RICHLAND -- It could be just the school that turns out the next Bill Gates.

School leaders rolled out the plans for a new science and math-based high school back in August.

With a newly-hired planner and more than $70,000, school leaders are divulging down new details.

At this point the school is still a proposal, but school leaders are working to have a campus up and running by as early as next fall.

Here's how it works: it's a school designed around aspiring scientists, engineers and mathematicians.

A high school with a math and science-based curriculum and hands-on opportunities in the lab.

"Which seems like a good theory but I haven't seen the data to show that it's actuallly going to work or if there's a need for it," Hanford High School calculus teacher Greg Kelly said.

Kelly teaches calculus and lower level math at Hanford High School.

Naturally, he uses math to come to many of his conclusions.

He heard about the first-ever school with Battelle, WSU Tri Cities and all three school districts teaming up.

But for Kelly, the school doesn't add up.

"I'm all for anything that increases quality education students get," Kelly said. "If it works, that's great. But on the other hand, I don't feel convinced that it's going to fly, or that's it's really going to help."

Project planners said the school may resemble Tri-Tech, where several groups play a hand in the school framework.

They're looking at 400 students who may be able to graduate within three years, spending the final year researching.

"Kids still have a lot of growing in their senior year in high school," Kelly said. "So I would hate to see kids pushed to finsh ealry."

Right now, the hope is to build next to WSU Tri-Cities and Battelle where kids can get hands-on experience, so a microbiology grad can look into microscopes with the pros.

"The experience my students have had with work-based learning have been quite positive," Kelly said. "And those are exceptional students and exceptional opporunities. If we can extend that to more kids, then I think that's great."

Your kid may be the next Einstein but he may need lady luck to get in.

The selection process will include a lottery system, application essays and interviews.

Reps hope to open the school as early as next fall, but it still isn't signed off on.

WSU Tri Cities actually offered up class space through the 2010 school year, for what could be called Three Rivers High School.

A big part of the money to pay for the school would come from grants.

The project planner will present her updated findings to school boards over the next couple days.

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