With two days left before school starts, Calumet High School teachers were busy Monday in professional development classes and touring new, redesigned classrooms.

Calumet, Lake Ridge Community Schools flagship school, will be the first school in Northwest Indiana to institute the New Tech model of school reform in its classrooms.

Calumet High School is among six schools in Lake County in its fifth year of probation. State Superintendent Tony Bennett has demanded that schools institute bold reform to improve student performance or face state takeover.

Lake Ridge school leaders chose the transformation model, concentrating on data and teacher evaluation, and instituted a New Tech high school for 320 freshmen and sophomores beginning this fall. It will be phased in over the next several years.