New students won’t be the only people referring to classroom maps to find their way around Lawrence High School.

That school’s top two officials — Principal Steve Nilhas and Associate Principal Matt Brungardt — are the Lawrence district’s highest-profile administrative newcomers.

While mingling Tuesday with 10th-graders filtering through enrollment lines, both said they were ready for an Aug. 13 launch of the 2003-2004 academic year.

“It’s anticipation more than apprehension,” said Nilhas, former superintendent of the Hill City school district. “We’re looking forward to the school year.”

Brungardt, former principal and dean of academics at Kapaun Mount Carmel High School in Wichita, was brought to Lawrence by Nilhas, who takes the place of retired Dick Patterson.

Other administrative changes:

• Myron Melton is the new principal at West Junior High School. He’s been an elementary principal in Lawrence since 1995, serving at Centennial and Langston Hughes schools. Melton replaced Mick Lowe, who retired.
• Lisa Williams, former curriculum specialist with Kansas City, Kan., public schools, takes Melton’s spot at Langston Hughes.


Lawrence High School's new principal, Steve Nilhas, left, and Associate Principal Matt Brungardt are getting ready for the new school year this fall. Nilhas will focus on faculty and instructional issues, while Brungardt will take the lead on student issues at the school.

The district this year will have 15 elementary schools, four junior high schools, two high schools and an alternative high school. Three elementary schools — East Heights, Centennial and Riverside — were closed in May.

Turnover among principals at the district’s elementary schools has declined dramatically during the past four years.

Williams is the only addition this year. In the two previous years, three elementary school principalships changed hands. And one year before that, six of the district’s elementary schools had new principals.

Sue Morgan, who is in her second four-year term on the school board, said she was relieved there was stability at the rank of principal.

¢6News video: Board meets new principal (2-11-03)¢New LHS principal ready for larger school’s challenges (2-11-03)

“I feel very good about the people who have been brought in over the last several years,” she said. “The goal has been to find people whose approach and philosophy are consistent with the district’s area of emphasis — student achievement.”

Nilhas said that was certainly his top priority.

“We’re here to serve the kids,” he said. “That’s first and foremost.”

Nilhas and Brungardt worked out a division of labor at LHS that places the principal at the point on instructional or faculty issues. Brungardt will take the lead on student issues.

They said their biggest challenge would be the pressure to increase academic performance of students at the same time education budgets were being reduced.

The Lawrence school board has approved millions of dollars in spending cuts and fee increases to balance budgets in the past three years.

But the new federal No Child Left Behind Act mandates measurable yearly improvement on state assessments by a school population as a whole as well as by subgroups of students, including ethnicity, income level, special education and English proficiency.

“We don’t live off averages anymore,” Nilhas said.