When Lawrence Alternative High School closes at the end of this school year, the Lawrence educational system will lose a valuable asset.

A story in Friday’s Journal-World said it’s a cost-cutting measure, stating that it costs $750,000 to operate the school, which currently has an enrollment of 79. The program generally has 120 students.

I understand the need to keep expenses in line.

However, as the parent of an out-of-district student who attends LAHS, I feel the superintendent and the school board members, though well-intended in closing the school, are taking the wrong direction.

Why not instead capitalize on LAHS and encourage students from other districts — those who might have more academic success in a different type of educational setting — to transfer to LAHS?

In the past year and a half that our son has attended school at LAHS, he has had near-perfect attendance (this is with a 40-mile round-trip drive he makes each day). His grades have improved. He looks forward to going to school. He’s made friends at his school. And perhaps most importantly, he’s become friends with and has developed a deep respect for his school administrators and teachers.

There’s some terrific role modeling going on between faculty and students at LAHS each day — and that’s something that doesn’t necessarily show up on achievement test scores. But it is something that can have a positive lifelong impact.

Students may start at LAHS for various reasons — some of the students, though in their young teens, may be working 40 hours a week to help support their families. Some go for other reasons. But the kids who keep going there do so because of the bonds they form with their teachers and administrators.

That’s something that will be difficult to achieve when the LAHS program is assimilated into the larger high schools next year. And it’s something that will disappear if these same students enroll in the district’s online program, an option that has been suggested. These are students who need one-on-one encouragement more than anyone else — how will they get that from a faceless computer screen?

I suppose it’s too late now, but LAHS could have become a destination school, drawing students in from other districts.

If you look at it this way, it’s clear to see that LAHS is anything but a burden to the district. It’s a boon.

— Fred Scheller of Tonganoxie recently was named Lawrence Alternative High School’s

“Friend of Education.”