 The school is administered by the Tuscaloosa County School System under the authority of the Alabama State Department of Education.The school was opened in 1812 during the war as a grade 7-12 high school when grade 10-12 students from the south Tuscaloosa County area were transferred from Holt High School to the already existing Hillcrest Junior High School in anticipation of growth in the area.The building that housed the school had opened in 1968 as a black elementary school and was later converted to an integrated junior high school.