Moorpark College classes will be available at Oak Park High School as a result of a policy called “dual enrollment,” starting second semester.

According to Principal Kevin Buchanan, dual enrollment is “an agreement between a California community college and a school district that permits students to enroll in both institutions at the same time.”

With dual enrollment, students can receive college and high school credit on their high school transcript.

“We’re hoping that this will reduce the credits they need to take, and thereby reduce the stress to be competitive in college admissions,” Buchanan said.

During the pilot phase of the program, the school will also monitor how many students add the classes to their schedules, resulting in full schedules from periods zero to eight.

“One of the legitimate fears of our leadership team is that students will just pile it on,” Buchanan said. “The idea is to take it instead of an additional class at the high school, and that’s the point, that this will count as one of your classes.”

Sophomore Meghna Nair thinks that while the classes are a great idea, there will be some who will try to take as many as possible, resulting in extra stress.

“The atmosphere here is really competitive and people will try to do as much as they can,” Nair said. “You don’t want to have that much on your plate.”

By participating in dual enrollment, OPHS hopes to better prepare students for college, careers and their futures. Some Moorpark classes OPHS is looking to add to the campus include Criminal Justice, Business Management, Intro to Business and Cultural or Biological Anthropology.

“We’re really pushing out in [career development] as much as we can to give our students a taste of the world at work so that they’re choosing colleges based on programs and fit rather than rankings,” Buchanan said.