CALUMET CITY | Thornton Fractional High School District Superintendent Creg Williams is looking to his professional past in trying to come up with new ideas for District 215's two high schools in Calumet City and Lansing.

Among his goals is an idea he actually is taking from his stints in the public school systems in Philadelphia and St. Louis -- a special program of classes for select students that relies on having available the latest computer technology to provide information.

As Williams sees it, he'd like to create a Technology Academy both at TF North and TF South high schools, with special curricula for classes that make full use of computers and other electronics. Such classes likely would require their own set of classrooms in each high school.

"The kids will just lap this stuff up," Williams said. "We need to figure out what we need to get in order to create this."

Williams has had past experience with such programs, having helped to create the School of the Future program in the Philadelphia public school system, and the Carnahan School during his one-year term as the head of the St. Louis Public Schools.

He even provided consulting assistance two years ago to a private school in the Los Angeles area that carried out similar programs in its curriculum.

The St. Louis program was named as a tribute to the now-deceased U.S. Rep. Mel Carnahan, D-Mo., but the former in Philadelphia was created with the cooperation and financial assistance of Microsoft Corp.

Williams said that finding a corporate sponsor to help the TF schools would help reduce the district's expenses in implementing a similar program in the south suburbs.

"It's not as expensive as people might initially think," Williams said, adding that his initial response would be to contact IBM and AT&T -- two companies that already have contracts to provide the high school district with computer and communications services -- to see if they'd be interested in helping.

"Perhaps we could have the IBM Technology Academy," said Williams, who made his initial proposal before members of the District 215 School Board's technology committee.

Committee Chairman James Gigliotti seemed receptive to the idea, although he said it would take significant study before the full School Board would give its approval to creating a technology academy.

"There are always students who are interested in science and technology who are in the science clubs, but much of what they do these days seems so mundane," Gigliotti said. "This sounds like a significant step forward from what we can offer now."

Studies will be done throughout the upcoming year, as Williams said officials would not be ready to begin a new program until at least the middle of the 2009-10 academic year, although it could take until the beginning of 2010-11 before a Technology Academy is ready to start.

"It would be at least a year before we could start this," Williams said. "This is a long-range goal."