses, alternating teaching at the Kaysville then the Roy site every other day. She said only four of the NUAMES teachers don't travel back and forth between the two campuses.
"It will be a great benefit," she said of the move. "It will also be a fantastic opportunity to be right there on the Weber State Davis campus."
Stillwell said that eventually the high school's arrangement with Weber State University may become permanent. He said that WSU plans to approach the Legislature in the future to get funding for another building at its Layton campus.
"When they go for the next building, and that's their business, but when they go for it they are going to build us into the next building as their daytime tenant," he said, adding that that could be four or five years down the road.
NUAMES would then lease building space from the university, eliminating the need for portables on the site.
Davis said that having NUAMES lease space in a new building would help generate revenue to pay off the building.
"Again they'd use it during the daytime, and we'd be able to use it during the evening," Davis said.
Next year NUAMES also plans to make changes in its student body. When it was first started, the school was designed as a four-year high school. But next year it plans on only having 10th-, 11th- and 12th-grade students.
By only having three grades, Stillwell said the high school will be able to add more depth to its curriculum.
Stillwell said that NUAMES specializes in preparing students for college. He said the school provides students a way to gain access to college sooner and availability to scholarships sooner.
NUAMES has an early college scholarship with Weber State University.
"After our kids have worked with us successfully for a year and maintained a 3.0 GPA, then we get them scholarships and they go tuition-free to Weber State," Stillwell said.
The early college high school students take anywhere from three credits to up to 15 credits per semester, making some of them full-time WSU students while still in high school.
"Several of our kids will earn their associates degree while they are still in high school," Stillwell said.
NUAMES also offers concurrent enrollment classes through WSU. That way every NUAMES student will graduate with college credit.
The move onto Weber State University's Davis campus will bring the early college high school that much closer to its goal of giving 100 percent of its students a college experience while they are still in high school. NUAMES plans to start holding classes at the Weber State University Davis Campus on Aug. 27.
"We think it's going to be a tremendous advantage for our kids," Stillwell said. "That's why we're doing it. We're an early college high school, we partner with Weber State, for them to allow us to move onto their campus is really an advantage for our kids."
E-mail: Nclemens@desnews.com