NATCHEZ — The Natchez-Adams School District is looking for 203 good men — and women.

The volunteers will be partnered with 203 members of the Natchez High School class of 2017 for a four-year-long mentoring program.

Superintendent Frederick Hill made the plea Monday evening during the first in a series of community meetings he’s hosting to address nine issues publicly voiced by a group of concerned residents.

The meeting Monday addressed economic development, which Hill said is impacted indirectly by the district. He said it’s up to the schools to prepare students to enter the workforce directly or continue their studies and, hopefully, eventually return to work in Natchez.

But when those students fall through the cracks, Hill said everyone suffers.

That’s why Hill wants to create a mentoring program that will develop relationships with members of business, academic and service organizations to create safety nets for students.

“How is it a child can be out of school for five days, and we don’t say anything about it?” Hill said. “We need to put things in place to allow us to build relationships with these students, so that if something is happening that’s not so good in that person’s life, they have an advocate who can stand up for them.”

Those types of relationships will be built through “Goal ’17,” which is a dropout prevention program that seeks to eliminate dropouts for the class of students who started ninth grade during the 2013-14 school year.

One member of the community, Hill said, would be assigned a student he or she would help mentor until graduation in 2017.

The program would be in addition to several others Hill said the district has implemented to decrease the number of dropouts and increase the graduation rate.

Of the 2012 graduating class, for example, Hill said 127 students dropped out.

In the 2013-14 school year, 54 students dropped out.

“It’s only 54, but one is too many,” Hill said. “How can we accept the fact that 127 students dropped out of school, and we were OK with that?

“We have strong churches, fraternities, sororities and civic organizations, but how is it we can allow 127 students to drop out of school?”

Hill said community mentors should be someone who is there for the student every step of the way.

“You can ask them, ‘How did you do on the test this week?’ ‘Have you done everything with your projects?’ or ‘Are you going to have enough credits to pass that class?’” Hill said. “The ultimate goal is for you to say, ‘I want this young lady or this young man to walk across that stage.’

“It takes the community, and I know we have the community members to make it happen.”

Apart from a time commitment from the community members who sign up, a $40 fee would also be required to pay for an FBI background check and a child abuse registry check.

“So you have to ask yourself this, ‘Are our students worth $40 and a little bit of your time?’” Hill said. “We have three more years to get 203 students across the stage.”

Natchez resident Kati Woodard, who submitted the public petition last month detailing the list of goals, was one of a handful of community members who signed up for the mentoring program after the meeting. Nearly 20 people attended the meeting Monday.

Woodard said she agreed that mentoring programs were the best way to reach young people in the community who need assistance.

“That’s something I always think we, as a community, should always be doing more of,” Woodard said. “If someone knows they have someone there who is holding them accountable and providing positive feedback, they’re more likely to succeed in the long run.”

But before signing up for the initiative, Woodard asked Hill during the meeting for a commitment from him going forward.

Woodard said she felt some of Hill’s recent personnel decisions had damaged the public’s view of the district.

“The community has a lack of trust in your guys, and I want to be there for these kids, but are you going to bring that same humility and integrity to your staff and those of us who volunteer?” Woodard said. “The integrity coming from you right now has to match the decisions you make going forward.”

Hill asked Woodard, and those in the auditorium, to help him silence the noise surrounding the personnel decisions and start fresh.

“We don’t need all that noise, because at the end of the day the students are going to be the ones that suffer,” Hill said. “This is a fresh start, and all I can say is let my actions speak for themselves.”

Hill said any community members interested in signing up for Goal ’17 could contact him at 601-445-2800 or by email at fhill@natchez.k12.ms.us.

The next community meeting will take place in September and address the issue of safe and orderly schools in the district.