By Nick Anderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 24, 2006; B01

The Prince George's County Board of Education gave final approval last night to three charter schools, clearing the way for the first such independent public schools in the county to open in August.

The board unanimously approved contracts for elementary schools expected to serve students at campuses in Fort Washington, Lanham and Riverdale. The schools will receive $5,706 per student in public funds for operations, which is less than some charter schools elsewhere in Maryland receive.

The action is a milestone in a county where charter advocates said parents have been clamoring for educational options. The District of Columbia has more than 50 public charter schools, and Maryland has 15. A few are in Frederick and Anne Arundel counties, but most are in Baltimore.

Asked to assess the demand for charter schools in Prince George's, where the public school system has a mixed reputation, charter advocate Deborah Driver raised her arms high in the air. "This big," she said in an interview in the school board chamber in Upper Marlboro. "People want choices."

Driver is president of the board of the Potomac Public Charter School, one of the three awarded contracts. She said it will serve as many as 230 students from kindergarten through fifth grade in a building in the Potomac Village Shopping Center on Old Fort Road in the Fort Washington area.

The others approved were Excel Charter School, which expects to open in Riverdale with about 450 students, and Hyde Turning Point Charter School, which a county school official estimated would have 200 students at a campus in Lanham.

Funding for the schools was a key issue. Charter advocates had sought more. But under the terms of a three-year-old state charter law, they had little leverage.

Denise E. Johnson, board president for the Excel school and a former county schoolteacher, said the per-student contribution from the county was "unreasonably" low.

"But we'll do it," she said, adding that there is plenty of demand for the school.

"I'm hoping we don't have to go to a lottery," she said.

After the vote, school board Chairman Beatrice P. Tignor (Upper Marlboro) said the three schools could set examples for innovation.

"I look forward to success and progress,'' she said. "It's a great opportunity for total parental involvement.''