Steve Nilhas is looking for a little bounce in the graduation rate at Lawrence High School.

Nilhas, the first-year principal at LHS, said his goal would be a graduation rate that increased enough to mirror numbers at Free State High School.

“We’d like to seem them improve,” he said. “There is an expectation that Lawrence High and Free State do well in all areas.”

The 2003 graduation rates for Kansas high schools won’t be compiled until October.

State reports show 91.6 percent of Free State students and 89.5 percent of LHS students graduated in 2002.

Those graduating classes combined to widen the gap between the two high schools, with Free State increasing 0.1 percentage points and LHS declining 0.3 percentage points.

The state average in 2002 was 85.7 percent.

Free State Principal Joe Snyder said he didn’t anticipate the 2003 numbers for Free State to change dramatically from the past two years.

“We will try to improve them, but the improvement at this level is going to be small,” Snyder said.

Nilhas said it was unlikely the LHS graduation rate would pull even with Free State in a single year.

However, he said, the 2,500 students at Lawrence’s two public high schools have a much better shot of graduating than their predecessors.

Nilhas said the Lawrence district used directed-study and credit-recovery programs to help students at risk for dropping out. Additional counseling services are in place for students, he said. Lawrence Alternative High School also serves about 100 students unable to thrive at LHS and Free State.

Graduation rates for 2002, and change from 2001 for area public school districts: Baldwin, 81.3 percent, down 4.4 percent; Eudora, 93.7 percent, up 9.9 percent; Tonganoxie, 93.3, up 5 percent; Perry-Lecompton, 94 percent, down 1.7 percent; Oskaloosa, 96.4 percent, up 8.2 percent; McLouth, 91.5 percent, down 1.2 percent; Ottawa, 93.1 percent, up 1 percent; Wellsville, 94.3 percent, up 11.2 percent.