Students attending the new Propel Andrew Street High School in Munhall are finding a different kind of educational environment than they have seen before.

The charter school, at the site of the former St. Michael Grade School on East 10th Street, opened last week with 100 students in grades nine and 10. Classes are full, and the school has a waiting list, Principal Randall Bartlett said.

Eleventh grade is to be added next year, and 12th grade the following year, with enrollment capped at 200 students.

Of the 100 students enrolled, 37 are from Woodland Hills High School, 20 from the Pittsburgh Public Schools, and the rest are small groups from the Penn Hills, East Allegheny, Duquesne and McKeesport Area school districts.

Individual students are from Clairton, Baldwin-Whitehall, West Mifflin and Sto-Rox.

It is the first high school operated by Propel, which has four elementaries, including schools in Turtle Creek and McKeesport, and the first bricks-and-mortar charter high school to open in suburban Allegheny County.

It also will be the only school locally to use the nontraditional format based on the EdVisions program, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Nationally, there are about 40 EdVisions schools. No others are listed in Pennsylvania on the program's Web site.

The Propel high school doesn't have homerooms or traditional classrooms. Students are grouped in "advisories" of 16 to 20 students each. The advisories include students from both grade levels and are supervised by teachers.

For the most part, students will remain in the same advisory with the same supervising teachers for their four years in high school. Rather than a desk, each student has a work space similar to, but smaller than, an office cubicle.

Most of the students' work will be project-based and involve the various disciplines -- math, science, English and social studies. But the students have periods in the day when they attend more traditional sessions of such subjects as English and math.

After students are assessed to determine their levels of math, they will work at their own pace in their particular course.

The eight teachers help students in their areas of expertise.

The school has certified teachers in each subject except for foreign language, Mr. Bartlett said. Students interested in studying a foreign language can do so online, he said.

Mr. Bartlett, who has a master's degree in integrated learning from Antioch University, said he has seen success in multilevel classrooms. From 2002 through 2006, he taught at the Acworth Central School in Acworth, N.H., which included kindergarten through grade six in the same classroom.

Most of the students are responsible for their own transportation to the school. But because the Andrew Street School falls within the radius in which Woodland Hills agrees to transport students, that group has district transportation.

Some of the students are matriculating from the Homestead Propel elementary school, the only one of Propel's four elementaries that offered eighth grade during the 2007-08 school year.

The Propel elementaries in McKeesport, Turtle Creek and the Montour School District are adding seventh grade to their programs this year.

The Propel high school will not have varsity sports, and its organizers readily concede that Propel is not likely to be the school for student-athletes who want to participate in high-profile sports.

"If you want to be the star football player, this is not the school for you," said Jeremy Resnick, Propel founder. "This is for students and families who want something different."

Rather than extracurricular activities, Propel students have "club time" during the lunch hour when they can participate in a variety of activities or sports, Mr. Resnick said.

On Wednesday afternoons, students have creative arts time when they can study and participate in activities ranging from music to pottery to martial arts. Practicing artists will be brought in to work with the students.

The school building has two floors and a mezzanine. The top floor and mezzanine house the advisories, a science lab and open space for projects, and the bottom floor has the cafeteria, gymnasium and stage.

The school is across the street from the Carnegie Library of Homestead; school officials said students will make frequent use of it.

Students will earn their credits through the projects they complete, and grades will be given on a numeric basis rather than letters. The projects will be designed by teachers in conjunction with the students.

Students will be required to earn a minimum number of credits each year and will meet the state's requirements for graduation. In addition, Propel has its own graduation requirements that include 80 hours of service to the community and preparation of an autobiography.

During their junior and senior years, students will be required to perform internships or apprenticeships in a career area that interests them.

Propel officials said they don't expect all of the students to go on to college. But Carol Wooten, Propel chief academic officer, said studies have shown that students at similar schools score higher than average on the SAT and ACT exams.