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A $3.8 million all-boys charter school recently approved by the Prince George's County school board will likely be housed in one of the eight county schools shuttered last year, school officials said.

The Possibility Science Technology Engineering and Math Preparatory Academy and Public Charter School for Boys, approved Nov. 18, was the only charter school approved out of six applications. Charter schools are managed independently by outside organizations or individuals but are funded by the public school system with taxpayer money.

Possibility Prep Charter school organizers are hoping to house the sixth- through 12th-grade students at G. Gardner Shugart Middle School in Temple Hills, which was shuttered last year as part of the school system's consolidation plan, said Howard Stone, a member of the charter school's board and former vice chairman of the county school board.

Negotiations between the school system and charter school are still being worked out, and charter school organizers said they hope permission to use Shugart Middle School will be approved by the board in January.

The school, which is scheduled to open in the fall, would be run by Baltimore-based 100 Black Men of Maryland, a nonprofit that mentors male youth, and New York-based Edison Learning, a company that serves 130 schools in 24 states. Thirty-nine of these schools are charter schools, according to company spokesman Michael Serpe.

Edison Learning's curriculum has been focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs for the last 17 years, Serpe said, adding that same-sex schools are a newer concept.

Bill Grimmette, 100 Black Men of Maryland's vice president, said the school will take an alternative approach to learning, incorporating the arts into the STEM curriculum.

For example, Grimmette of Anne Arundel County said students could jump rope while learning multiplication tables or craft songs or poems to help with science memorization.

Grimmette said the 100 Black Men of Maryland will be working to raise an additional $750,000 to $1 million to supplement funds from the school system.

This would be the second charter school partnership between 100 Black Men and Edison Learning. Last year, 100 Black Men of Baton Rouge in Louisiana received a charter to open the Capitol High Boys and Girls Academy in Baton Rouge.

Some school board members questioned the equity of opening an all-boys school without creating a school for girls, but the charter was ultimately approved in a 6-to-2 vote with board members Donna Hathaway Beck (At large) and Rosalind Johnson (Dist.1) voting in opposition.

"I would prefer to see a separate girls program going forward at the same time," Beck said.

While board member Heather Iliff (Dist. 2) agreed with Beck that a similar girls' school should be created, she said the need for young boys was too great to decline.

"The data in our system is clear ... our boys are underperforming," Iliff said. "I am going to vote yes for this with an expectation that we would vigorously pursue a companion program."

Female students have had a greater level of success in county schools, with the achievement gap with male students at 12.2 percent in middle school reading, down from 13.4 percent in 2006. In middle school math, the gap is 7.9 percent, down from 8.1 percent in 2006.

Stone said he is hoping a same-sex environment will allow male students to better focus on academics.

"I think they need the special attention to get through the school system," he said.

While Johnson agreed an all-boys program is needed, she suggested adding such a school within the county school system as opposed to approving a charter school.

Out of the county's four charter schools, Turning Point Academy Public Charter in Lanham, Imagine Lincoln Public Charter in Marlow Heights, and Excel Academy Public Charter in Riverdale failed to make adequate yearly progress required by federal law. Imagine Foundations Public Charter in Upper Marlboro, which opened in 2007, has met adequate yearly progress for the last three years.