Fourth-grader Lance Miller, of McKeesport, said he could tell that Propel Charter School in Homestead was more challenging than his old public school.

Not only is he engaged in the science club, but he said his sister, Lexus, a first-grader, is learning bigger words than he did when he was at Centennial Elementary School in McKeesport Area.

"I'm being challenged now," said Lance, who enrolled last school year, the school's first.

Propel-Homestead, which has 304 pupils in kindergarten through sixth grade, is the first of a "federation" of seven charter schools that Propel plans to open over five years in Western Pennsylvania.

The elementary schools are aimed at growing to 360 to 400 pupils in kindergarten through eighth grade. Propel-Homestead will add seventh grade next fall.

If successful, Propel will be the first local nonprofit chain of charter schools.

This is unusual not only in Western Pennsylvania but also nationwide. The vast majority of the 3,300 charter schools are mom-and-pop nonprofit operations, according to the Center for Education Reform, a pro-charter group based in Washington, D.C.

Jeremy Resnick, founder and executive director of Propel, sees federations of charter schools as a small but growing trend.

"If the first wave of charter schools was stand-alone groups setting up one school to serve a specific group of kids, the next wave is a more organized effort to create schools with a consistent kind of quality," said Resnick.

Propel is poised to open a second school in McKeesport next fall and is working toward two other schools, one in Montour and the other in the eastern suburbs. The other locations haven't been selected, and Propel is considering whether to develop a high school.

Charter schools are public schools that are open to any pupil in the state, do not charge tuition and are run by their own boards. School districts must pay a fee set by the state for each resident who attends such schools.

To open, charter schools must seek a charter from a school district or group of school districts. If rejected, the local decision can be appealed to a state Charter School Appeal Board.

A local school board has never approved a Propel charter, but Propel has won both of its appeals -- for its schools in Homestead and McKeesport. Next month, the appeal board is expected to rule on the Montour request.

Propel is beginning the appeal process for the east suburban school, which was rejected last month by Woodland Hills. Penn Hills school board members decided neither to accept nor reject Propel's application.

Some charter school organizers give up before the expensive and extensive appeal process, but Propel is backed by some heavy hitters.

Resnick, a former Pittsburgh high school math teacher, is the founder and former director of the Charter Schools Project at Duquesne University and a founder and former administrative/educational leader at North Side Urban Pathways Charter School, one of the city's first charter schools.

Over three years, Propel has been awarded more than $2.3 million in foundation and other private money. The list of supporters includes the R.K. Mellon Foundation, Heinz Endowments, Community Loan Fund of Southwestern Pennsylvania, The Grable Foundation, Walton Family Foundation and Acusis LLC, a medical transcription firm. This year, the state awarded a $360,000 implementation grant.

Most of the money in this year's budget -- $2.2 million of $3.3 million -- comes from local school districts. The state will reimburse the districts for some of that, making the cost to school districts $1.5 million. On average, school districts last year paid Propel $7,314 per student.

Children from 11 districts attend Propel-Homestead, with the largest number -- 134 -- from Steel Valley, the district in which the charter school is located.

Propel opened its first school last year in the Willis Building at the former Homestead Hospital, and its kindergarten and first grade are still located there.

But within a few months, all pupils will be in the former St. Mary Magdalene School on 10th Avenue in Homestead, where the rest of the pupils are now. The building has been renovated and an addition is nearly complete, bringing the space to 42,000 square feet. Purchase and construction cost $3.7 million.

Propel doesn't own the building nor does it intend to become a landlord for any of its facilities.

"If we owned the real estate, then so much of all of our focus is off the main goal, which is helping children and educating them. It becomes: Do we need to replace the roof? Do we need to replace the windows? If it's leased, those concerns are no longer the focus," said Mary Jo Needham, director of operations for all Propel schools.

So, Propel is leasing the Homestead building from a new nonprofit, School Facility Development, which was incorporated last year for "real estate for the benefit of charter schools," according to state records. The Propel lease included transferring some of the donated money to School Facility Development for a down payment on the building.

Propel is not committed to the new group for other buildings. In McKeesport, it plans to lease space in the Executive Building. In Montour, Propel has a transferable option to purchase a former check-printing facility on McMichael Road in Robinson. In the east, it is considering a couple of former schools.

Parts of its academic program -- such as the phonics-based Open Court reading program and the hands-on ASSET science program -- can be found in other schools.

But Wooten said it was the combined curriculum, the cross-curricular activities and the caring atmosphere in the school that make the difference. That combination includes visiting professional artists who work with children daily and rotate every six weeks.

"It's a unique combination of proven practices," said Resnick.

Other hallmarks of the school are class sizes of no more than 20 students and a longer school day and year -- 190 days for students and 220 for teachers, including 30 professional development days.

The state requires 180 days of instruction for public schools. And the number of Propel's professional development days far exceeds that of most school districts.

Resnick figures students get 25 percent more instructional time than the state mandates because of the longer school day and year.

About 85 percent of its pupils are low-income, and 84 percent are minority.

While much of the teaching staff is young, Wooten said all teachers were certified, most had master's degrees and nearly all had at least two years of classroom experience.

Teacher pay runs between $33,000 and $65,000 a year, although only one teacher makes that top amount.

Four Propel administrators are paid more than $50,000 a year. Three of them have responsibilities for all of the planned schools: Wooten, $98,000; Resnick, $90,000; and Mary Jo Needham, director of operations, $84,000. George Fitch, who earns $70,000, is principal of Propel-Homestead.

After just a year of operation, it's too early to tell whether Propel-Homestead is an academic success.

Last year, the school went to fourth grade, so there are no results available for the state math and reading tests. Only third-graders took them, and those results haven't been released. Resnick, however, is encouraged by the results of other standardized tests the school has given.

Wooten said the school had high expectations for students, a statement administrators make at many schools. But in this case, with the private and public investment and frequent visitors, Wooten said, the school is under the microscope to put those words into action.

"We're really accountable to the foundations and the public," she said.