The history of Williamsburg Local Schools dates back over a hundred years, and two students recently took on the challenge of learning more about the origins of our district.

Back in November of 2023, Treasurer Greg Wells visited Ms. Kopcha's Junior Seminar class to share the details about his job as a school treasurer. He also offered the idea of an internship to the students as an opportunity to get some real-life experience as part of their school day. One student, Evan Sieg, felt like the internship fit perfectly into his career goals, and took advantage of the opportunity. He, along with Senior Kaleb Bogan, now spend some time each day at the District Office, where they learn about the business operations side of a school district. 

One of their first projects was creating an updated inventory of archived documents. As the district prepares to build the new Williamsburg Elementary on the site of the Old High School, the district must determine what records need to be moved to the next Board Office, which records can be legally destroyed, and which ones need to be retained for historical value. This is a daunting task, but Kaleb and Evan gladly accepted the challenge!

Last week while cataloguing ledgers of old meeting minutes and accounting records, Evan "re-discovered" a buried treasure. He opened the front cover of one ledger and found the handwritten meeting minutes of the Williamsburgh (with an "h") Township Trustees, dated May 21, 1838. At that meeting, the Trustees broke the township into eight separate "districts" (one room school houses) for the children of this community to receive a public education. The meeting notes were written and attested by "Otis Dudley, Sup't".

Thus the Williamsburg Local School District was formed, and 186 years later, it's one of the best in the state.

After graduation, Evan plans to attend college and earn a degree in entrepreneurship. His degree, coupled with the experience he gains at the Treasurer's Office, will help prepare him to be a successful business owner, operating a charter fishing business in Florida.