Local high school officials have a new plan for addressing students’ needs. Its theme: “Whatever It Takes.”

“Things are going to be different,” Lawrence High Principal Steve Nilhas said. “But the fact is, things need to be different.”

Students will return to school in the fall to find new schedules, attendance and tardy policies, and initiatives aimed at keeping teens engaged in school.

The changes are an immediate response to the closing of Lawrence Alternative School this year and to the rising expectations of the federal No Child Left Behind law, administrators said.

Students who attended Lawrence Alternative School are expected to return to the base schools in the fall. But administrators say the planned changes of the Whatever It Takes initiative will help all students, not just those who were previously at Lawrence Alternative School.

The schools have looked carefully at their academic support systems, Nilhas said.

“A big part of the philosophical underpinnings is: ‘What’s a school’s response when a student is not performing at a high level?'” he said.

Each school has a unique plan, but the details aren’t complete. Students will find altered schedules, firm tardy and attendance policies, reward systems, mentoring programs, and other supports.

The ultimate goal is to engage students and make sure they reach their potential, officials said.

Lawrence High, for example, has shortened its seminar period, which traditionally has functioned like a study hall. Teachers will work to make the time more productive. Students who need extra help will come in and get it. Those who don’t need help may come in late on certain days.

6News video: High schools plan initiative to keep students engaged (06-02-05)

Free State High will also make schedule changes. Administrators at both schools said they believed students were resilient and would adapt to the schedule changes.

Both schools will have a student mentoring program.

Colin Killmer, a Lawrence High physics and chemistry teacher, has worked to bring a student mentoring program to the district.

“Kids spend their first year spinning their wheels,” he said. “They don’t know what’s available.”

This program will help kids get involved, Killmer said.

At Lawrence High, 120 juniors and seniors will pair up and mentor a group of eight to 12 incoming sophomores. They will help guide the new students through their first year. It will be similar at Free State High.

In another change, both schools created schoolwide tardy policies.

In the past, decisions about how to react to a student’s tardiness were left up to teachers. But that will change. At Free State, for example, a student who is tardy two times will have to spend 15 minutes in detention. The school will also call or e-mail the student’s home.

But both schools also will reward good behavior. Officials will continue working on the plans this summer.

“We’re in a school improvement process,” Free State Principal Joe Snyder said. “I’d be naive to say we’re going to be successful with every kid, but we have to make progress.”