The Salt Lake City School District-sponsored school, to be housed in the old Northwest Middle School in Rose Park, would be open to all students but would serve a significant number of minorities.

"A lot of these families and kids are really pro-education but they need the opportunity," said Machelle Dahl, a fourth-grade teacher at Escalante Elementary, 1810 W. 900 North.

Charter schools often are in neighborhoods that are more difficult for disadvantaged students to reach. Typically, no bus transportation is provided to charter schools, although Salt Lake district hopes to secure funds to pay for busing to the new school.

More than just a school, the Salt Lake Center for Science Education would partner with the University of Utah to provide a kind of learning lab for future math and science teachers. The university hopes to use the partnership to encourage minorities to attend college and pursue science and math studies.

Ideally, some of the students would become math and science teachers themselves, said Mary Burbank, director of secondary education at the University of Utah's College of Education.

Future teachers would get training at the school and university students would provide mentoring to younger students. Teachers at the charter school may develop science curricula that eventually would be used across the district.

Set to open in the fall of 2008 and eventually serve up to 240 students in sixth through ninth grade, the school is still in the planning stages. The Salt Lake Board of Education must approve the proposal before it moves forward.

Its developers envision science as the school's "context" providing an area to apply other subjects such as math and language arts. Students would develop keen problem-solving skills.

By keeping the students through the ninth grade, they would avoid the traditionally rocky transition between middle school and high school.

"We want kids to stick around long enough that in their heart of hearts they realize they're capable of just about anything," said Ken O'Brien, a district science specialist who is helping organize the school. "We also hope the center creates a critical mass of really good science education district-wide."

It's not that district officials think traditional public schools are failing students in science - they just want to provide another choice.

"You get to take a fresh start and create a culture from the ground up," said Larry Madden, another district science specialist planning the charter.

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* JULIA LYON can be contacted at jlyon@sltrib.com or 801-257-8748.

*For more information about the Salt Lake Center for Science Education, call Larry Madden at 578-8270 or e-mail larry.madden@slc.k12.ut.us.