MILLBURY — Starting this fall, there will be a specific space geared toward “student success” at Lake High School.

Superintendent Jim Witt said the new program, called Student Success, has been in the works for a few years.

“It has been our wishes for the better part of five or six years to try to find more things to have for our really upper echelon kids,” he said. “It’s not going to be limited to our really bright kids, but it’s geared toward that. We want it to be a safe place where kids can go and do their work and have the benefit of some help.”

This group may include students who spend part of the day in classes at Lake and the rest taking College Credit Plus courses, Witt said.

The new program will be held in the media center in the high school.

Witt called the space “arguably the most beautiful spot on campus.”

“We’re going to remodel that and we want a space where those kids can go, if they want to do ACT prep, if they want to work on college class work,” he said. “We want it to have the feel of a (college) student union.”

Social studies teacher Dorian Boggs will lead Student Success, and was hired as director at the March board of education meeting.

“It will be a space designed for them to do their college work, and have some resources to navigate those things,” Boggs said.

He said Student Success has short, middle and long-term goals.

Initially, a lot of space will be directed to students taking College Credit Plus classes.

“A lot of time they’re taking them online and there’s little support for them,” said Boggs, who teaches a CCP history class, through Bowling Green State University, at Lake High School. He has a master’s degree in special education.

The next benchmark is to have tutoring areas for entire student body and special education services.

A long-term goal is to create a STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) lab or maker’s space. It could have a recording space, for video-oriented things, Boggs said.

Boggs is regularly cited as a favorite teacher when the Sentinel-Tribune interviews students for the annual graduation edition.

“It’s easy to teach good kids and we tend to have them,” he said. “I also benefit from predominantly teaching upperclassemen.

“I just try to be real with them.”

Witt said Boggs is an excellent teacher.

“One of the things that’s really a strength of Dorie’s is his ability to connect and communicate with kids of all backgrounds, all interests,” he said.

Boggs said that Maumee has a space similar to the new one at Lake, and Ottawa Hills also has a program like it.

He’s reluctant, though, to pigeon-hole Student Success right away.

“I think it will happen organically as we get comfortable with each other and I see what their needs are,” Boggs said.

The program has been percolating at Lake since the new high school and media center was built 10 years ago after the tornado destroyed the former high school, Boggs said.

Jodi Takats, director of curriculum and special education at Lake, was integral in designing the media center, he said.

Up until now, it’s been mostly used as a study hall area. Student Success will capitalize on the media center’s square footage and sprawling windows that let in lots of light, Boggs said.

“It’s a large space which allows you to work with different groups at one time,” he said. “It just has a lot of options.”